State of Play - 4 stars out of 10

State of Play - 4 stars out of 10

"State of Play" is like a watered down version of All The Kings Men.  It has its fair share of suspenseful moments and a decent twist, but in the end the story fails to provide 2 hours of entertainment.  In fact, the most interesting part of this film was the newspapers getting printed during the closing credits.  On paper, the film looks great with the acting talents of Crowe, Mirren, McAdams, Bateman, and Daniels; however, the characters remain static and are never developed.  Besides, Ben Affleck is just... awful.  This movie looked attractive with its themes of foul play and conspiracy but in the end, this movie is left aspiring to be a classic.