Election

MPAA Rating: R

Entertainment: +2 1/2

Content: -3

Jim McAlister (Matthew Broderick) has been a history teacher for 12 years because he really wanted to make a difference in young minds. Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), an ambitious over-achiever who seems to be on every student committee and wants to answer every question in class, is now running for student body president. Jim knows Tracy had an adulterous affair with a math teacher resulting in his resignation and divorce. So Jim encourages Paul (Chris Klein), a popular athlete, to run against Tracy. When Paul's lesbian sister, Tammy (Jessica Campbell), decides to run also, the competition begins to get to Tracy. And Jim is having moral and ethical problems in his home life as well. The humorous situations and characters occassionally draw a laugh but the story loses focus following too many characters and will probably lose the audience as well.

Although Jim tells his friend the adulterous affair with Tracy is immoral, Jim later considers an adulterous affair with his friend's ex-wife. In one of two graphic sex scenes with his wife, Jim imagines the ex-wife and Tracy replacing his wife's face. Jim also keeps a trunk of pornographic magazines and videos, which provide another graphic sex scene. Tammy kisses another girl on her bed and talks about them being soul-mates. The girl is later shown in a graphic sexual act with Paul. When trying to fix a competitor's falling sign, Tracy snaps and tears down all the signs in school. When Tammy confesses, Tracy lets her take the blame. Jim's affair is discovered and he's kicked out by his wife. After a night in his car, he urinates on a tree in the front yard. Despite his belief in ethics, Jim drops two votes while counting them so that Tracy will lose the election. The decline of morals and ethics makes both Jim and this ELECTION a loser.

Preview Reviewer: Paul Bicking
Distributor: Paramount, 5555Melrose Ave., LA, CA 900

Summary
The following categories contain objective listings of film content which contribute to the subjective numeric Content ratings posted to the left and on the Home page.

Crude Language: Many (12) times - Mild 3, Moderate 9

Obscene Language: Many (23) times (f-word 15, s-word 2, other 6)

Profanity: Several (7) times - Regular 3, Exclamatory 4

Violence: Few times - Mild (teen falls skiing, girl fall off stool, man stung by bee)

Sex: Several times - Graphic (married couple twice w/brief female rear nudity, pornographic video w/ breast nudity); Implied: Few times (man with underage girl going to bedroom, couple rolling on floor, sexual variation implied graphically, teenage boy and girl in hot tub seen from distance)

Nudity: Breast nudity in porno video, full frontal male and female in paintings; Near Nudity: low cut blouse

Sexual Dialogue/Gesture: Different couples kissing, man watches porno video, man watches woman's hips, man stares at woman's cleavage, man suggests getting motel room

Drugs: Beer and wine drinking, cigarette smoking, marijuana smoked once

Other: Discussion of ethics and morals, teen cares about younger sister, girl allows another to take blame for wrong, three prayers contrasted, man urinates on tree in front yard, man rigs election vote

Running Time: 120 minutes
Intended Audience: Adults

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