Joxerlives I found this a good film, certainly very grown up (I was flicking between this and Rambo 3 which may have added to the impression). I especially liked Sharon Stone as the scorned wife, practically unrecognisable here and Christian Slater set up as the obvious bad guy but showing much more depth than that, William Macey's character going to help him in the end is a satisfying moment as is his reconciliation with his wife in the face of tragedy. The hotel is an analogy for the US at the time and it's laid on pretty thick ('A city within a city'), there's so many characters it gets overwhelming. You get the impression that when Emilio Estevez put the word out all of liberal Hollywood came knocking at his door for a part. For the record this isn't a documentary, none of the characters are real except for Freddy Rodriguez's waiter who really did cradle the dying Bobby Kennedy. All of Sirhan Sirhan's other victim's not only survived but thankfully recovered fully (good thing he only had a .22). We learn nothing about the assassin and his motivations, he was actually outraged by RFK's support for Israel and his intention to boost military aid to it. But then that would rather ruin the image of Bobby Kennedy as a liberal messiah? We must be grateful there are no conspiracy theories here and rightly so.Ashton Kutcher is just absolutely godawful and I've no idea why they left his character in. Given Demi Moore's reputation in recent years her turn as a fading star is oddly prophetic.Where it falls down is in its' deification of RFK himself who is just goodness and hope personified and would have solved all the world's problems practically single-handed. Truth was he was no saint and his murder was probably a symptom of the troubles in American society rather than it's cause (he justly condemns the rise of violent crime in the late 60s but then again he was the Attorney General during the period it occurred?). It's very unlikely he would have beaten Hubert Humphrey to the Democratic nomination and even less likely that he would have beaten Nixon to the presidency. Even the IMDb Trivia section for this film is really an unrestrained RFK love fest. So all told a good film but it doesn't need such sycophancy.

tomsview An interesting idea for a movie that despite a powerful finale, just has far too much to say.The film is set on the day Robert Kennedy was killed at the Ambassador hotel in Los Angeles. However, it isn't really a detailed look at the assassination, and doesn't go anywhere near a conspiracy theory – the film heads in a different direction entirely.Intercut with real footage of Bobby Kennedy, the film goes behind the scenes on the fateful day and focuses on the staff and guests at the hotel. The reason many of these characters were chosen becomes obvious at the end. These include an ex-doorman, the manager, the guys in the kitchen, the girls on the hotel's switchboard and various guests. The script attempts to give back-story to each of the characters, but in doing so the movie never really shuts up. Everybody prattles on giving chunks of exposition or information to make their characters sound real. The script for this thing must have been massive; it probably needed to be wheeled around in a shopping trolley.Unfortunately, despite the verbiage, much of what takes place is superficial and actorish. The film seems inspired by Robert Altman's "Shortcuts" and "Nashville" where a number of vignettes come together at the end. However, for the most part, "Bobby" lacks the sting, and most importantly, the restraint of Altman's films.And restraint is the key here because writer/director Emilio Estevez shows very little. It seems as though every opinion he ever had is espoused by at least one of the characters – often with an anthem swelling on the soundtrack. These cover topics amongst others such as the sanctity of marriage, the aging process and race relations. Maybe this all looked very important to the actors who may have been impressed by the set piece speeches that have the gravitas of Shakespearean soliloquies.Some of the vignettes are overwritten and tedious. The two young campaign volunteers who meet up with the hippie drug dealer and get high are the most irritating, but are closely followed by the female Czech reporter. Not many of the actors come across as completely natural. However Lindsay Lohan does; she gives a believable and touching performance.Many of the sentiments the characters express are almost as lofty as Bobby Kennedy's impassioned speeches, but where his were full of conviction and caught the temper of the times, much of what the characters have to say is cloying and forced.But the ending works. Set in the kitchen of the hotel, it is superbly staged and is a clever blend of real footage and recreation. It brings home the horror of Robert Kennedy's death and also reminds us that a number of others were hit in the fusillade of shots.The finale goes some way towards making up for earlier shortcomings, but not entirely. It would be a hard movie to contemplate sitting through again – and that for me is the test of a good movie.

Desertman84 Bobby is a film written and directed by Emilio Estevez. The screenplay is a fictionalized account of the hours leading up to the June 5, 1968 shooting of United States Senator from New York and former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in the kitchen of The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles following his win in the California Democratic Party primary for the 1968 Presidential Election.It has an all-star cast that includes Harry Belafonte,Nick Cannon,Emilio Estevez,Laurence Fishburne,Heather Graham,Anthony Hopkins,Helen Hunt,Joshua Jackson,Ashton Kutcher,Shia LaBeouf,Lindsay Lohan,William H. Macy,Demi Moore,Freddy Rodriguez,Martin Sheen,Christian Slater,Sharon Stone,Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Elijah Wood.Twenty-two people become unwitting participants in a tragic and defining moment of June in 1968, and the California presidential primary elections are occupying the minds of many in the Golden State, with Robert F. Kennedy in a close race against Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey. The Kennedy campaign staff has set up camp at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, while the staff and guests become observers as the brother of fallen president John F. Kennedy sets out to pick up where his sibling left off. Paul (Macy) is the manager of the Ambassador, and his wife, Miriam (Stone), is a hairdresser who runs' the hotel's beauty salon. Angela (Graham) is a receptionist working the hotel's switchboard who has been sleeping with Paul behind Miriam's back. Timmons (Slater) is in charge of the hotel's restaurant and catering department, and makes no secret of his dislike of the African-Americans and Latinos under his employ. Miguel (Vargas) and Jose (Rodriguez) are two young Chicanos on the kitchen staff who have it in for Timmons, while Robinson (Fishburne) is an older black man who counsels them on dealing with their rage. Virginia Fallon (Moore) sings in the hotel's cocktail lounge and has a serious problem with alcohol; her husband, Tim (Estevez), is a Kennedy supporter and also her manager, and he's nearing the end of his rope in dealing with her problem. William (Wood) is a young man desperate to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam; Diane (Lohan) is a pretty young woman dating William's brother who agrees to marry him so William can avoid being drafted, though William is clearly infatuated with her, while she considers this a marriage in name only. John Casey (Hopkins) is one of the owners of the Ambassador, and Nelson (Belafonte) is an old friend who works at the hotel. And Jack (Sheen) is a wealthy Kennedy campaign financier who is married to Samantha (Hunt),an attractive but much younger woman.A labor of love from actor/writer/director Emilio Estevez, Bobby is a very well written, deftly directed and incredibly acted ensemble piece.Despite problems with its numerous subplots, the larger story of the times and the man are so compelling, and the actors here are so capable, that the movie succeeds.Finally,Estevez has done a terrific job a film that explores the lives of people who were at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the day that Robert Kennedy won the California primary and was shot to death.

moonspinner55 Writer-director-co-star Emilio Estevez takes a tragic, emotional event in American history--the June 5th, 1968 assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan--and attempts to build a kaleidoscope of stories around it, giving personalities to the faces in the crowd that fateful night at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel. Curiously, Estevez chose not to focus on Kennedy (who is represented by newsreel footage), nor on Sirhan Sirhan, but on fictional (or fictionalized) characters such as a young couple marrying to keep the husband out of Vietnam; two young campaign workers who drop acid and spend the entire day goofing off; a Hispanic busboy at the hotel, fighting for equality and hoping to get the night off to see the Dodgers play; a beautician whose husband is cheating on her; and so on. With such a horrible tragedy looming over the third act of the picture, it's rather difficult to care about what color shoes Helen Hunt wears, or whether Lindsay Lohan's parents will turn up at her ceremony. Estevez has his heart in the right place (and his visual eye is impressive), but the screenplay is shallow and turgid, laughably underlined with a kind of political correctness which is supposed to make the picture seem relevant but is instead anachronistic. Star-studded cast generally fails to make an impression, though again this is the fault of the writing. ** from ****