Long Shot

Long Shot

By James Davidson

When trouble-making, scruffy, opinionated, political journalist Fred Flarsky (played by Seth Rogen) reunites with his long-lost crush and former babysitter, Charlotte Field (played by Charlize Theron), they instantly have chemistry. The problem is, Charlotte is one of the most powerful women in the world and is running for President. Fred, on the other hand, isn’t exactly ideal boyfriend material for a presidential candidate. Charlotte solves this problem by hiring Fred to be her speech writer on her campaign.

After seeing Seth Rogen was starring in “Long Shot”, I was looking forward to seeing a raucous and funny movie. I wasn’t so sure about the premise because it seemed a little plain to me and I wasn’t sure if Theron and Rogen had enough chemistry to be a believable couple. However, I thought it would be good for a few laughs and end up being fun.

I was surprised when the story and acting ended up taking center stage and the comedy ended up playing second fiddle. Theron and Rogen actually appear to have great chemistry and were a believable, if not a bit odd, couple. There were a few jokes I enjoyed that were based on them having opposite personalities, but for the most part I found the humor lackluster.

A lot of the jokes just didn’t land well for me. They were okay, and got a few chuckles from the audience, but I felt they just lacked fortitude. There was nothing wrong with any of the jokes, they just didn’t meet the expectation I had when I saw Seth Rogen was starring in the movie. The humor was a little subdued and wasn’t as prominent as I thought it was going to be.

The plot, on the other hand, ended up being more fascinating than I had anticipated. It was pretty straight-forward and didn’t have any twists. The chemistry between Theron and Rogen elevated it from being a below-average story to one more enjoyable. It was actually fun to watch these two unlikely partners develop a relationship. Not only did they have to overcome each other, they had to cope with what others might think of their unlikely association. A lot of the plot is based on how their relationship will affect the campaign. Charlotte has to decide whether or not the relationship is worth possibly losing the Presidency.

“Long Shot” is a bit crass, it has an R rating due to strong sexual content, language and some drug use. It is definitely not appropriate for children and can be offensive to some people sensitive to those types of things. The frustrating part is the movie didn’t really benefit from having any of this in it. I think the movie would have been just as good, if not better with a PG-13 rating.

“Long Shot” is entertaining and has a surprisingly good plot and great acting, even though the humor was a bit bland. This movie might be a good date night movie, it has a very Rom-Comish feel to it and was fun enough. I probably won’t watch this movie again, but it was a fun one-time watch. It earns 3 out of 5 stars.