How could so many names get it so wrong?

Ok, so now that the holiday season is smack upon us, we are going to be inundated with Santa, gifts, hallmark, and more. We get to turn on our favorite radio stations and we get to hear nothing but Deck the Halls and Jingle Bells. As Charlie Brown would say, Arrrghhh.

Now I am not trying to steal Ebeneezer's day job (although I could use one right now), but I can only handle so much Christmas spirit. It was only recently that I understood what could drive two fat guys dressed liked candy canes to get into a belly bumping match over "Christmas spirit" in the old Shadowood lobby. Seriously, enough is enough. It seems now-a-days, the turkey is not even stuffed and I am forced to watch yet another musician put out their rendition of the old holiday classics for all of us to suffer to (although this year did give me pause when the artist was Bette "only Barbara Streisand is more Jewish than me" Midler).

So what is a nice Jewish boy like me to do to escape all of these holiday wonderments? The movies!!! Thank god for motion pictures. I can get away by going to the theater and catching some pretty good shows, since the holiday season is a great time for good movies to be released. Starting on the Wednesday leading up to Thanksgiving and running all the way until the final "fa la la" Hollywood will be there to keep a simple boy like me entertained. Sure, I do get subjected to posters promoting Tim Allen's next Santa Claus flick, but I can certainly ignore them on my way to seeing some truly great pictures.

Now, each year I look forward to escaping the "holiday cheer" by heading into a cinema and losing myself in great film. So as I know you can all imagine, I was very pumped when I found out that kicking things off for us during this holiday season was Bobby. I was hoping that Emilio Estevez's tribute to Robert F. Kennedy was going to be something we could compare with Oliver Stone's tribute to the Senator's big brother in his film, JFK.

Then after taking one look down the cast list of this film, I knew I was going to be thrilled. Seriously, my new favorite trivia question is, "Name three Hollywood Icons not in this film." This film was written and directed by Emilio Estevez, who may be best know for being Charlie Sheen's eldest son, but has numerous acting credits including; The Breakfast Club, Young Guns, Men at Work (which he also wrote and Directed), and the whole Mighty Ducks series. Then the casting group started picking directly from Hollywood's current and former "A" list. They hired Emmy winner, Harry Belafonte; teen idol, Nick Cannon; Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne (Whats Love Got to Do With It, The Matrix Trilogy, Boyz n the Hood); Heather Graham (Boogie Nights, Austin Powers); 2-time Emmy winner and 4-time Emmy nominee, Oscar winner and 4-time Oscar nominee, Sir Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs, Meet Joe Black); 1-time Oscar winner, 4-time Emmy winner and 8-time Emmy nominee Helen Hunt (As good as it Gets, Mad About You); teen idol Joshua Jackson (The Skulls, Dawson's Creek); teen idol Ashton Kutcher (The Butterfly Effect, Punk'd, That 70's Show); teen idol Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls, The Parent Trap); Oscar nominee, William H. Macy (Fargo, Seabiscuit); 2-time Golden Globe nominee, and 1-time Emmy nominee, Demi Moore (Ghost, A Few Good Men); Emmy nominee, Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under); Emmy winner, Golden Globe winner, and 2-time SAG winner, Charlie Sheen (The West Wing, The American President); teen idol Christian Slater (Pump up the Volume, Interview with a Vampire); Emmy award winner, Golden Globe winner, Oscar nominee, Sharon Stone (Casino, Basic Instinct); and SAG winner, Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Deep Impact).

A quick review for those of you who may have gotten lost. This film's cast boasts the following achievements: 28 Emmy Award nominations, 9 Emmy Awards, 8 Oscar nominations, 3 Oscar Awards, countless Golden Globe, SAG, and other award nominations, and winners, 6 next generation superstars, 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and of course, 1 real, live, Knight of the Queen of England. My guess is you would be hard pressed to find a more heralded cast in another film.

So, with this much fire power, you would think we were going to be seeing the biggest blockbuster of the season. Well, boy was I in for a surprise. This movie, which should have been something special, was one big pile of poo. Thats right folks, this movie stunk. Why you ask? Well let me tell you. First off, the movie has very little to do with Bobby Kennedy. Instead, we get to follow a whole bunch of characters throughout the day and location of Senator Kennedy's murder. Now, don't get me wrong. That alone did not make the movie the pile of poo it is. Nope, there was more. Had the audience been given a chance to make a connection with any of the characters the movie followed, it may have been a good movie, but in the 2 hour time frame, Emilio tried to shove too many stories into not enough time. What I mean is had we been able to bond with the war dodging newlyweds, or the baseball loving busboy, or the maritally challenged hotel manager and his cosmetologist wife, or the LSD using campaign volunteers, or the drunkard fading star and her doormat of a husband... we may have cared more about what transpires to them all at the end. We may have felt what they felt when they witnessed Senator Kennedy get shot. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Instead, we got infinitesimally small glimpses into their lives, and rather than bond with them, we are left wondering, "What the fuck was the point of Helen Hunt and Charlie Sheen anyhow?"

Because we never really meet Bobby Kennedy in the film (Estevez did not cast anyone as Bobby, but instead used old footage and speeches of Kennedy to represent his existence, which could have been powerful, but instead was disjointed) we never really feel lose when he is killed. We never hear about why he was killed. We never meet Sirhan Sirhan in the movie (in fact his name was never even mentioned) so we never get any answers or theories into why Senator Kennedy was assassinated. Because we never really get to know any of the characters, we never feel for them or with them either.

Unfortunately, what could have been an awesomely powerful movie with truly an all-star cast, instead becomes an also ran in this years holiday season. And instead of leaving the theater energized, and excited for the movie season to come, I left wondering "So how bout that Tim Allen flick?"

If you've seen the movie Bobby, go ahead, sound off. I can't wait to hear your Abstract.