W.

Oliver Stone has assembled the cast of W. the way most people draw up a Fantasy Football team: Thandie Newton as Condi Rice, Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney, Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell, not to meantion Josh Brolin's superb turn as George W Bush himself.

This is a biography of the outgoing 43rd American president, covering everything from his messed-up youth and strained relationship with his father to the infamous pretzel incident and the Iraq war.

At times it's a little Bush-by-numbers, and by and large there is a want of the ferocity and fight that Stone showed in Nixon (1995).

There is never a knock-out punch thrown - either by Stone or by writer, Stanley Weiser - though scenes such as Dubya and his father brawling in the Oval Office hint at the film that might've been. Still, for those buoyed by Bush's departure, it's a good film in which to wallow. ·