Thank You for Smoking (Full Screen Edition)

Thank You for Smoking (Full Screen Edition)
by Jason Reitman

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DVD details

Actor: Aaron Eckhart, Eric Haberman, Joan Lunden, Mary Jo Smith, Todd Louiso
Director: Jason Reitman
Brand: TCFHE
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-10-03
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox

DVD Reviews of Thank You for Smoking (Full Screen Edition)

DVD Review: Spin is the message, not anti-tobacco
Summary: 4 Stars

You might mistake this for an anti-smoking propaganda movie, and there is just a little of that. But this is really about modern spin and how it's taken over every issue in society, making it difficult to filter out fact from fiction. This is unexpectedly entertaining.

DVD Review: The Sultan of Spin
Summary: 5 Stars

Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is a lobbyist for the tobacco industry; he's very good at spinning facts and convincing people that smoking is their American right. His young son isn't so sure about the ethics of Dad's job, however.

This is a very funny, sarcastic movie. I've seen Eckhart before but was never impressed, until now. He is perfect as the fast-talking lobbyist with his dazzling smile and charismatic charm. The cast is full of good actors in small but witty roles: William H. Macy plays an anti-cigarette senator, Rob Lowe is wonderfully slimy as a Hollywood publicity man, Robert Duvall plays the tobacco boss, and Sam Elliott is the Marlborough Man. It's filmed in a quasi-documentary style with lots of deadpan humor. No one actually smokes in the movie, which is a good thing considering the cancer statistics that are quoted.

I highly recommend this film; it really delivers big laughs while poking fun at the tobacco fat cats.

DVD Review: Hilarious!
Summary: 5 Stars

One of the best comedies I've seen in a long, long time. Definitely one to own.... and I do!

DVD Review: Hypocritical
Summary: 3 Stars

Clever tale of libertarianism from Peter Thiel, the PayPal guy. In the story, our hero Aaron Eckhart lives a lie so that he can pay his mortgage, he goes through a series of challenges, and comes out on top the way you'd see in any Tom Cruise movie, the main difference is that this one happens to be starring Aaron Eckhart instead of Mr Couch Jumper.

Sure, it seems to be a thinking man's movie, but why would a movie about smoking not show anybody smoking? Why would a movie about the right of the tabacco industry to exist suppress smoking in it? Why would a movie that shows the main character going to Hollywood to convince studio executives to feature its stars lighting up, but then not have its star light up? Somehow the film, while enjoyable, is not clever enough to answer any of these questions. Rob Lowe is good as a serene Hollywood guru-type, but William H. Macy horribly typecast as a snivelling senator who is exposed with ridiculous ease as a hypocrite.

DVD Review: Black Lung Comedy
Summary: 3 Stars

"Thank You For Smoking" is a movie about suckers. Suckers who are willing to forgo every piece of information available as long as they have one person telling them what they want to believe is right, as long as it's what they want to hear. Into this void steps Nick Naylor (Adam Eckhart), a lobbyist for Big Tobacco, whose job is convincing everyone to take a rolled up tube of paper stuffed with carcinogens, set it on fire and suck the fumes into your body because you have the right to do so. Naylor is the best in the biz, making everyone around him take pratfalls while he tries to be a good dad to his precocious son (unfortunately a clich?d part, played up by Cameron Bright).

While predominantly a satire on spin and the gullibility of consumers, "Thank You For Smoking" often misses the bulls-eye for the very thing its premise is based on: SPIN. No-one in the movie smokes. Even the wizened old Patriarch of the firm (played great by Robert Duvall) never lights one up, even as he tells everyone about his great discoveries. Naylor is momentarily seen fidgeting with an empty pack, but that's as close as it gets. It gets difficult to believe the bleating about being too PC when everyone in the film as politically correct as they can be. Even Katie Holmes, as a sleazy journalist, gets one-upped by the ever cunning Naylor.

This is a deep and darkly funny film, but it just doesn't go far enough. The best film in this genre, the Political Satire Wag the Dog, both hit the funny bone and slugged your gut, while TYFS pulls the final punches after about 2/3's of the way in by taking away Naylor's smarminess and turning him into a Disney Dad. Satire can be outrageous, but there also has to be an endgame. The feel-good ending here seems tacked on rather than thought through. It was fun watching Nick spar with the hapless Senator (William H. Macy, delightful as always), but had his name been something less convoluted than Ortolan Finistirre, it might have been less of an obvious ploy. (Ooo look! All American Lobbyist takes on nerdy Gov-Wonk with dopey name!)

"Thank You For Smoking" wussed out when it really could've taken the Spin-Zone to task. Otherwise, it might have been the dark comedy it wanted to be. By trying to have it both ways, however, it simply goes up in smoke.

Description of Thank You for Smoking (Full Screen Edition)

WARNING: Thank You For Smoking "just might make you laugh your head off!" (MAXIM). Aaron Eckhart stars as Nick Naylor, a sexy, charismatic spin-doctor for Big Tobacco who'll fight to protect America's right to smoke -- even if it kills him -- while still remaining a role model for his 12-year old son. When he incurs the wrath of a senator (William H. Macy) bent on snuffing out cigarettes, Nick's powers of "filtering the truth" will be put to the test. As Nick says, "If you want an easy job, go work for the Red Cross."

As the saying goes, Aaron Eckhart was born to play Nick Naylor, the 30-something "voice of Big Tobacco" in this brazen satire of corporate profits and what lobbyists will do to protect them. Right from the opening, Eckhart is in spin mode, turning the tables on a popular talk show when he states health officials want a young teen stricken by cancer to die more than big tobacco does, since the boy would be a martyr to them, but only a single lost customer to the industry. Audiences gasp, panelists guffaw, and the kid happily shakes Nick's hand. The Academy of Tobacco Studies has a colorful array of folks surrounding Nick, including his cantankerous boss (J.K. Simmons) and the Colonel (Robert Duvall), tobacco's undisputed leader. His closet friends are lobbyists for guns (David Koechner) and alcohol (Maria Bello) who discuss their odd businesses over regular lunches, but when a cutie-pie reporter (Katie Holmes) swings into Nick's life, things begin to unravel. Based on Christopher Buckley's even more outlandish novel, Thank You for Smoking is a bright light for the filmgoer tired of gutless films formulated by committee, and first-time filmmaker Jason Reitman has expertly cast the film, which includes deft turns by William H. Macy and Sam Elliot. Nick's son, a throwaway in the novel, becomes a major influence here in Nick's development and a key student of Naylorisms such as, "If you argue correctly, then you're never wrong," though a father and son trip to Hollywood to visit an uber agent (Rob Lowe at his most suave) demonstrates how the inclusion of the son both helps and hurts the film. Book fans will miss the wicked plot turn, but the final result is a sharp and smart comedy deserving of a long, savory drag. --Doug Thomas

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