LogFAQs > #972408422

13. Tangy
There were a lot of ways this movie couldve gone horribly wrong, but its saved by its fantastic cast. When majority of your characters are anti-heroes at best and villains at worst, you need to find a way to make them fun to watch and thankfully everyone from Aaron Eckhart all the way to Rob Lowe are incredibly quick witted and just fun to watch to matter how important their part was. Of course Macy was the standout to me. He always brings the most to every role and seeing him as this smarmy politician was an absolute delight. I also loved how absurd his assassination attempt was, just slapping a bunch of nicotine patches on someone? Thats freaking hilarious and its made all the more funny when Nick actually survives and thanks smoking (haha) for it. Absolutely ridiculous.

That said, I think the movie is overall a little too douchey for my tastes. I can get behind some dark comedy, but the whole appeal of Nick Naylor is tied to the fact that hes doing it for the mortgage and yet all of the antagonists are basically punished for doing the exact same thing? I get that the movie is also attacking virtue signaling from journalists and politicians, but cmon. That little ending montage of them getting their comeuppance felt really out of place in comparison to the overall tone of the movie.

Biggest Laugh: Naylor waking up in the hospital and JK Simmons being ready to get some good publicity out of it.

14. John
Thank You For Smoking served as kind of my balancing point for the list. Everything above it I enjoyed a good bit, everything just below it was good but could definitely use some improvement. This is just a solid 2000s comedy led by Aaron Eckhart in what isn't his best but probably is his most Aaron Eckhart role to date.

23. Gavs
This satire takes us back to the 90s and sees a tobacco lobbyist arguing on behalf of the tobacco industry in various situations, such as pushing for cigarette product placement in an upcoming movie, or trying to keep additional health warnings off cigarette packaging. The latter serves as a reminder of this historical context, as here in the UK we have had plain packaging and large health warnings on packs of cigarettes for a few years now, and as a non-smoker myself, its already difficult to remember a time when cigarettes boxes didnt have pictures of cancerous tumours or dead babies on them.

Aaron Eckharts performance here is very charismatic and suave. His silver-tongued lobbyist could convince anyone to do whatever he wanted if he so desired, which makes him an intriguing screen presence. I also liked William H Macy as the anti-smoking senator who is a little overzealous in his opposition to tobacco, and the Mod Squad were always fun, with their weekly lunches providing the comic relief of the film.

This film seemed rather disjointed and episodic overall, with Nick meeting with his various clients and persuading them to his point of view. There is an emotional throughline of Nick wanting to set a positive example for his son, and Heathers incriminating article does reference some of the earlier clients, but I do think the connection could have been a little stronger. There was the odd loose end here and there too, like the kidnapping. The conversation between the senator and his aide in a later scene implies they might be connected to it, and it would make sense since Nick has been a persistent thorn in their side, but unless I missed it, I dont think theres an explicit confirmation, which is a little odd considering this was a pivotal scene that changed the films trajectory.

Fun fact: this is the second film in a row on this list where smoking saves a characters life!