DVD Movie Rating for: Welcome to Mooseport

Rating 2 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Welcome to Mooseport

Welcome to Mooseport

The sleepy Maine community has all the accoutrements of idyllic small-town life: a little park and gazebo, quaint architecture, a moose that wanders through the streets, and lots of friendly townsfolk, including the proprietor of the local hardware store, Handy Harrison and his veterinarian girlfriend Sally.

Mooseport also just happens to be the vacation home for the leader of the free world: Monroe “Eagle” Cole, the President of the United States. Following two successful terms, the wildly popular President is ready to retire to his “Mooseport White House,” publish his memoirs and embark on a series of lucrative speaking engagements. “The Eagle Has Landed!” proclaim the Mooseport headlines when Cole arrives in the Maine town, along with his devoted executive secretary Grace Sutherland and young PR director Bullard.

But Eagle’s retirement is delayed when the folks of Mooseport convince the former President to run for Mayor. At the same time, he sparks to Sally—unaware that she is Handy’s girlfriend. And Sally, frustrated by Handy’s inattentiveness, doesn’t resist Eagle’s flirtations.

When a jealous Handy announces his candidacy for mayor, Eagle is dumbfounded. “I’m running for mayor against the man who’s installing my toilets!” he rails. And in the heat of his toughest campaign to date, Eagle’s first date with Sally receives the kind of media scrutiny usually reserved for a summit meeting. (“Eagle Lays an Egg” say the pundits when she rejects his goodnight kiss. Ouch!) Handy, in turn, sees himself in a race for Mayor and boyfriend.

As the campaign kicks into high gear, things get even wilder in this once quiet town. Eagle and Handy’s closely watched debate seems to hang on a game of Rock/Paper/Scissors, the former president’s Secret Service agents suggest that he have Handy “eliminated,” and Eagle’s ex-wife is campaigning for Handy. Even Eagle’s veteran campaign manager, Bert Langdon, can’t make sense of this “David and Goliath” battle.

But one thing both the Handy and Eagle camps can agree on: Mooseport isn’t small enough for both of them!

One of America’s favorite television comedy stars—Ray Romano—and one of the most acclaimed actors in motion-picture history—Gene Hackman—fight it our for love and small-town glory in Welcome to Mooseport.

DVD Production Details of: Welcome to Mooseport

Starring: Gene Hackman, Ray Romano

Format: Color, Closed-captioned

Studio: Fox Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: October 12, 2004
DVD Features:
Number of discs: 2

DVD Easter Eggs

None

Cast of the movie: Welcome to Mooseport

• Gene Hackman .... Monroe Cole
• Ray Romano .... Handy Harrison
• Marcia Gay Harden .... Grace Sutherland
• Maura Tierney .... Sally Mannis
• Christine Baranski .... Charlotte Cole
• Fred Savage .... Bullard
• Rip Torn .... Bert Langdon
• June Squibb .... Irma
• Wayne Robson .... Morris Gutman
• John Rothman .... Stu
• Karl Pruner .... Dyer
• David Macniven .... Cloud
• Jackie Richardson .... Martha
• Paul Bates .... Bob
• Reagan Pasternak .... Mandy
• Philip Williams .... Kent
• Jim Feather .... Reuben
• Ed Fielding .... Harve
• Dennis Akayama .... Izuki Nami (as Denis Akiyama)
• Jessica Holmes .... Dina
• Natalie Madison-Brown .... Laurie Smith (as Natalie Brown)
• Paul McGuire .... Local Reporter Chip
• Heather Allin .... Local Reporter Heather
• J.C. Kenny .... Local Reporter JC (as JC Kenny)
• Diana Platts .... Fox Newscaster Jane
• Peter Snider .... Fox Newscaster Bill
• Dan Duran .... Local News Anchor Daryl
• Lee Taylor .... Local News Anchor Leah
• Pat Moffatt .... Council Woman
• James Barrett .... Jim
• Colleen Reynolds .... Rebecca
• William Lynn .... Clay (as Bill Lynn)
• Colleen Williams .... Francis
• Jayne Eastwood .... Lucy Decker
• Diane Gordon .... Elderly Woman on Street
• Armando Tosquellas .... Grizzled Tatooed Driver
• Chi Chi Rodriguez .... Himself
• Carly Street .... Pig and Whistle Waitress
• Richard A. Romano .... Handy's Bar Buddy
• Catherine Burdon .... Flight Representative
• Enis Esmer .... Airport Passenger
• Deborah Grover .... Airport Passenger
• Adam Bramble .... Smitty the Cook
• Mike Kinney .... Secret Service Agent
• Jon Manfrellotti .... Reporter
• Mark Kersey .... One Man Band
• Sam Moses .... Hardware Store Customer
• Krista Sutton .... Live Newscaster
• Dawn Greenhalgh .... Coffee Shop Waitress
• Jeff Gruich .... Bar Patron #1
• Andrew Moodie .... Bar Patron #2
• Doug Murray .... Bar Patron #3
• Denise Desrochers .... Townsperson
• Tim Eddis .... Stage Manager
• Leslie M. Richardson .... Assistant to Grace Sutherland
• Jackie Laidlaw .... Townsperson #2
• Danny Mijovic .... Golfer
• Bernard Keir Smith .... Golfer
• Louis Strezos .... Golfer
• Andy Hirsch .... Radio DJ Danny
• Arlin Miller .... Radio DJ Jim
• Edward Herrmann .... Avery Hightower (Debate Moderator)

Photo Gallery of the movie: Welcome to Mooseport

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size high quality photos, posters and wallpapers of Welcome to Mooseport with Gene Hackman, Ray Romano, Maura Tierney, Marcia Gay Harden

Photo Gallery: Welcome to Mooseport with Gene Hackman, Ray Romano, Maura Tierney, Marcia Gay Harden

Reviews of the movie: Welcome to Mooseport

The very definition of a "safe" movie, "Welcome to Mooseport" is an occasionally funny, slightly charming feature that skips the chance to have any sort of opinion or take any sort of daring shot at small-town politics. Its edges have been rounded off and the film's conflicts are wrapped up complete with a bow.

The film stars Ray Romano has Henry Harrison, the plumber of the small Maine town of the title. He's been seeing local vet Sally (Maura Tierny) for years, but remains afraid to make more of a commitment to her. Things change quickly when former president Monroe "Eagle" Cole (Gene Hackman) comes to town, retiring to his Summer home after leaving office with one of the highest approval ratings in history. With the town's mayor recently deceased, the townsfolk decide to offer the role to the ex-president, who thinks that his staff can oversee the town while he's writing his book, making speaking engagements and looking over the construction of his presidential library.

Unknown to him, Harrison has also snuck in his own application. Although Cole convinces him to withdraw at first, when Harrison spies Cole making a move on Sally, he decides to put himself back in the race. It's at this point that the battle becomes a "war", but the "worst" thing to happen to either side is that Cole's "vicious" ex-wife (Christine Baranski) is brought into the picture, showing her support for Harrison.

Unfortunately, the film doesn't have much to say about politics, resorting to a game of "rock, paper, scissors" to decide the opener of a debate, while the ending turns into a "You take it. No, you take it." Thankfully, supporting performances by Marcia Gay Harden as the president's associate and Rip Torn as a political advisor add an element of believability to a film that seems to know little about actual politics. The film's lead performances aren't too great: Maura Tierny has done this role seemingly a hundred times before, Gene Hackman gets a few laughs, despite sleepwalking through an easy performance, and finally, Ray Romano: who simply should stay with television.

The film certainly isn't a total loss: a couple of good gags and moderately funny lines are scattered throughout and a golf game where the president finds out how good he really isn't gets a few chuckles. Still, the film is rather overlong at times and that does drain the energy out of a few stretches of the film - the several mild chuckles still stand, but it could have been a better film overall had the screenwriter taken more risks and the filmmakers tightened the pace. Merely okay - could have been better.

The DVD

VIDEO: "Welcome to Mooseport" is presented by Fox in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. It's nice to see a Fox release with the anamorphic widescreen presentation to itself, instead of having to have to share a platter with a pan & scan edition (apparently, there is a separate pan & scan edition of "Mooseport"). As for the picture quality here, it's pretty good. Shot essentially like a sitcom, there's nothing too visually stellar about the film's appearance, although some of the locations are attractive. Sharpness and detail were generally first-rate, with nice detail even into the backgrounds.

The presentation only had a few minor issues, which included some mild edge enhancement in a couple of scenes and a few traces of compression artifacts. Colors looked naturalistic, with respectable saturation and no smearing.

SOUND: "Welcome to Mooseport" is presented by Fox in Dolby Digital 5.1. The film's soundtrack remained pretty low-key, with John Debney's rather plain score spread nicely across the front speakers. Aside from that, there wasn't much else: little in the way of ambience occured and the surrounds were hardly put to any use at all. Dialogue remained clear and clean throughout.

EXTRAS: Aside from commentary from director Donald Petrie, we get a few minutes worth of mildly funny outtakes (including the expected, "You're running against Gene Hackman."), six deleted scenes (w/optional commentary), a trailer for Fox's upcoming "The Clearing" and a car commercial starring Hackman's character.

Final Thoughts: "Welcome to Mooseport" is one of those movies that clearly wants to be liked and it does offer a few funny moments. However, the film had the potential to be a very sharp, very funny look at politics and instead, is largely a rather bland, overlong light comedy. Fox's DVD edition offers very good video quality, fine audio and a handful of decent supplements.