Unlike various blogospheric reviewers, I liked both V For Vendetta and Thank You For Smoking. The latter is a basically pleasant movie that lifts itself above merely enjoyable mediocrity by showcasing some truly fantastic performances. Aaron Eckhart, in the lead role, is perfect as the morally unconcerned, smooth-talking lobbyist (his opening narration, where he describes himself as "that guy who knew the exact right thing to say to any woman -- on crack," was genius). And David Koechner, playing Eckhart's gun-lobbyist friend, was unfairly good, the perfect mix of down home sleaze and rough-hewn charm.
More substantively, I'd dispute Matt's concerns over the cynicism of the lobbyists. While I've no doubt that there are plenty of libertarians who think vices deserve committed defenders, earnest types are probably less rhetorically agile and inventive than hard-boiled operatives addicted to the challenge, making them more limited and less successful as PR reps. In my read, the mod squad was focused on their tough odds, moral quandaries simply didn't enter the picture, and none, thankfully, were portrayed as outrightly hypocritical -- all enjoyed the vices they defended. It's an outlook that gave rise to my favorite scene in the movie: the one-upsmanship over who was more deserving of vigilante justice, as measured through death rates.
Of the two, though, V For Vendetta is the better movie. I basically echo the enthusiasm on display here, and would add that the film has some of the smartest symbolism I've seen in cinema for years. Watch for the little red book and the ring-around-the-rosie memorial for the biological attack victims. And while this, for temporal reasons, couldn't have been intentional, V's off-kilter,slightly archaic, ostentatiously eloquent rhetoric is reminiscent of bin Laden, who's famed for his mastery of classical arabic.
