Truly Dreadful Film

That was an excellent one.

A Disappointing Continuation

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

There needs to be more documentaries about the middle-east, in my opinion. It's a shame that they resort to scene after scene showing us how cool and normal the common Muslim person is. This shouldn't be necessary, but it's a sad truth that this could be considered groundbreaking and perspective-changing material for it's target audience.Now that I'm done dogging on it... I'll get into why I think this is an 8/10.First of all, it took me by surprise. I was expecting something more along the lines of a rallying cry to find Mr. Bin Laden. The message behind the movie was quite the contrary. Morgan discovers that it's just not worth it. There's such an upset over one person. Osama Bin Laden didn't bring down the trade towers... the dark side of humanity did. Simple as that. There were many people, some that we may not even know about - who were involved in the 9/11 plot.To say that justice will be instantly served with the finding/capture/killing of ONE person is naive. That's the general message of this film. He goes around to different countries and has interviews with: Family members, public officials, Muslim clerics, students, and the common people walking down the street.He asks them where Mr. Bin Laden is, just to provide some humor... But then he starts asking them the juicy; important questions."What do you think about the United States?" "What do they teach you in school about us?" "What's your opinion on Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban?" You find that many of these people are strongly against violence, and hold a skeptical or low opinion about the United States. One thing that is pretty constant, the American people are highly spoken of - while it's government is hated.There's rarely an uneducated or hostile person Morgan comes across. Maybe this is because of selective editing, who knows? I was impressed with the overall direction this documentary took. It was very heartfelt and important to me.

It isn't often that I give up watching a DVD before the (sometimes bitter) end but this one I did! You may ask why and my answer is really very simple. As can be seen throughout the documentary where various people are identified, the producers DO know how to create captions so WHY didn't they provide subtitles to all the Arabic, French and goodness-knows-what-else answers to questions that Morgan Spurlock asked in English? I imagine like most viewers, I am NOT fluent in every language of the world and so, when, for example, Morgan asks something like "What do you hope for in the future for your children?" and the long response in (I presume) Arabic brings peals of laughter, I am left totally bewildered wondering (and, of course, WANTING TO KNOW) what was said.I imagine that, had I known, I may have found this a most interesting and enlightening documentary but, as it is, what a waste of time!

First there was McDonald's, which he targeted with masochistic precision in Super Size Me. Four years later, director Morgan Spurlock went for something bigger, louder and more controversial. The result is tremendously funny most of the time, but unlike fellow provocateur Michael Moore, Spurlock has yet to master the skills required to properly mix sharp sociological commentary and broad comedy.The beginning is a masterstroke in humor: starting with an air view and the usual pretentious-sounding narration, the director says this is one of those days when something is bound to go wrong. Next shot: his girlfriend announces she's pregnant. While happy he's finally going to be a father, Spurlock is also concerned about his unborn child's safety: how is it possible to raise a kid when no one has been able to find the world's most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden? One man, and it's impossible to locate him - that's what bugs Spurlock. In addition, he thinks the reward that's been promised for Bin Laden's capture could be useful to pay for the kid's education.And so he sets out on a journey to some of the most dangerous areas on the planet (i.e. the Middle East), looking for the notorious terrorist leader. First he prepares for the trip visiting the doctor and attending a boot camp where he learns how to survive bombings, then it's off to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and finally Afghanistan. Wherever he goes, no one seems to know exactly where Osama is. On the other hand, he gets to learn a lot about his country's misconceptions when it comes to Islam traditions.Unsurprisingly, that last part becomes the real focus of the movie: like Moore, Spurlock seizes the opportunity to highlight the shortcomings of America's attitude towards foreigners, and these flaws are exposed with a mixture of seriousness and irony. Unfortunately, none of that is really any news - American prejudice is a well known reality, and we certainly didn't need a Bin Laden-centric documentary to point that out. The director has a point to make, there's no doubt about that, but he can't find a more original way to do it.Whatever the film lacks in poignancy, though, it makes up for in great comedy. In fact, it is perhaps to consider it a comedy rather than a documentary, from the spot-on prologue to the hilarious video game-like opening credits (complete with absurd titular song), with the climax being the famous shot of Spurlock outside the Tora Bora caves (Bin Laden's alleged hiding place in Afghanistan), yelling: "Yoo hoo, Osama?". It's those moments of absurd humor that make Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? an entertaining watch. Certainly not as memorable as Super Size Me, but then again that's the kind of stuff that happens when you cover all too familiar ground.

If this movie knows where he is, there'll be international headlines made, and the filmmakers will get that US$25 million (or more?) bounty that is placed on his head. Of course it will be silly to presume that this film can find the answers to the multi-million dollar question, or even come close to it, so just what was the intention?Morgan Spurlock isn't new to controversy, having burst onto the documentary scene with his real life gorging on MacDonald's for every meal in order to drive home the point that junk food really does junk your well being. So for this new film of his, it stems from his desire to seek out the world's #1 wanted man, and ask him just what floats his boat. He may be putting on his jester cap with his somewhat hilarious introduction, but looking at the preparation with vaccination and even attending some terrorism survival course, he's quite dead set in his mission to find that elusive man.Until of course you realize that he's hitting all the relative safe havens for the most part, before venturing into the more likely places in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But what he seeks to unearth is the Middle East's attitudes towards Americans, and it seems that the common consensus is that while they have nothing against the people, almost everyone that Spurlock chose to showcase, has issues with the foreign policies. And from interviews with the average Joes, they sure have issues with politics at home more than those that are from abroad. Spurlock also takes opportunity to slam the US foreign policy, and does so through a hilarious animated sequence involving Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty herself, in what would be a realistic case of sleeping with the wrong bedfellows.Bringing the camera from Morocco to Saudi Arabia, and interview people from both the state of Palestine and Israel, what he had presented were compelling arguments for and against, as well as plenty of moderate views that seek to debunk the bulk of western media who find delight in demonizing those in the Middle East. Through the looking glass peering at their everyday lives, the film comes to present the basic need for survival and providing for one's family, no matter one's geography, country, religion and culture. Naturally there were some feathers ruffled, especially when dealing with closed cultures who clam up, or intolerant folks who have no qualms in using violence, but in general, this documentary serves to be rather tame.Yes it's gimmicky in its title, and half the time you're not sure whether MXXSpulock will take that plunge and really head to where he will likely find some inkling of positive leads, but what it had presented instead, is something more powerful that this world really needs to reach out and have everyone taking a more tolerant attitude and to understand one another a lot more, to avoid conflict. This should be a world without strangers, and the documentary managed to show just a glimmer of that hope.