Cheap Thank You for Smoking (Widescreen Edition) (DVD) (Jason Reitman) Price

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Customer Reviews of Thank You for Smoking (Widescreen Edition)

Lighting up at the movies
Jason Reitman`s "Thank You For Smoking" would make an interesting companion piece to "Lord of War," since both are sharp, acerbic satires about industries - one tobacco, the other small arms - whose practitioners are often referred to as "merchants of death." <
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>Based on the novel by Christopher Buckley, "Thank You For Smoking" centers on Nick Naylor, a smooth-talking lobbyist for Big Tobacco whose job it is to counter all the medical charges leveled against cigarettes so that people will go right on using the product despite the fact that Americans are dropping dead from heart disease, cancer and emphysema at the rate of well over 430,000 people a year. The triumph of the film is that it resists the temptation to paint everything in broad strokes or to reduce all its figures to the level of simpleminded caricatures. Naylor may be an amoral cretin in the profession he has chosen to pursue, but as played by the brilliant Aaron Eckhart, he also has a bit of a conscience and the semi-redeeming traits of insecurity, vulnerability and a deep and abiding love for his devoted young son. Writer/director Jason Reitman "humanizes" the characters even as he skewers them mercilessly for how they have chosen to live their lives. Naylor, for instance, is part of an informal group labeled "the Mod Squad," - short for "Merchants of Death" - consisting of Naylor plus two other lobbyists, one from the alcohol industry and one from the gun manufacturers, who meet regularly at a local bar to bemoan their standing as social pariahs and to argue over which of the three industries scores the most deaths per annum. These characters could easily have been overdrawn and turned into callous villains, but we find ourselves actually liking them - much as we do Naylor - partly because they remain loyal to their buddy when the going gets tough for him and his world threatens to fall to pieces around him. <
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>Indeed it is this feeling of ambivalence we have towards Naylor that makes "Thank You For Smoking" more than just an anti-smoking jeremiad, for the movie beautifully approximates the seductive power of men like Naylor and makes us aware of how easily we too fall under their spell. Eckhart is so charismatic, charming and convincing in the role of Naylor that we find ourselves in the unusual position of practically rooting for him to prevail, even though, intellectually, we can pretty much see through the speciousness of his arguments. The filmmakers are to be commended for not softening the material by turning Naylor into the conventional anti-hero who eventually sees the evils of his ways and does everything in his power to make reparations for the damage and suffering he has caused. For even though Naylor does have a "soft," likable side to his personality, it isn't always enough to make him do the right thing in every situation or to make all the politically correct speeches the audience believes should be coming from the mouth of a reformed wrongdoer. The filmmakers make it clear that Naylor "reforms" only up to a point, for there is still a great deal of flimflamery lurking in the core of his genes. Moreover, Buckley and Reitman don't let the anti-smoking forces entirely off the hook either. The movie often shows them as both extreme (one group even kidnaps and nicotine-poisons Naylor to get him to stop what he's doing) and insufferably self-righteous and petty (one senator wants to digitally erase all the cigarettes from old movies). <
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>Eckhart, who has always been a very fine actor despite never having achieved superstar status in Hollywood, should have been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his dazzling, finely-tuned turn here as a man it is easy to criticize but hard to hate. He is bolstered by an outstanding cast that includes J.K. Simmons, Maria Bello, David Koechner, Kim Dickens, William H. Macy, Robert Duvall, Katie Holmes, Rob Lowe and Sam Elliott. Special note should be taken of young Cameron Bright ("X-Men 3"), who brings spirit and depth to the role of Naylor's impressionable but clear-eyed and levelheaded teenage son. <
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>"Thank You For Smoking" is a rarity among American films in that it provides genuine food for thought while amusing the heck out of us at the same time.

Ain't That America!
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>This could have been a smarmy National Lampoon style effort, but instead I think they pulled it off beautifully. <
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>Funny, yet sobering in its accuracy. Watch, laugh and wince. <
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>Yep. This is the point we've come to, folks. Truth is a four letter word, and may the best B.S.er win. <
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>Check out the America: Living in Spin featurette. Clinton...Bush...BINGO! <
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>Put that in your pipe and smoke it. <
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