Mr. Smith went to Washington, shut down a corrupt political machine, and went back home. But what if he stayed in Washington? He'd need to run for office again, he'd need to bring in campaign money, and he'd need to make compromises. In the opening scene of Bulworth, we see mementos of the titular senator's accomplishments spliced with his compromising current campaign ads that blame the have-nots for social problems. Bulworth (Warren Beatty) sits alone, crying, having reached a point where he's sick of compromising. After hiring a hitman to kill him, he finds himself speaking truth to power and going off the script. Adopting a street smart persona that we'll label Jay-B, he takes his message to the people through rhyme - with zany results. In a New York Times interview about the film, star/co-writer/director Beatty stated "… Any time you try to have a message in a movie, you sound like you're on C-Span. Listen, I have a lunatic in this movie who has a nervous breakdown, runs around in short pants, acts like an adolescent, talking in a voice that's not even his own. He oversimplifies the message pretty drastically, but he's funny. I tried to make it funny enough and move it quickly enough so they don't walk out." To his credit, Bulworth sounds nothing like C-Span. Unfortunately, it also doesn't look, sound, or feel like anything resembling reality, so the satire falls flat and the issues Beatty hopes to address (politics, business, race) are all treated in a ham-handed manner.
The characterization of Bulworth might be the key problem in the film. We're never really introduced to his pre-conscience days (apart from the credit sequence showing his accolades), so we just see him vacillating between dazed/mopey depression and truthful rapping. The film ridicules him for his immoral past and fish out of water present, but it ultimately comes down firmly in favor of him and his new messages. We cringe and laugh at Bulworth's actions, but it comes more from a feeling of disbelief that Warren Beatty could possibly be doing this than from a connection with the film. We're supposed to agree with some of the messages that Bulworth/Beatty espouses ("Healthcare, Managed Care, HMOs / Ain't gonna work no sir not those / cause the thing that's the same in every one of these / is these motherfuckers there / the insurance companies"), but the method for their delivery is extremely flawed. We don't really see the character speaking to other people in the film, we see Warren Beatty essentially addressing the audience. The problem is, using the film for a soapbox comes off as self-righteous at best and tedious at worst. Working backwards from the message to the characters does the film a disservice.
The issues that Beatty wanted to highlight - the corrupting sphere of politics, ongoing racial divides, and the corporate ownership of America, media assassinations - are all important, but he doesn't have anything particularly novel to say about them and his methods of disseminating his message are downright foolish. Beatty also failed to take another lesson from Sullivan's Travels: if you're going to make a satire, you have to make the audience (intentionally) laugh. With its overly-broad characters and tonal shifts, Bulworth ultimately fails Beatty's goals. It's too preachy for comedy and too bizarre for drama.
Side Notes
Warren Beatty's rapping in this is atrocious. I understand that it's supposed to be a joke, but when you're trying to deliver messages through rapped dialogue, you should probably make it sound dissimilar to a nursery rhyme or nails scraping a chalkboard. There are great verses ("There's one thing in politics that always makes me smile / I like the pussy, the pussy / I like it really fine / And when you be a senator / You get it all the time / The young ones, the old ones / They really like 'em all / And when you be in Washington / You hardly have to call / The women, they love power / And if you don't pull that rug out / No matter what they say or do / They give you nappy dugout") and questionable verses ("You've been taught in this country / there's speech that is free/ but free do not get you / No spots on TV / If you want to have senators not on the take / then give them free airtime / they won't have to fake").
Aaron Sorkin, the Man Who Brought the Stage to the Screen, did some rewrites on Bulworth and in Oliver Platt and Joshua Malina's characters you can see Sorkin characters doing some political banter (although much broader and with less screen time because this is Beatty's picture). Fun Fact: Joshua Malina apparently saved Aaron Sorkin from choking, which explains Malina's career.
Connected to the five-percenter joke, it seems as though Warren Beatty began thinking of himself as black during the making of this movie. Watching it through this lens adds to Bulworth's constant paranoia (and ultimate fate of being taken down by the media and corporations) and explains the cringeworthy last line. Bulworth is incredibly painful to watch, but it's fascinating to see how a middle-aged 1990s liberal white male viewed black people in the 1990s. The 4/10 rating is really for this rather than any intentional elements.