member of the 'internet movie critics association' <a href= " http : //www . geocities . com/hollywood/studio/5713/index . html " >http : //www . geocities . com/hollywood/studio/5713/index . html</a> watching 'bulworth' feels like having somebody punch you in the face and as you turn around to recover and regain your balance , there's somebody waiting that throws a bucket of cold water where you've just been punched . in other words , the film is a double whammy of intended satire but comes off more as a series of condescending failed scenes which do nothing to advance the nature of the movie's characters and caricatures . caricatures are usually the least interesting thing about a film that centres on people because they never get developed beyond the realm of their first scene ( s ) , hence , their given name . 'bulworth' has more than its share of unnecessary players and the centre piece of the movie's main personality is a man with a pretty unattractive personality named jay billington bulworth ( warren beatty ) . i understood completely where beatty was trying to go with this film but rather than churn out a political satire , beatty has instead made a film where bulworth rambles about our unbalanced society without telling us anything about how he intends to improve it . that is often the true nature of politicians and if the movie wants to do that , what exactly is its point beyond anything we've seen before ? it doesn't take a genius to do a simple turning of the tables and make a fibbing politician , who doesn't believe in the things he's saying and turn him into a suicidal and supposedly conscience stricken self redeemer who becomes suicidal and says what's really on his mind . the film opens with a rehearsed speech billington intends to give where the opening line is heard over and over and over again and is the usual * blah * blah * blah * he will use in an upcoming campaign . we soon begin to see bulworth's mental breakdown as he displays his suicidal tendencies and takes out a large insurance policy on himself before hiring a contract killer to knock himself off ? ! i didn't believe it for a second . the idea is too simple to be believable and even if you accept the premise , the movie's core issue hasn't even surfaced yet . as bulworth is speaking to a large audience of african-americans in south central l . a . , he makes some rather blunt comments that he believes are true , putting aside the political line for an unexpected dose of what many will accept as reality . next his comments turn to the jewish community and these two outbursts cause a media carnage where bulworth is asked to explain exactly what he meant by these two incidents . somewhere in the middle of all this , he begins saying what he really feels is the trouble with american society . his remarks make the u . s . a . sound instead like the corporate states of america , perhaps a good theory and while reasonably admirable and truthful , his execution of these ideas are awkward and sound more like the ramblings of a paranoid fanatic . during his outburst in south central l . a . , he meets nina ( halle berry ) , a young woman from the community whom he fancies and he tries to understand her world and express himself through it by a transformation of image . it's a world bulworth doesn't understand because the words he hears and the problems he sees , he repeats them when interviewed on television and the execution this time isn't only awkward , its phony and self indulgent on beatty's part . what's even more astonishing about this film is the way that beatty presents not only the other characters in the film , but his own . the other characters played by such wonderful actors as jack warden , paul sorvino , oliver platt , don cheadle and christine baranski are never given any real focus or development and when the fate of beatty's character is decided , you will not care . beatty is more concerned with presenting his story too quickly and as you figure out that his film lacks depth and insight , you'll be amazed at what little foundation is built around the the rest of the story . beatty directs and is the co-author of 'bulworth' and for a man who has been a part of classics like 'bonnie and clyde' , 'shampoo' , ' heaven can wait' and his most ambitious film for which he won a best director oscar , 1981's 'reds' , beatty has made an abysmal failure of a film the has absolutely no after thought and is as stimulating as frozen silly putty . 
