Rating: 
Summary: A mannerist masterpiece in the vein of Strangelove
Review: A brilliant masterpiece of acting, pacing, and style, Wag the Dog is also worthy of a place alongside Dr. Strangelove in a category that might be called the 'Ironic Political War Movie For Its Generation.' Where Strangelove excelled in explicating the absurd and sinister warroom forces that we believed pushed geopolitical chess pieces around the board, Wag the Dog revises the invisible hand machinations for the hypermedia age where there is no appreciable line between politics, entertainment, and belief. Both films are highly mannerist works, with crackerjack dialogue; intimate and often purposefully silly but not condescending portraits of the main players; theater-like settings and vignettes; and high regard for its actors and the audience, black comedies that rip away your ability to sympathize in a typical, Hollywood fashion so that you might look more directly upon the subject matter.Wag the Dog is so good broadly stated that it's worth noting the exceptional performances contained within. Hoffman is simply at the top of his craft, he takes Stanley Motss and creates a unique aesthetic of a Hollywood power player with an almost pathologically Zen-like sense of purpose. DeNiro comes at you much more subtly, a growing sense that he is a far more menacing figure than his shabby hat and bowtie would lead on. Heche more than holds her own, and almost steals the show with her ten-second frustration tirade leveled at Motss. And I'll gloss over the supporting roles, but they are superb, especially Leary's Fab King (loved his Schuburgers!). But it is its ability to condense the past four years of politics since it was released into an hour and a half of film set before it could know of any of these events that makes Wag the Dog the prescient and important satirical work that it is.
Rating:
Summary: Ahead of its time...literally
Review: A lot of people knocked this film for being a rip-off of current events. Nothing could be further from the truth! What makes this satire so amazing is that its all coming true. For example: 1) This movie was made BEFORE the lewinsky/clinton scandal but the details were frighteningly similar 2) It told us the war of the future would be against dissident terrorists plotting against the US from camps in some remote country...years before we had heard of al Qaeda, 9/11, or a war in afghanistan 3) Watching Willie Nelson leading the 9/11 Tribute to Heroes telethon in singing "God Bless America" seemed like it was a rip-off of this movie. To many, the premise of this movie may have seemed absurd when it was released. But each passing year reveals how closer it is to the truth than we think. For a scary, thought-provoking satire of Hollywood and Washington, check this movie out.
If it was a 2002 film, people would say it was a clever satire. That it was made in 1997 qualifies it as an absolute classic.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh
Review: Like overacting? See Dustin Hoffman's stereotypical portrayal of a Hollywood mogul. Like inept acting? See Anne Heche make little grimaces and vapid hand gestures while pretending she's ... what? Her characterization is so shallow I'd walk through it in new suede shoes. Every point is belabored and the dialog is simplistic. Wag the Dog is nothing more than Hollywood schlock with a trendy subject. Final analysis: boring and irksome.
Rating: 
Summary: Who Let The Dogs Out--Hollywood Style
Review: With the lifts in his shoes rivaling in height the moussed masses of his hair, Hoffman plays an egomaniacal Hollywood producer who has done it all, seen it all. "You think this is trouble," he says consolingly to his new colleagues from the White House as ever-worse disasters befall them while orchestrating, on a Hollywood soundstage, a fake military attack against the U.S. "Try having three Italian starlets whacked out on Benzedrine and grappa." Wag the Dog, a profoundly cynical but also profoundly funny political satire, takes as its starting position that all politics is show business. The military attack, which Hoffman has been recruited to produce by a top presidential spinmeister (De Niro), is part of a disinformation campaign aimed at distracting voters from the real news that, with an election looming, the fictional current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has dallied in his office longer than prudent with a teenage Fire-Fly Girl. Sound familiar? All good satire is rooted in truth. Sprinting in at only 97 minutes, Wag is a below-the-Beltway comic triumph for director Barry Levinson and his game cast, who shot the film in just 29 days for $15 million. De Niro excels as the shambling shaman, Anne Heche is amusingly uptight as a presidential aide along for the ethical slide, and Woody Harrelson scores with a goofy, unbilled cameo as a pill-popping psycho. But it is Hoffman's toweringly pygmyesque producer (who savvy show business insiders are claiming bears some resemblance to onetime studio head Robert Evans) who is the art and soullessness of the movie. Quirky political satire worth watching & buying.
Rating:
Summary: Political satire of the decade
Review: "Wag the Dog" is, at the very least, the best political satire of the decade. I don't know what all the other reviewers were smoking when they said that it wasn't believable. In fact, for someone who has been following news for the past years (and I mean real news, not the Reader's-Digest-grade fodder that unquestioning Americans are being served on their Foxified "news" outlets), the events in this movie are not only frighteningly believable, but strikingly prophetic as well. It is a mark of true greatness when political satire doesn't lose its relevance with passing years, and looking at world events between 1997, when the movie was made, and today, I can unequivocally say that this movie has achieved this greatness. As a matter of fact, when I first saw it on TV, I could scarcely believe that it was made before Bush, before Iraq, and before Jessica Lynch. The tragic thing is, that even being flawless and portentious, this movie is at best destined for the role of a cinematic Cassandra - its makers said everything that could possibly be said on the topic of spin control and mass manipulation, and yet, Americans still fall for it every goddamn time.
Rating:
Summary: "We haven¿t declared war since WWII. We¿re going to war"
Review: Despite the appearance that it has the typical "Lewinsky" plot, Wag the Dog is a masterfully scripted satire that concerns more than tainted politics. The movie opens with the seemingly pointless and unanswerable question, "Why does the dog wag its tail?" But it interestingly continues, "Because it's smarter... otherwise the tail would wag the dog." And that's what it's all about: control and intelligence. Wag the Dog finds the president in a dire situation a mere two weeks before Election Day. Allegations that the president groped a Firefly girl on a Whitehouse tour are sure to hand the election over to Sen. John Neal. Conrad Brean (DeNiro), A political "Mr. Fix-It," is promptly brought into the picture, and he decides to distract the media with a fictitious war in Albania. He and Winifred Ames (Heche), the presidential advisor, delegate the fabrication of the war to a famous but eccentric and self-pitying producer, Stanley Motts (Hoffman). As they use all types of propaganda including film, music, and catchy slogans, the trio tumbles further into the abyss of corruption, continuing with more propaganda, but the public buys it. Wag the Dog boasts a first-class cast. DeNiro shines in his role; he is sometimes so great at his job of hiding the truth that even his co-workers are unclear about what's real. Hoffman surprisingly deviates from his usual sober, intense roles. His amazing talent gives life to his egotistical attitude and his constant declarations of power as producer. The movie's witty screenplay is especially potent in its ability of making jabs at the government. Brean says, "We haven't declared war since WWII. We're going to war." While it is amusing that the movie makes trivial items like shoes become symbolic of patriotism, the disturbing thing about Wag the Dog is that it hits dangerously close to home. The fact that the media can falsify footage that moves the country to tears shows its power over public sentiment. Truthfully, how smart is the American public? It also arouses suspicion because the movie preceded the actual bombing in Albania, which seemed similarly planned to deter attention focused on the Lewinsky scandal.
Rating:
Summary: I think that the tail is smarter than the dog
Review: Like tho cover says, Wag the Dog is a comedy about truth, justice and other special effects
Rating:
Summary: Political satire of the decade
Review: "Wag the Dog" is, at the very least, the best political satire of the decade. I don't know what all the other reviewers were smoking when they said that it wasn't believable. In fact, for someone who has been following news for the past years (and I mean real news, not the Reader's-Digest-grade fodder that unquestioning Americans are being served on their Foxified "news" outlets), the events in this movie are not only frighteningly believable, but strikingly prophetic as well. It is a mark of true greatness when political satire doesn't lose its relevance with passing years, and looking at world events between 1997, when the movie was made, and today, I can unequivocally say that this movie has achieved this greatness. As a matter of fact, when I first saw it on TV, I could scarcely believe that it was made before Bush, before Iraq, and before Jessica Lynch. The tragic thing is, that even being flawless and portentious, this movie is at best destined for the role of a cinematic Cassandra - its makers said everything that could possibly be said on the topic of spin control and mass manipulation, and yet, Americans still fall for it every goddamn time.
Rating:
Summary: Try to avoid this movie
Review: This movie is really awful. It presents itself to be a witty, humorous look at politics and Hollywood, but it fails in both attempts. I have yet to see a movie that explores the life of a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) that is interesting, and this hasn't changed my mind. The scenes where a bunch of people come up with "brilliant" ideas are really annoying. Also, Willie Nelson is on the screen a lot, which attests to just what lengths the director had go to. If you want a movie about politics, "Primary Colors" (the best) or "The Contender" (the best serious politics film) are my recommendations. An added plus: neither of those two have Anne Heche.
Rating:
Summary: Movie vs. Reality
Review: Movie: war is fake, but nobody actually died in Albania Reality: war is still kind of fake, but thousands (oh yeah, including Americans, too) died in Iraq... This is more than just a good movie (with excellent and super fun performances). It reflects and makes you think (well, for some of us anyway)...
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