Trump Unauthorized (2005 TV Movie) User Reviews

Pretty entertaining TV movie on Donald Trump

[MovieCriticMarvelfan · 5/10 · 10 June 2005]

I liked it for the most part, the only problem with the TV movie is that most of it showed most people already know about "The Donald".

He is a self absorbed , materialistic egomaniac. He is supposedly the richest man on earth but he is ever happy, he is only temporarily satisfied, like many greedy Ceo's.

However, there are some brights spots in this TV movie worth mentioning. The background on Trump's dad and his brother Fred Trump (Chris Potter) was interesting. I know nothing about them both since Trump never from the interviews I've seen never talks about them.

Apparently his dad had a small business that he wanted Donald to be involved in, but Donald was never interested. Donald just say his dad as a regular joe of sorts but he felt could be bigger than him and live out a different dream. This sets up some conflict between the two. The father is very old fashioned, while Donald the explorer is thinking big he has a vision for building an empire and become a great entrepreneur.

Justin Louis who plays Trump is actually very good. He has all of Trump's manner of speaking down to a nail (though it's not that hard to play a guy so arrogant), as well his body movement, his hair and his whole demeanor.

Eventually Trump resurrects some old hotel and turns it into a money making business with some positive impact on the community. Trump as we all know then goes on to build the Trump Plaza and the Trumps Towers, his first big investment.

The movie then introduces Ivana (Katheryn Winnick) who becomes Trump's wive. What Trump saw in her I don't know. In the movie, she's portrayed as a snob and even admits she's only into him because of what he has.

Ivana eventually gets jealous of Trump's association with the ladies including one young sultress named yes, Marla Maples (Jennifer Baxter). However in real life, Marla was very pretty more than Ivana. For some reason I guess because of the actresses they used, Ivana came of as slight better looking.

Anyhow , the real meat of the movie, a crucial point the movie examines that always gets the real Trump's blood boiling is the dispute of his assets. How much is Trump actually worth? Is he a millionaire, a billionaire, a bankrupt fool who gets involved in shady deals? Or all the above.

There is a point , done beautifully, where Trump realizes that one of his investments has failed, and then he's sitting there at his desk like a beaten loser (sounds like he was a contestant on his the Apprentice), then comes up with the idea to to bet for more money. Eventually this gamble resurrects Trump, but he is never able to deliver any actual facts to reports who ask how much money he really has.

Overall , this is a fair TV movie. The background on Trump's father and his late brother who died at an early age from apparent alcoholism are interesting. The rest is just stuff we don't know but if you see it on again, it's worth a look.

A dinosaur is on the loose

[philip-davies31 · 6/10 · 20 January 2017]

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

Trump is apparently on record as approving of this biopic of his early rise and fall and improbable rise again - along with his sundry high-rise gold-plated over- reaching skyscrapers. It shows him finally - it was made in 2005 - embarking on 'reality' TV, when he is persuaded by a producer that this ratings kite-flying is 'the new real-estate.'

His character in the film reflects on what he sees as the unsatisfactory nature of real life, and expresses contempt for Dorothy, because she wants to go back to impoverished Kansas, when she could stay in a neon-hued Oz. He dreamily gazes out, the while, upon the garish spectacle of the US cityscape, where he sees his greatest erections, and finds them entirely satisfying.

Meanwhile, his marriage is in bits, as his interchangeable wife and his paramour try to rebuild themselves in the image of his own heartlessly thrusting ego. The Frankenstein doctors of plastic surgery turn Ivana into a discarded sex doll.

His older brother, a failed pilot, drinks himself into terminal oblivion to match his self-image as the misfit of the family: Robert Trump is a real human being, not the caricature of the ruthless American dreamer Donald has become. He feels obliged to fail as a human, but at least crashes without taking anyone with him. Then his surviving sibling's most important business executives fall out of the sky in the Trump Enterprises helicopter: If the Donald is Deus, his ex machina has crashed and burned with all who were on board with The Donald's spinning message to humanity.

A moment of near-self-awareness threatens to humanize this superman - but he soon snaps out of it and decides to become President of America. But first, the Reality of OZ/US awaits, behind the magic mirror of TV, in a self-induced media- drugged - but clean-living, non-drinking, non-loving - illusion of Power.

Fresh from firing people for fun on a TV show, he will go on to promise full employment to all Americans, and to be magnified in the adoration of his people.

The most frightening thing about this hysterically funny horror story is the magnetic self-belief of The Donald that mesmerizes his victims into letting him do anything he wants - becoming willing victims to this reptilian charm.

Trump is the delusional apotheosis of the American dream. He approves of this - very shrewd and uncomplimentary - version of his life, simply because he believes so totally in himself, and in his own ego-trip, that he has even hypnotized himself into seeing only true goodness and greatness in the tawdry spectacle of his own life.

The comments on this film on IMDb are unanimously positive - about Donald Trump's life! They do not criticise the film, either, because they are blinded by the Great Man's neon aura, and cannot see the absolute darkness at his heart. They accept Trump's self-belief at it's bare-faced value. The film sees Donald as a great Lie made flesh. The Donald has absolute integrity, which is persuasive. But his is the integrity of absolute Evil, which is especially, unusually, seductively, insiduously persuasive - so persuasive, that it has subverted the intended message of the film.

People have fallen for the charm of this Mephistophelean super-salesman, this man who has no soul of his own and is intent on swindling us out of ours. His infectious, diseased self-confidence is capable of blinding us to his iniquity.

And now, of course, this moral eclipse sits at the very heart of America. The Donald's levitating confidence and now unquestionable authority will eclipse the United States like the improbable, incredible, but oppressively looming shadow of a vast, unsupported alien edifice, filled with screaming devils, launched from a pit of Hell somewhere below consciousness.

The guest at his recent Inaugural feast, in the Statuary Room of the White House, was a colossal Statue of Liberty made in his own likeness, whose torch is wielded like that of the Diabolic Arsonist. Civil ceremonies are now conducted by the sinister glow of perverted leadership. His one successful policy will be a scorched earth.

The new President's dizzying ambition will vault the heavens like the falling star, Lucifer - a false God. He is the Omen of disaster. He hisses in the primaeval swamp that The Donald himself has conjured up beneath Washington DC. His politics will be like the unleashing of savage dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.

Trump movie wasn't all that was expected...

[rdholcom · 5/10 · 1 June 2005]

I thought that the actor portraying Donald Trump did a very good job in sounding like Trump. However the body language could have been a little better. Ivana's language was very hard to understand, too.

The movie didn't measure up to what I thought a movie on Donald Trump should be. It portrayed a lot of struggles, which I'm sure he did have when beginning his business ventures. However, I can appreciate that kind of thing, the movie was just kind of a snapshot here and snapshot there with the scenes. The plot could have been more unified to suit my tastes.

I'm just glad that I taped the movie because: 1. I might not have stayed around for the end of the movie if I didn't have the ability to fast-forward through the commercials. and 2. I had to rewind a few times to clarify what was going on in a few scenes. I did fall asleep the first time I tried to watch it.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to any of my friends unless they were extreme Trump or Ivana fans.

Not worth the time, just like Donny tRump

[twiztidsoul-85664 · 1/10 · 3 February 2021]

I'm looking forward to the sequels, Trump: America's Dictator, and The rise and fall of 45.

Didn't really capture Trump I was expecting

[vchimpanzee · 2 June 2005]

Justin Louis did a good job showing us a man who thought very highly of himself. What he didn't always achieve was showing us a man who had a reason to. This Donald Trump didn't seem all that confident or capable of doing all that the real Trump actually did. Early on, when he kept having to turn to his father for help, this was probably realistic. Perhaps the real man wasn't as self-assured as we have been led to believe, but if so, how did he do everything?

By contrast, Katheryn Winnick displayed confidence and intelligence and did a great job overall as Ivana, a woman certainly capable of being The Donald's equal and of making things happen (it's no wonder a man like The Donald might feel threatened by her). And her accent was beautiful, if the actress doesn't really talk that way in real life. AND she was gorgeous.

Fred McLarty also made an impact, as Trump's demanding father. It's easy to see where the younger Trump got his drive. Also, Saul Rubinek was effective as Trump's partner.

As for Jennifer Baxter as Marla, I'm not sure whether this was a good performance, but Marla came across as not having a brain in her head. This was probably the intention.

Louis' hairdresser is to be commended. Trump is known for his bad hair, and while I'm a straight guy who doesn't really know good or bad hair on men, Trump usually had some version of the sloppy look, especially in the 70s (I think I looked like that back then, though). In my opinion, Trump's hair looked good in some scenes.

As for the storyline, I think I learned a little about Trump and got some idea of how he got where he is today. A little too much emphasis on the tawdry media circus, though occasionally that part was fun.

I have always viewed New York City mayor Ed Koch positively, but this movie made him look evil. This was certainly a negative for me.

I can't say how accurate this movie was, but if I had to bet on one funny line not being real, it would have been Trump saying he didn't like firing people. But since it was used twice, maybe it's true.

This was a typical TV-movie biography--not really anything special.

Waste of time

[felicia-54266 · 1/10 · 10 August 2021]

This movie is as dumb as the dump chump was. I wish I could get back the time I wasted on this garbage.

Very forgettable despite not being absolutely terrible

[r96sk · 5/10 · 16 October 2020]

Too boring. Take the Trump element out and you're left with a mundane film.

'Trump Unauthorized' is a Donald Trump biopic, way before his time as president of the United States; it even precedes his time on 'The Apprentice'. As a biographical film, it's alright. It details the early years of Trump with interest, even if it more than likely exaggerates/uses creative licence - as the majority of biopics tend to do.

Louis Ferreira (formerly Justin Louis) is fairly decent as the titular character. I don't know much about Trump from this era, yet I still recognized the little traits and mannerisms that Ferreira brings. He's solid in the role. None of the other cast standout at all, though it's hard to ignore Katheryn Winnick as Ivana - mainly thanks to that awful accent.

I have no idea if it's a too complimentary on Trump or the opposite, I only judge a film as a film. In those terms, it's very forgettable despite not being absolutely terrible.

Trump Card

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 29 May 2005]

(Some Spoilers) Made for TV Movie about the rise and fall and then rise again of the famous "The Donald" Donald Trump, Justin Lewis, during the turbulent years of the 1970's through the early 21th Century.

Starting in the mid 1970's Donald Trump surprised everyone including his New York real estate baron Father Fred, Ron Malarty, in his ability to master not only the world of building skyscrapers and promoting himself but his talent of navigating the maze of NYC politics. As we see Trump battling over building permits with the then NYC Mayor Edward Koch,Richard Partnow, to get what he was after that no one ever before him ever even tried.

New York was on the verge of bankruptcy back in 1975 and was quickly turning into a ghost town like Detroit and Newark back in the 1960's. It was Trump who had the foresight and drive to turn that felling of despair around by buying up cheap and unwanted plots of land in the city and turning them into gold mines for himself and those who believed and invested in him. By the late 1980's Trump was one of the most admired feared and recognized men in America with a fortune worth in the billions of dollars.

Handsome witty with a beautiful wife and children Trump had everything that a man could want and it was also rumored that he would run for president in 1988 or 1992 with the outcome, of him winning, of the election being a forgone conclusion. Three thing happened to Donald Trump in the late 1980's and early 1990's that knocked him off his pedestal and left him an almost totally destroyed man in business and in his marriage to his wife Ivan,Katheryn Winnick.

In 1988 his best friend and personal adviser Peter Winnik,Saul Rubinek, together with three members of his staff were tragically killed in a helicopter crash in the wilds of New Jersay. That followed with the real estate market being hit with the worst crash since the collapse of that market back in the spring of 1929 just six months before the great stock market crash on October 29, 1929. Trump was caught flat-footed with him heavily leveraged in his majestic, as well as costly, Atlantic City casino the Taj Mahal. The real estate collapse market had Trump not only losing all the wealth he accumulated over the last ten years but put him some 800 million dollars in debt. On top of all that Trump's marriage fell apart when it was revealed through the major New York newspapers and TV tabloids that he was having an affair with beautiful actress and model Marla Mapels, Jennifer Baxter; or Marla Mapoo as his wife Ivan sarcastically called her.

The second half of the movie "Trump Unauthorized" is far better the the first half because it shows what "The Donald" is really made of. We get to see how he picked himself up and not only recovered from the disastrous events that he went through. We also see how he gained the respect and admiration of those who up until then looked at him as only a spoiled rich boy who never really knew what it was to be able to pick himself up off the ground like he did in the movie as well as in real life.

I never really knew this about Donald Trump until I watch the film "Trump Unauthorized" and that is that he personally dislikes firing people. This came as a real shock to me from watching him on his top rated TV show "The Apprentice" where the phrase "Your Fired" has become his trademark.

Thoward the end of the movie we see Trump talking to a TV executive about the show "The Apprentic" and how he's to fire people that work for him on it. Hesitant at first Donald Trump finally agreed to do the show when the executive assured him that it was not at all real since everything that's on TV shows don't reflect the reality of the real world; Trump then finally agreeing to do the show got a real chuckle out of that statement.

I enjoyed it

[vaccum · 7/10 · 22 June 2005]

I enjoyed this show. Although it was obviously made for TV. If they released it for the theaters i would not spend money to go see it. one thing i liked about the film is that it showed the beginning of the Donald Trump industry. The film was very detailed on how Donald converted a cheap hotel into a very nice hotel.

However, the film barely got into his personal life, it showed him at his house and with his father, but the film was mostly business. even when his friend dies in the helicopter crash, all that the film shows him doing is making a statement to the press about it.

I do think that Justin Louis deserves recognition for his role as Donald trump. he did not look like him but he played the part well

Justin Louis Great!!....Sen. John Kerry Role??

[adamsys-1 · 8/10 · 25 May 2005]

Justin Louis was great playing a brash yuppie: Donald Trump. I truly enjoyed this TV movie.

Watching Justin Louis made me think that if someone makes a movie about the 2004 Presidential Race, he is a shoe in for Senatory John Kerry. Louis has that narrow head and sunken-in eyes. He has shown that he can play someone who contradicts himself yet sound like all is normal; that was Kerry's undoing unfortunately.

Louis already shows he can play a Northeast type of accent. He can have that anger and calculation.

I guess he can play almost any politician come to think of it.

I voted for Bush if anyone is wondering.

How much do we know of 'The Donald'?

[dy158 · 7/10 · 31 July 2006]

I once watched the reality show 'The Apprentice' for a period of time. That was when I first head of Donald Trump. Soon later on, I began to learn more about his personal life as well and how his visions for the city he love grew into what it is today.

And yeah, and also learning about the reality show 'The Apprentice' too.

It was quite an insight to 'The Donald' (as some may call him) I didn't really knew, far from the world of reality TV we all aware of how he's like. It's kind of a surprise that firing people was not in his nature.

Justin Louis almost perfected the Donald Trump mannerisms well that it is almost very convincing. Katheryn Winnick as Ivana Trump, she is quite convincing too.

A made-for-TV movie which can be quite an insight to the Donald Trump we did not know much about.