Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

From my favorite movies..

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I fully agree with other reviewers that the film looks more like propaganda for the main character's teachings, without direction, critique or any second opinions. And indeed, many of the ideas of this futurologist can be criticized. Still, it's nice to hear once again the things he says about science, belief and that we can change most things. The guy is smart. He will make you feel good and strengthen your belief in progress :) The film is pretty inspiring. It's a great watch for everyone related to science or engineering, though the viewer should resist the charm of the main character and take it all with a grain of salt. For everyone who liked this film I also recommend the book by a Polish futurologist of the 50s Stanislav Lem "Sum of technology" (Станислав Лем, "Сумма технологии") which is still pretty actual and presents another great set of retro-futuristic views by a very smart man.

This isn't as much a documentary feature as it is a propaganda vehicle for the lead character Jacque Fresco.From the outset we are presented with Jacque Fresco as the new Leonardo Da Vinci and receive no questioning as to Mr. Fresco's ideas. We aren't even treated to anything deeper about Mr. Fresco than superficial background information and the reason why he knows what he's talking about is that he has observed the world. For almost 1 and a half an hour Mr. Fresco speaks about society, environment, the monetary system and offering a utopian alternative.All of this is wonderful and Mr. Fresco do have some good ideas and thoughts. Unfortunately there is inherent contradictions in his train of thought.Fresco uses a lot of time in iterating how our current communications-form isn't viable. His proposed alternative is that of communicating scientifically. Because in science we only communicate factually and not in belief, in his opinion. This is funny because Fresco apparently do not understand that most science is build on belief in theory. Which becomes even funnier when most of what Fresco proposes is what HE believes in.Fresco isn't trained in anything apparently and we aren't even given much reason to believe in him other than he has looked at the world so he has a lot of "empirical evidence". For instance at one point he begins his lecture on society and anthropology. Fresco BELIEVES that the right environment will cure any animosity, anger and so on, in people. So with his system we effectively could remove prisons, wars and the likes from the world. He apparently do not factor into his calculations that humans aren't necessarily logical. And this is the problem with much of his reasoning. Most of his thoughts are just that and are not backed by practice.I don't know why this "documentary" has a director, because there really was no need. There are no interviews with anyone other than the main character and his indoctrinated assistant. So there are no counterpoints, no scrutiny, nothing objective and nothing which opens this "documentary" up for questioning.In all essence Jacque Fresco is apparently nothing more than a concept artist with some good ideas who, in this "documentary", is more along the lines of a "cult" leader whom always speaks the truth and are above questioning.

Director William Gazecki presents a 89 minute documentary on inventor/designer/futurist Jacque Fresco, who was in his late 80s/early 90s when the film was shot.I have deep problems with both the subject of the film, and the choices of the director in framing this story. Let's explore both.First to Fresco himself. He comes off as a 'poor man's Buckminster Fuller'. Both men seemingly dedicated their lives to technology, design, philosophy and ethics which would improve humanity. Both seemed to dream of a human future away from competitive world of scarcity, to a cooperative world of abundance.The difference between Fresco and Fuller (as far as I can tell from the film), is that Bucky Fuller seemed determined to prove his concepts by constructing real-life 'artefacts' to prove his ideas were viable. He built geodesic domes, the Dymaxion Car, the Dymaxion Map, all as physical proof of his theories. By contrast, Fresco seems to live in miniature land, spending his time building models of "what the future will look like". One's mind spins at the immense challenge of taking these models from theory to reality.Fresco talks like a guru, making 'definitive'-sounding statements about how the future will be. He says things like "jets will be propelled with ionized beams", or "robots will do all the dirty, repetitive and boring work". So what? I can make broad statements too. For example: "in the future, everyone will be happy and healthy." Easy, huh? However, just because someone says something, doesn't mean it is actually true or useful.This is where William Gazecki fails as director. The film feels like a promotional film for Jacque Fresco Industries, Inc. Complete with over-use of 3D modelling and a cheesy MIDI-like music soundtrack.How did Fresco amass a fortune which allows him to spent 365 days a year creating models? Gazecki's film does not reveal. As far as we know, his only commercial commission is a set of surgical instruments - a far cry from the buildings and transportation which he claims authority to speak on. Not being a Fresco expert, this is a failure of the director, who offers little insight into Fresco's body of work beyond the model collection within The Venus Project circa-2006.Gazecki allows one voice to dominate the film: that of Fresco himself. As such, the film feels like a sermon from Fresco, with the only alternative voice being that of his Venus Project assistant - hardly a person who is likely to dissent or challenge. No outsiders are interviewed throughout the documentary, and the film degrades into a one-sided 'Fresco on Fresco', set to increasingly bad music. It's no wonder he was so interested in submerged cities - it is clear that Fresco could talk underwater.These directorial failings could be excused for a film about a subject of trivial importance. Say, a documentary about a football player. But by failing to hold Jacque Fresco to scrutiny, William Gazecki opens a potentially dangerous situation where viewers could be charmed by the soothing tune of the pied piper. The guru could well turn out to be a fakir, who leads us disastrously off track. Specifically, no question is raised of the huge environmental impacts of mining and refining the metals needed for Fresco's grand structures, as well as their energy requirements in a post-Peak Oil world.The good points of the film? Well, the picture seemed to be in focus most of the time, and the audio and video were in sync. Also, I did not detect any spelling errors in the credits.If you are looking for a well-made alternative to Future By Design - one which actually offers insight into the documentary's subject, watch Sketches of Frank Gehry by director Sydney Pollack.

The ideas in this movie are controversial and so is the man who is the source of them: Is Jacque Fresco a genius or simply a delusional fantast? He's a little of both (although 'a little' doesn't to the man justice). Some of the technological revolutionary ideas he has are really non-realizable, although no one can predict the distant future. It's a pity the film didn't go deeper, talk about the designs them selves and the ideas and scientific principles behind them. We see a lot of fancy propositions but not a lot of concrete information is given. The idealogical ideas he has, the ones we get illustrated towards the end of the movie, are far more interesting and though I strongly disagree with him on several points, I still feel his vision is an interesting one to collide your own with. I'm not at all interested in engineering, (though I once made a science project about the transatlantic tunnel), but that's not what the whole movie is about. It's really an eye-opener, a wake-up call, someone is finally saying it's not okay that the world is messed up and most important of all: we can fix it!. Optimism will be our savior, and in this time of global warming, world hunger and massive war we badly need one ( and not a man with long hair and a white robe ;-)). The film's no holy grail but I would sure like to see some of the ideas implemented in the future world, and I strongly suspect Mr. Fresco will be remembered in the distant future as a man who wasn't appreciated enough in his own time.Certainly worth a watch, entertaining and even enlightening.