Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Thank You For Smoking

Top positive review

Lesson in PR & lobbying as much as how the cigarette industry tried to stay out of trouble

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2020

Thank You For Smoking is about how the cigarette industry tried to deny that it was responsible for cancer. It focuses upon one of its main spokesmen Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) who works for the Academy of Tobacco Studies. He specialized in spin. For instance in the opening he claimed that the cancer researchers were profiting from the deaths of people, while the cigarette industry was most interested in the health of America’s children and was starting a multi-million campaign to convince people not to smoke. He could walk into any situation and twist things around and turn the tables on them. It’s obviously an ironic black comedy.

An example of the cynicism and comedy of the film is when Naylor gets in an argument with two of his best friends who are lobbyists for the alcohol and gun industry. He tells them that cigarettes are way worse than they are given how many people die from smoking a year compared to their products. Another time he gets kidnapped and covered in nicotine patches to get back at his work.

The movie focuses upon how far Naylor can push the industry given his gift for gab. Will it ever catch up to him? Does he feel any guilt?

It turns out to be a lesson in public relations and lobbying as much as about the lengths to which the cigarette industry tried to stay out of trouble.
C

4 people found this helpful

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Joan Jansen

Funny, but dishonest.

Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2019

Time and time again, they avoid and deceive about the addictive nature of cigarette smoking and concentrate on the only chemical element that isn't generally harmful to health unless it is used in very large doses, nicotine. There are well over 4000 chemicals in cigarettes and it is primarily the combustion that is harmful. The fact that tobacco is a MAOI compound which is an anti depressant is never mentioned anywhere. Big pharma and the AMA and all the states and agencies that get funding from the 1998 tobacco settlement would make big tobacco look like absolute saints.

6 people found this helpful

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Joan Jansen

Funny, but dishonest.

Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2019

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6 people found this helpful

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Joe Klamath

wasn't that great

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2020

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okay, but pretty goofy. i lost interest.

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Torin McFarland

Funny, Uncomfortable, Aging eh

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2021

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Aaron Eckhardt is charming and funny in his role as lead public relations for the tobacco industry. In 2006, this was probably reasonably funny, and today it can still get a few laughs. The plot shows how smooth talking can get you far, but still lose you many of the things you love (family, friends, your life). Further, as smoking continues to kill, and the tobacco industry evolves into the vaping / smokeless / e-cig realms, finding new ways to kill people, the film loses most the lightheartedness it once may have had. Irreverence can be funny, but here...I'm not sure it really works anymore.

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So-Cal shopper

All worked out after a headache

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2021

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Love this movie but had problems with seller although Amazon has taken cre of me.

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Bucherwurm

Punished Twice: Read the Book and Saw the Movie

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2006

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Why do I punish myself like this. First of all I read the book by Christopher Buckley because I really like his writing. Occasionally while reading it there was a slight movement of my lips that could be interpreted as the very beginning of a smile. Chris, old buddy, you really let me down with this one I thought when I finished it.

One day in an inexplicably strange mood I decided to buy the DVD. Let me say at the onset that I totally love black humor. Perhaps I thought that maybe the screenplay would include some great black humor. I don't know. I do know that while watching the movie my lips began to move again. A laugh? No, a yawn.

First of all the anti hero of the story is a shallow, empty person who has only one talent: the ability to spin, and he is quite good at that. I kept saying to him as I watched him: "Go away, get out of my living room." Mind you I can tolerate evil characters; Shakespeare created a lot of them, and some of them are deliciously evil. But this guy? He's a cipher that is so concscienceless that he takes his young son with him on his travels so that he can learn the trade of being a facile liar. Son becomes quite proud of dad. Our hero is so hated by the public (including, perhaps, most of the movie audience) that he is kidnapped and plastered from head to toe with nicotine patches. I kept thinking "die, die."

Most of the humor in the movie concerns listening to spin. Don't we get enough spin in our everyday life? Why is this funny? No one in the whole movie has a soul, neither the tobacco executives, the hollywood agent, the pretty lady newspaper reporter (who beds our spinmeister so that he will reveal all), the liquor industry spokeslady, the NRA spinner, or the young son. This undoubtedly is part of the message to us, but I can't quite understand the concept of let's show a bunch of shallow people, and do it in a very shallow way. Yes that surely will make us all laugh.

The humor too subtle for me? Well I do like black humor that does come crashing down on me, but I do think this flick is farce without the funny. Kind of a downer to get hit over the head with both the book and the movie. Maybe I'll go cheer up by watching "Freeway" with Reese Witherspoon again. That oughta do it.

11 people found this helpful

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Carmen

Bad language

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2020

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Bad language. Watch only part of it not to the end

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Mike M

Great movie, defective DVD

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2013

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The movie is well written, but there was a defect in the disc, it would freeze at the same spot. My DVD & Blu-ray player are fine with every other disc. Software is up to date. I find a small scratch on the disc. I handle my discs with care, I own over one thousand discs, it was defective the from the first play, tried it again, froze the same spot. It wasn't worth dealing with sending it back because it was only $7.13. It seemed like it may have been repackaged as the UPC code was on the outside of the shrink wrap.

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Kelly N.

I don’t know what this is, I did not order this

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2019

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I don’t know what this is, I did not order this

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Melody Drew

No audio, unviewable

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2022

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Disliked as video present but no audio. Wasted money

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TBevAL

Insightful about media spin

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2013

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I am a teacher of U.S. govt. and I showed some clips to my class when we were covering the role of interest groups and lobbyists. There are some good scenes about the using the art of rhetoric to frame issues in ways that capture the interest of citizens. Unfortunately, there are no scenes of the main character, lobbyist Nick Naylor, actually meeting with elected officials one- on- one. The film is a very critical depiction of lobbying and lobbyists. Viewers need to be skeptical.

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