Product Details

• Actors: Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Frank Langella, Kevin Dunn, Ving Rhames
• Directors: Ivan Reitman
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: April 21, 1994
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302928540
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,792 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

A heartwarming story of mistaken identity and idealism, director Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) takes on the political establishment in this fresh, funny comedy. Kevin Kline (Sophie's Choice, A Fish Called Wanda) plays Dave Kovic, a sweet man with a big heart running an employment agency. Dave happens to be a dead ringer for the current president of the United States, and he hires himself out as an impersonator for parties and mall openings. When the real president has a stroke while in bed with an aide, his ambitious chief of staff (Frank Langella) decides to hold onto the White House by appealing to Dave's sense of patriotism and having him pose as the president. Soon, however, Dave is running the country in a way contrary to what the chief of staff would like, even as he finds himself falling in love with the unsuspecting first lady (Sigourney Weaver). The movie's unbridled optimism is its best asset, and it makes this a pleasant comedy worth seeing. --Robert Lane

From The New Yorker

Dave Kovic (Kevin Kline), the hero of Ivan Reitman's populist comedy, is a regular middle-class guy who happens to be a dead ringer for the President of the United States (also Kline). The screenplay, by Gary Ross, contrives to put Dave in the Oval Office, where he poses as the President and allows himself (initially) to be manipulated by the crafty White House chief of staff (Frank Langella). By the end of the picture, he has restored honesty and decency to the government, and has fallen in love with the First Lady (Sigourney Weaver). In the first half hour or so, the movie is hilarious, because its humor is mostly destructive; and Kline's performance as the real President is a chillingly funny portrait of Chief Executive as empty suit. But after the promisingly nasty beginning, the filmmakers settle into a sort of campaign mode, lulling and flattering the audience with a fairy-tale vision of the common man's victory over the Washington establishment. The movie's crowd-pleASINg agenda inexorably saps its energy. Reitman and Ross are willing to sacrifice bite for across-the-board appeal, and they wind up with a political comedy that has no politics. Also with Charles Grodin, Ben Kingsley, and Kevin Dunn. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whimsy & Intrigue in the White House, December 4, 1999

By	"valleyranchdressing" (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dave (DVD)

This movie is one of those gems that quietly grows on you -- each viewing creating anticipation and appreciation for its wit and style. The casting is superb. Kevin Kline doesn't know how to give a bad performance. Frank Langella's brilliant characterization of the ambitious, power-hungry 'man behind the throne' is perfect, and a wonderful contrast to his long-ago role as the cad/seducer in Diary of a Mad Housewife.

This is definitely a movie to buy because it needs to be seen many times. The innumerable funny pearls in this movie alone are worth the price of the DVD. For Minnesotans, one of the slyest gags was Dave's gig early in the moview, imitating the President at the grand opening of Durenberger Motors in his home town. The movie was released around the time that David Durenberger (Minnesota's senior senator) was embroiled in an ethics scandal. A personal favorite moment was the scene where Dave (with the help of his accountant buddy played by Charles Grodin) pares the federal budget to save a homeless shelter for children -- the cabinet members bemusedly participating just like a family sitting around the kitchen table wrestling with its own budget. Priceless.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Washington fantasy, full of idealism and fun, April 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Dave (DVD)

Every time I watch this movie (more often now that it is an election year) I am amazed that the implausibility of it doesn't bother me. But it doesn't. Ivan Reitman manages to bring together an impressive group of actors and makes every character on the screen seem real. Kevin Kline is his usual remarkable self, a chameleon playing an idealistic Presidential look-alike swept into national politics. Sigourney Weaver is as warm and interesting as I have ever seen her in movies. Together they are like two children sharing a secret. Watch, for example, the pause at the top of the stairs when they return to the White House after their near-escape.

But my greatest admiration is for Reitman who gives every character in this movie a chance to shine. Charles Grodin being seduced by the promise of bratwurst. Ving Rhames discussing how he looks in a sweater. Ben Kingsley becoming nostalgic about how a shoe salesman became Vice President. Frank Langella humming Hail to the Chief while he forges the president's signature. The timing and subtlety of these touches makes me wonder if this is the same Ivan Reitman who did movies as unsubtle as Ghostbusters!

If national politics is getting you down, this is the perfect antidote. Lovely Washington photography, too. Kevin Kline can be my president any time!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An American Kagemusha...via Gary Ross, January 25, 2002

By	LGwriter "SharpWitGuy" (Astoria, N.Y. United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Dave (DVD)

Though this film was directed by Ivan Reitman, it's the screenwriter's picture all the way. Gary Ross has made his reputation spinning stories of innocents caught up in the world of the not-so-innocent--or vice versa. With Big, starring Tom Hanks, it was a 12-year old magically transformed into a 30 year old man, contending with the world of grownups. In his latest film, Pleasantville, it's two hip, decidedly uninnocent teenagers zoomed into the innocent world of a typical 50s TV show.

In this, his middle film, it's the owner of a copy shop, Dave, called on to impersonate the president--a high strung cad who's just suffered a heart attack. Dave is a heck of a lot more innocent than most guys his age. Divorced, he busies himself with his work and sports, always hoping to meet the right woman.

What's groovy about this film is that it's a hip, comic American remake of the great Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha. In that film--a powerful drama with no comedy at all--a grievously ill warlord tells his vassals to find a man who resembles him as closely as possible so the warlord can instruct the other man in the ways of ruling a region; if his subjects see him alive and healthy, they'll be reassured and spies from enemy regions will know he's still a force to be reckoned with.

The vassals find a commoner whose resemblance to the warlord is so striking, there's no one else who could do the job. He's told exactly what to do, how to stand, sit, and do all the other stuff a warlord should. The same happens in Dave--he learns what to do from the evil Frank Langella, the White House press secretary. As Dave, Kevin Kline strikes the perfect balance of innocence and determination to right the wrongs so clearly in evidence. And Sigourney Weaver does a more than credible job as the first lady who's charmed by this knowledgeable innocent.

Also here are Ben Kingsley as the just as innocent Vice President (contrast this with his absolutely astounding performance in the recent Sexy Beast as a nasty rotten gangster!) and Ving Rhames, always reliable, as the secret service man who's on Dave's side all the way.

Ross is one smart cookie. Taking Kagemusha and updating it to 90s America, mixing it with big dollops of comedy and a poignant love story, was a great idea. This film really works. Take a look at Ross' other films; they're just as great.