Reagan 🇺🇸🤠 REVIEW:

From the glitter of Hollywood to the world stage, Ronald Reagan overcomes the odds to become the 40th president of the United States. Before I get into whether or not I liked this film, it’s important for me to point out that I have a conservative perspective. If you are looking for a review that pans this film with labels such as “right wing propaganda,” or “Republican advertisement,” then I highly recommend you check out the many reviews from establishment mainstream critics who hated the film on Rotten Tomatoes if you want your opinion to be validated. Reagan is what I’d like to call a paint by the numbers biopic made worth a watch due to the excellent performances. Dennis Quaid does a fabulous job as Ronald Reagan, whether it’s him in his Hollywood acting era or when he is the president. Although I was not alive at the time, I saw this movie with two older family friends of mine who can attest to just how well Quaid nailed the mannerisms, look, and personality of Reagan. The only downside here is the de-aging of Reagan. It was quite noticeable and in his early years, it looked like an older Dennis Quaid with a Snapchat filter on his face. Same can be said about Jon Voight’s former KGB agent Viktor Petrovich, who does a great job in the film, especially with the narration, but his face in the earlier scenes have the Snapchat filter effect as well. I believe this movie would have benefited from a higher budget to really clean up some of those moments particularly. What really is the heart and soul of the movie is the relationship between Nancy Reagan and Ronald. Penelope Ann Miller is fantastic as Nancy Reagan and her chemistry with Quaid was charming and authentically wholesome, from their first time meeting all the way through their later years in marriage. The film depicts Reagan’s faith in God and Christianity in a decidedly positive light which is super refreshing to see in a modern movie these days. It’s no wonder that the leftist film critics are going scorched earth on this movie. There are two scenes that deal with the 1981 assassination attempt and although I knew he lived through that event, I was still nonetheless able to feel the tension and uncertainty as the American public was misled to believe that Reagan was not hit by the bullet. Quaid was totally spot on with capturing Reagan’s sense of humor, especially in the very intense hospital scene after the assassination attempt. Another thing I loved about the movie was how it displayed Reagan’s bipartisanship and specifically his friendship with Democrat Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill. It reminded me of a time when members of both sides of the political spectrum were able to get along no matter how different their ideologies may be.

The film runs at two hours and fifteen minutes and it covers just about all of the major events in Reagan’s life (yes, including his love for horseback riding), so at times it does feel like a “greatest hits” montage. However, I was fine with that because of how engaged I was with Quaid and Miller’s performances and their on screen chemistry with one another. There are a few moments where Reagan is making a speech that honestly made me want to stand up from my seat and cheer. The famous “Gorbachev, tear down this wall” speech is a truly triumphant sequence that harkened back to a time when America was feared and respected. The very ending monologue of Reagan saying his farewell brought me to tears and Quaid’s delivery is sincere and genuinely heartfelt. It’s not all glamorous though, and the film does cover events like the Iran-Contra affair scandal along with Reagan’s infamous mishandling of the aids epidemic (although to a lesser extent than liberal viewers may like), but thankfully, it never disrespects the former president in any disingenuous way. I am willing to bet there are documentaries or a Netflix series from establishment Hollywood filmmakers that will absolutely give the left leaning individuals reading this review the sort of tarnishing of Reagan’s character they hunger so greatly for. I genuinely believe that you can be an old school liberal and enjoy this movie, even if you don’t have a favorable view of the modern day Republican Party. As stated before, so much of this movie reminded me of a time where real diplomacy was central in American politics and the divisiveness we see currently between the left and right was much less prevalent. This is by no means an AMAZING movie and like I said before, it suffers in the technical department concerning the de-aging of Quaid and Voight along with some poor pacing. Like Ronald Reagan, the film is unabashedly anti-communist in its messaging and I believe it should be shown in American schools and educational institutions at the bare minimum to give our children a strong sense of patriotism and knowledge of true history. At a time when our nation has never been more divided, and what it means to “love America” takes on different meanings from different people of different political parties, this honestly feels like the inspirational movie America needs right now. Overall, although it’s held back by some shoddy de-aging, uneven pacing, and a lack of technical creativity, director Sean McNamara’s Reagan is nevertheless a worthy biopic about one of America’s best presidents with a phenomenal performance by the highly charismatic Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan and Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan.