Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis are two of the funniest comic actors in the game, and pitting them against each other as political candidates in The Campaign seems like a stroke of genius. The two men should be at their best, challenging each other as comedic actors in a parallel to their characters' onscreen sparring. Unfortunately, neither actor wins this race, because the script is mediocre at best and wastes the talent of its leads.
Ferrell stars as Cam Brady, the incumbent US congressman of North Carolina, who's set for another term — until the diabolical Motch Brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow), a pair of greasy entrepreneurs, get involved. They want to put a new candidate in office for their own selfish purposes: they need a pawn who will support laws that will allow them to do shady business. They set their sights on simple, small-town Marty Huggins (Galifianakis), and groom him with the help of a conniving campaign adviser (Dylan McDermott). The political plot is about as stimulating on screen as it sounds on paper, so it's up to the jokes to make the movie entertaining. Sadly, the humor is as dumb as Cam's nonsensical stump speeches. To find out what else I thought of The Campaign, just keep reading.
