I thought I was going to love it as well, but I didn't. It was basic and boring and I'm not sure what I was supposed to get out of that movie [outside of the negative returns, of course].

And was Jane Fonda supposed to be Nancy Reagan or Frances McDormand?

Aww that's too bad. Did you expect Cecil to be written differently?

My favorite part of the movie was the evolution of Louis and Cecil's relationship. David Oyelowo is Louis? I hope to see in many things to come.

Agreed about Oprah being great in it. I thought she'd never act again after the fuckery known as Beloved.

I did not care for the movie one damn bit!

The highlights: I was pleasantly surprised with Oprah. She was super impressive, and this is the first time I have been pleased with her as an actress (question, how many billionaires do we see in front of the camera as actors). David Oyelowo was fantastic! Yaya's fro was on point!

Otherwise, I could not wait for that sh!t to end! And this is partly my fault because I have to think of my expectations going into these types of movies, so I will have to stick with the action and hot men stuff and carefully select others!

I suspected you'd enjoy/appreciate Oprah's performance but I was definitely curious about your overall impressions of the film...where do you think they got it wrong?

To me it felt very much like a movie that was striving for greatness and almost reaches it but not quite....

I really liked it. I love Oprah, and even I was impressed with her in this. I didnt really see Oprah as much as her character.

I found most of the actors cast did a great job. Liev Schreiber as LBJ, Marsden as Kennedy were really good.

thought the movie was strong. A great movie and very interesting.

I suspected you'd enjoy/appreciate Oprah's performance but I was definitely curious about your overall impressions of the film...where do you think they got it wrong?

To me it felt very much like a movie that was striving for greatness and almost reaches it but not quite....

I just don't understand what I was supposed to feel about the actual butler. We have seen countless movies about the civil rights movemnt and things related to it, so to see this thru the butler's eyes and tenure at the White House just didn't move me. I didn't care because I don't feel a significant connection was made. I also don't believe Daniels found the main plot and stuck to it. I'm still trying to figure out what this movie was about. Should we have gotten more of the butler w/in the WH? Should we have seen him as more than just a butler - mentally/emotionally? I didn't feel the heart of the butler as I wanted to. FW is a terrific actor, and I believe he was shortchanged here. I'm with you. They went for "big" but didn't get there because they didn't exactly know what they were going for.

I'd like to see Oprah doing more movies because she was the highlight for me, and Yaya's fro, of course!

That fro was impressive and you definitely hit the nail on the head the more I think about the movie. The scenes in the White House were very lackluster in terms of emotional draw or impact. Aside from JFK and Johnson I didn't see much of a role that "The Butler" played in influencing those events (directly or indirectly). To make it worse we didn't really get any kinda insight into the range of emotions he was feeling while in those scenarios.

The movie made it seem like he saw the inequities and just took it because he had no choice and was so traumatized by the horrific events that occurred with his parents at the beginning (I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone but I seriously got chills when that ish went down....). Mariah Carey was actually pretty good there.

I think what could have done wonders for the movie is if they had shown some scenes of FW struggling with his emotions and the situation that he was in with his son.

That last scene with Oprah was brilliant. I'm not a fan of melodrama Lee Daniels though.

Cried as I walked out. Clapped after it was over... I hope Oprah is nominated for the Academy Award!