What would happen if John McCain, his electoral fortunes sagging, hired an acclaimed film director to shoot an attack ad? That's the question answered by this satiric video that's been making the rounds today, in which McCain's message is reconstructed through the lens of auteurs like John Woo, Kevin Smith and Wes Anderson.
For my money, the results are mixed. The Woo parody has copious gunplay and a couple satisfying slo-mo moments, but I feel that John Woo would have probably given the McCain character two guns, not the Osama bin Laden character. Plus, critically: NO DOVES FLYING THROUGH THE SHOT. I mean, come on, now. The Kevin Smith parody relies too much on a weak-tea recreation of Clerks' addled, fanboy, pop-culture drone. There is an entirely insufficient level of profanity and/or donkey sex, and besides, Kevin Smith has sort of moved on to making Judd Apatow movies these days anyway. The Wes Anderson clip, however, is perfect. It's got the meticulous shot composition, the long tracking shot, the appearance of stray culture-kitsch, and, of course, the Bowie tune. That one's a keeper.
[WATCH.]