Like a relentlessly charismatic political candidate offering the moon, stars and a viable health-care plan, ''Bob Roberts'' promises much but ultimately fails to deliver.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 15, 2020

Whether we find Our Bob appealing or anathema, it is a measure of Robbins' exceptional success that no one can doubt how seductive a candidate like this would be in an election near you.

| Sep 15, 2020

After a summer in Hollywood fantasyland, at last we have an American movie that rattles our cage-and pokes a sharp spear into the body politic. Now that's entertainment.

| Feb 8, 2018

The first 30 minutes of Bob Roberts are the best, with the conceit still fresh, but the last are unbelievable: where did all the fun go?

| Jan 3, 2018

Bob Roberts is a shrewdly drawn portrait of the unsettling intersection of entertainment, business, and politics.

| Aug 25, 2017

This nose-thumbing mock documentary is so prescient, so astonishingly up-to-the-minute, it creates the eerie effect of having been ripped from tomorrow's headlines.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 7, 2011

A sometimes brilliant if overloaded pseudodocumentary satire.

| Jul 8, 2009

A sort of political This Is Spinal Tap, Bob Roberts is both a stimulating social satire and, for thinking people, a depressing commentary on the devolution of the American political system.

Full Review | Jun 10, 2008

Bob Roberts is not merely a satirical fictional biopic, but a wry exploration of the relationship between political reality and manufactured image.

| Feb 9, 2006

A very funny, sometimes prescient satire of American politics, and of the comparatively small, voting portion of the electorate that makes a Bob Roberts phenomenon possible.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 20, 2003

This Tim Robbins-helmed political satire about demogougery makes for an appropriate election-season re-release.

| Mar 10, 2003

Tim Robbins inaugurates the fall season with a slashingly funny political satire that ranks with the year's best films.

Full Review | May 12, 2001

Robbins, who scripted and directed, creates more than enough on his own. Bob's un-hackneyed character is the prime case in point.

| Jan 1, 2000

An over-strung last act aside, this is funny, brilliant and sickening all at the same time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Watching it might be an education for some voters, who will recognize in the movie political techniques they see being practiced all the time in real life.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

A welcome injection of venom.

| Jan 1, 2000