Thank You For Smoking A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - R It's 1:32 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

Aaron Eckhart is Nick Naylor. He’s the spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, an academy funded by big tobacco to try and used their own scientific findings to refute those of the health pundits. Things aren’t going too well for the tobacco folks, though, because teen smoking is down, and Senator Finistirre (William H. Macy) wants to have every packet of cigarettes slapped with an ugly skull and crossbones "Poison" graphic. And so Nick just goes about his days coming up with new ways for the tobacco folks to look better in the eyes of the public, namely finding himself on talk shows and propositioning Hollywood to make smoking glamorous again.

While Nick goes through his days, we see his regular meetings with the M.O.D. Squad, namely the merchants of death, Polly (Maria Bello), who lobbies for alcohol, and Bobby (David Koechner), doing the same for firearms, his getting interviewed and then getting it on with Heather (Katie Holmes), whom his other M.O.D. Squad members warn him about, and him trying to grow his relationship with his son, Joey (Cameron Bright), whose mom, Nick’s ex-wife, tries to shield Joey from what Nick does for a living.

The tobacco people are loving Nick because lately he’s been doing a fabulous job, but then Nick’s world comes crashing down one day, for reasons not to be explained here. Who’s there to save the day? Of course it’s his son, Joey, who, thanks to Nick, has truly begun to learn the difference between an argument and a negotiation.

You might think that this is a movie advocating smoking, but it really isn’t. It’s a movie about a dude who does what he does because he’s got a mortgage to pay, and he’s damn good at what he does, namely arguing any position he is assigned to promote. The best examples of this are during his appearance on the Joan Lundon show where he gets "Cancer Boy" to like him, and in front of the Senate hearing on putting the scary label on cigarettes. I won’t go into his arguments, but his points are right on the mark, at least in my eyes. Deep down I think Nick wishes he could be arguing something else, but he hasn’t yet figured out how to showcase his talents in a less controversial area.

The movie is a lot of fun, mostly because of Nick’s talent. There is also the nice relationship that is growing between Nick and Joey, even as Nick has to explain to his son why he does what he does. Joey, though, is a quick learner in the ways of forming an argument.

If you’re looking for toilet humor, "Thank You For Smoking" isn’t it, but for a movie that takes a controversial subject and shows the humor in how you can spin it in any way you want, it is definitely for you. I laughed a lot, Katie Holmes is still hot but not naked, and it was good to see they didn’t take the "father is developing a relationship with his son so he must change his ways" route that most movies would have done. Nick has a job to do, and his son has learned what it is, no matter the questionable moral ground. 4 ½ stars out of 5 for "Thank You For Smoking."

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!