Too much Dick!

Rating: 4/10 (17 March 2009)

... Tricky and the other kind. It is funny at first but distracting and mildly irritating later on.
Otherwise, some great performances (Jackie Earle Haley especially) and an interesting, if very dated premise. Alternate histories end up being fairly restricted to the narrow line of what changed to cause the principle effect (in this case, Nixon winning 5 terms instead of resigning) and the immediate vicissitudes that result. They often make overblown assumptions about what would have had to have changed (Woodward & Bernstein's assassinations instead of, say, an ounce of professional prudence on the part of Ben Bradlee) and what might have resulted (the end of the Cold War!!!) That might have been pretty ponderous stuff in 1985, when this was written. A few short years later the entire premise would be obsolete and remain so two decades later.