Contentar
Best movie of this year hands down!
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Rexanne
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
MartinHafer
The topic of this film is stupidity. What is stupidity? Why do people become or choose stupidity? Why are films so stupid or marketed for the stupid? How do we all behave or think stupidly? These topics and many more are explored in this odd little documentary.The fact that there are a LOT of stupid people out there is certainly not news. So because of this, you wonder if this film is simply 'preaching to the choir', so to speak. Okay so we know that there are LOTS of stupid people...but what can you do about it? After all, stupid people don't care that they are stupid or have no idea that they are stupid--plus non-stupid people can't legally kill them, so I just don't see a point to the discussion or this film. In addition, some of the film's experts, to me, seem like very well-educated idiots. So what's the point? Well, after seeing the film, I am not really sure there is one.Mildly diverting but certainly not particularly good or well made or insightful. And a film that's easy to skip or watch if you've got nothing better to do. I did, however, appreciate how the film pointed out that MOST Hollywood types are poorly educated...yet so many seem to think they are brilliant and have important things to say (amen!). I also liked the interview with the founder of the "Bert is Evil" website was interviewed--but it really had little to do with stupidity. Otherwise...meh.
rgcustomer
My comments refer to the "Special Edition Director's Cut" which runs about 70 minutes, and appears to be absent from the "alternate versions" page.This is a fun introductory look at the topic of stupidity. As the film itself notes, stupidity isn't a subject that has been looked at seriously by very many researchers. Books on the subject can't even fill a shelf, and this is the first and only film with this title (as far as IMDb knows).The film opens with a look at the definitions of stupidity, as well as former psychological terms that have become insults: idiot, imbecile, and moron.It the moves into the subject of dumbed-down media (apparently the original idea of this film, and something from which it suffers although it doesn't admit it).Other topics include fallacies of smart people (or at least successful people) who over-estimate their abilities, "super-stupidity" -- the promotion of stupid behaviour and ignorance, and widespread human stupidity (climate change, religion, war).Former president Bush is shown as a prime example of stupidity, and using the appearance of stupidity to accomplish goals.It ends with the idea that being stupid in today's world is actually quite hard work for most people, and that stupidity may be a desirable state, at least at the individual level.I'm not sure what all the differences are, but this version apparently includes a Fox News interview, and a David Suzuki interview, not in the original version.If there had been more films on the subject of stupidity, I'd have rated this lower. But this is all there is. It could have taken a more serious tone. It should have included things like the "tragedy of the commons", the Monty Hall problem, and invention versus quality concepts.
chup23
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.
bigfatgoose2000
When I saw the film the audience was laughing quite a bit.In other parts there was a scary silence. As the film point out, stupidity is really funny but it's also running our world. Film travels from some of the more intellectual angles to some of the more trivial. We really enjoyed it all though we came and argued about the issue.I never knew where idiot and moron came from. Not sure that I'm better off knowing. All in all and enjoyable take on a never-before broached topic.Now, with Bush re-elected, Stupidity is more relevant than ever.Too relevant.
