Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

wonderdawg Whaddya do when your last pic made $11 mil at the box office (not bad for a $300, 000 investment) and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary? Well, if you are Morgan Spurlock, writer and director of Supersize Me!, you put down your burger, get your shots and head to the Middle East to shoot a documentary about your mock serious search for the world's most wanted terrorist. After all, with his wife expecting the couple's first child the future father figures he's gotta do something: "If the CIA and FBI can't find him and I'm going to make the world safe for my kid it's time for a new plan. If I've learned anything from big budget action movies it's that complicated global problems are best solved by one lonely guy crazy enough to think he can fix everything before the credits roll." Spurlock begins his quest for OBL (as he calls him) with his tongue firmly in his cheek but as he travels through Egypt, Israel, Afghanistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian West Bank and realizes the depth of anti-American feeling the tone of the film becomes sombre and introspective. ("It's hard for me to see how damaged the image of the country that I love and care about has become.") Don't expect any startling insights into the Middle East conflict. Spurlock films the trip from the viewpoint of an average American coping with culture shock and trying to make sense out of a complex situation. Whether he is thinking out loud on a voice-over or addressing the audience straight to camera Spurlock invites us along to share his discoveries. And who better for a tour guide? Riding with a Jerusalem bomb squad to check out a suspicious-looking package, heading into "hard core Taliban country" with a US military patrol or approaching total strangers in a crowded Arab marketplace and asking them if they can put him in touch with Osama bin Laden Spurlock is witty, smart, observant and unflappable. The majority of soundbites are from everyday men and women interviewed on the street, around the dinner table or in a desert village. (A young man in Tel Aviv compares the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate to a game of musical chairs. "Somebody is left without a chair ... but everybody needs to sit somewhere.") In the end Spurlock does not find OBL. What he does discover, however, is that whether they live in big cities or small mountain villages "there are a lot more people out there who are just like us then there are who are just like him."

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Morgan Spurlock (remember, the guy who ate all the food on the McDonald's menu?) suddenly learns that his girlfriend is pregnant with his first child and, amongst all the other emotions that must be running around in his head, he thinks: I've got to make this world a safer place for her to grow up in and, since the CIA and the American Special Forces, with all their technology and man-power, haven't managed to do it, I will achieve said safer world by hunting down and claiming the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden. His hunt takes him from Egypt, to Morrocco, to the East Bank in Palestine, to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tora Bora in Afghanistan, and Pakistan, interviewing possible leads along the way, interviewing key religious figures on each side of the religious war as well as hearing from everyday people in these war torn, repressed countries their views views on Americans around the world and their foreign policy.So Spurlock, the man probably best remembered for 'the McDonalds experiment' film Super Size Me in 2004, has a sudden need to find the number one terror link in the world to make the world safer for his newborn child? Only he will know if this is really true or if he just wanted some more attention in the film world after SSM four years ago, which this didn't get half the exposure of. And quite rightly, for, although an interesting piece of food for thought, WITWIOBL? doesn't leave quite the same impact as his hamburger odyssey (although the motivations behind it are arguably much more important.) The film starts by noting the most glaring, niggling fact that the Americans, with the most sophisticated, advanced technology in the world, have spent nearly ten years looking, without success, for a man hiding in a cave. Given his health was reputedly failing when the hunt for him began, and with the above fact in mind, I would draw the conclusion that Bin Laden is almost certainly dead now. I would also summarise that the president and the military chiefs of America are aware of this. If you're of the viewpoint that they deny it to keep the war effort going, that's what you think, but Spurlock obviously feels there is some point to his new film, so that's why he made it.It's easy to compare the guy to another famous modern documentarian, Michael Moore, with his use of humour to accentuate serious subject matter. The opening skit, involving dancing bin Laden's, is proof of this. But, also like Moore, he has a tendency to be one sided, obviously trying to plug his opinion in some way rather than showing a balanced argument from both sides. Here, Spurlock actually seems less interested in hunting for bin Laden than plugging the message to the world that' we only hate muslims because of what the American media show us, most of them are really decent, ordinary people like you and me.' While this is undoubtedly true, it detracts from the point of the film and is pretty obvious. Even when he visits Saudi Arabia (where church and state are unseperated), we see only young muslims reacting to what they are being taught, most obviously when he interviews two young students in a classroom and is forced to stop the interview when he asks them their feelings about Israelis. In fact, it says a lot that these are the people he receives the most hostile reaction from, encountering aggression when visiting an area where a sign asks (commands) male passers by not to go through their area in 'immodest dress', showing it's not just muslims who haven't got rid of out-dated ideas in the modern world and who adhere too tightly to dress codes.Spurlock ditched his original idea (probably knowing he was really on a wild goose chase) and instead spends most of his film trying to plug his left wing ideologies to the audience. It casts an interesting light on facts surrounding the hunt for Osama and the religious conflicts that still go on in the world, but the 'muslims are just like us' vibe sends it all off course from what it was really trying to do. ***

lastliberal I got another copy of the Christofascist propaganda film Obsession in the mail yesterday. It is appropriate that I sit down to watch this film after the attempts to scare me.Morgan Spurlock is a genius. He made a highly entertaining film that has a real message that needs to be seen and heard by everyone.No matter where he went - Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Morocco - you name it, the people were dismissive of Osama bin Laden and felt that he was responsible for their lives being so bad. he was not a hero, but a villain to Muslims everywhere.What was equally impressive was the fact that everyone hates our government. Not us, but out government. Guess what? We hate it too, but will we have the guts to change it? I don't mean just change parties, I mean change our government to one that doesn't sponsor dictators and terrorism throughout the world as long as it benefits us.The bottom line in this film was that most people in the world are just like us. We want to earn some money, take care of our families, and live in peace. What a novel concept! Check this one out.

TheEmulator23 I can see why this didn't do well box office wise, because quite frankly it's pretty boring. I like Morgan Spurlock & think in his future Documentary's he should always be in front of the camera as well as producing & directing it. He is a great personality, and if the subject is right, he can make even a questionable subject enjoyable. However this film is a very long 90 minutes & doesn't seem to have any real point to it. I loved "Super Size Me," & even his FX show 30 days is more interesting & has more to say than this. Unless you are a die-hard Spurlock fan, I would skip this. I will say w/a better subject & a little bit more direction & set-up, he could very well have another good theatrically released documentary. This just isn't it. There are a couple good chuckles here and there, but the story really doesn't take you anywhere that is very interesting. Spurlock will always have the excellent "Super Size Me" to his credit, but here's hoping he can get another good subject to tell us about in a more interesting & entertaining fashion.