Don't Believe the Hype

Admirable film.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's a good thing the makers of this film declared themselves "idiots" at the very beginning of the movie. It saved me from making the comment myself. It would be easy to brand this film "stupid", but I think it goes way beyond that label. It is lazy, inept and insulting. I actually hated this film enough to write this review. I didn't feel this insulted after watching "Transformers," that's how bad I'm annoyed at this movie. Can I just say how tired I am of "documentaries" using canned footage from old propaganda films from the '40s and '50s. You know the footage I'm talking about: scenes in black and white where they show you how things worked in the good old days, when things were simple, and the American dream was a smiling paradise. Women frolicked in their dresses and men wore suits and fedoras. Am I the only one tired of filmmakers splicing this stuff into their movies to show us a foil to their insipid points? To show us that our grandparent's generation was ruled in naivety and now these new filmmakers can show us the truth on how the really real world works? This stuff was okay when Mike Moore did it in "Roger & Me", but just because its public domain (meaning "free footage") shouldn't mean you're hip or ironic when you use it. The filmmakers spend a lot of time explaining the definition of several words -- like "moron" and "idiot" (they seem to take great delight in asking people on the street about these words' origins) -- but seem to have failed to figure out what the word "documentary" is. In most definitions of the word, it contains the word "factual" or "non-fiction." You're supposed to making your thesis by presenting us your audience with non-biased facts or imagery to support your claim. Thus, editing in footage of your colleagues staring moronically at a camera with bad haircuts and fake snaggleteeth to support the claim may be against the tradition. Doing it over and over and over and over again is just tiring. Doing it twelve more times after that is just trying to fill time to make it past the feature film mark. And here's the bad part. In a section where the filmmakers decide to go off on how dumbed down our media has become, instead of getting snippets of actual TV shows to support their claim, they include self-made footage parodying these shows in the lowest common denominator, using the aforementioned fake snaggleteeth. Thanks for letting us make up our own minds, guys. Thanks for speaking down to us. And while I'm talking about the media bashing part of the film, the filmmakers inform us that the world of news has just become an onslaught of 30 second sound bites with no real conversation about the subject matter that's being discussed. Can't argue with that, but guess what? This entire movie is an onslaught of 10 - 30 second sound bites from all of their experts with no real dialogue or discussion on what stupidity is or what its real effects are. I could go on for another hour counting the ways this movie sucks (footage of people tripping isn't stupidity, those are called accidents, guys; showing some guy running naked on an ice-rink is not that interesting to repeat seven times sporadically throughout 90 minutes; placing shitty lightning effects over a guy talking about special effects movies isn't funny or ironic -- its a waste of human spirit) but I think I'm about done here. Fellow filmgoers, just avoid this thing. It's not clever or funny. It's a waste of Canadian tax incentives. And Donald Sutherland (who narrated this mess). And electricity. To those who green-lit "Stupidity," try to find a subject that actually has a subject next time. Or filmmakers that actually have a clue to what they are doing.

This movie is stuffed with quick edits full of useless archival footage. Are any of the clips in the movie longer than 10 seconds? The filmmakers clearly think we need constant visual stimulation to keep us engaged. This movie is 95% style, 5% content. It does more to glamorize idiocy than repudiate it.Please, we can pay attention without thousands of edits.The actual content delivered by this movie are surrounded by footage that is related to the movie, but does not contribute actual content.

I really enjoyed this film. I never heard about it before but the cover of it caught my attention with a picture of what may just be, Marilyn Manson with a dunce cap on. It looks like the American cover is different than the one that I saw. Anyhow, it would be "stupid" to talk about this point right now. The fact of the matter is this is a very good film. Yes, it can be scary. It is sad the way we are being submerged in a sea of horrid media and we eat it up. It is true that people who are supposedly educated professors are often big "morons", or even the people that run countries. This film captivated my interest and I felt like I needed to change my own viewing habits. For instance: anyone can become an internet celebrity even without their knowledge. Although this is a scary prospect that does occur; the film did not focus on this issue. The film is often very tongue in cheek but also cuts with a sharp edge. I laughed, I cried and I decided to not sit like a dullard in front of the "boob tube" to watch the crap that they shovel us. Yes, we are all morons and we need to free our mind of any intelligence because to pretend that we are smart would just be a lie. Check this film out it will change the way you look at things.

There's different versions of this film. The more recent ones are much better. It's like they realized they were onto something. Anyway, I found the theory of belief systems leading to stupidity to the most convincing. It's true. Religion, politics, preaching, they all make us stupid. The more you believe in something, the more you mind is closed to new truths, this you become an ignoramus. Also, makes point that Bush is stupid, but that the people who call him stupid are stupid too. Which is essentially, the whole thing in a nutshell. Anyway, I'm glad that somebody looked into it. Otherwise, I have every reason to believe we'll keep getting stupider and stupider.