The Reagan Show

... a provocative and amusing look at President Ronald Reagan's use of television to sell economic plans, missile treaties and, mostly, himself.

It's a glib and scattered exposé, the sort of ersatz thesis film that invites you to chuckle at the sight of Reagan doing multiple takes of a campaign commercial while flubbing the name "Sununu" over and over again.

At a time when sharp ideological stances are annoyingly ubiquitous, this film's lack of one is refreshing.

"The Reagan Show" helps attach a face to the name, but it doesn't accomplish much more than that.

It's like a time capsule prologue to today's world, no more prescient than when a 1988 Reagan lets on to David Brinkley with exit-interview folksiness that he often wondered "how you could do the job if you hadn't been an actor."

Rather than reveal a showman, The Reagan Show in the end imitates one.

The fact that Ronald Reagan's administration was big on PR and presentation is hardly news, and, though this documentary made up of television footage from the period claims to focus on that aspect of the presidency, it doesn't dig deep.

Uncritical, infatuated with Reagan's charisma rather than searching for the chinks in his armour, the film's lively score keeping things balefully light.

Interesting enough but not especially insightful or revealing.

The Reagan Show will offer a peculiarly potent hit of nostalgia and cultural cringe.

While noble in its cause, the documentary's theme fails to materialize, and there are several glaring omissions...

This wry documentary focuses on the original entertainer-turned-president and his box of showbiz tricks.