User reviews

My biggest complaint with Morgan Spurlock's last film SUPER SIZE ME was the inevitable feeling that you always got when a director narrates/stars in his own work: the risk that what he says and does can intentionally or unintentionally come off as really presumptuous, sometimes resulting talking down to an audience rather than educating or inspiring. This is even harder when making a film to appeal to a broad demographic as you often have to entertain rather than provide strict facts and it is a problem that documentary filmmakers from Werner Herzog to, most obviously, Michael Moore have faced. However, Morgan has found a fantastic balance: WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN? is a near-perfect mix of style.

In the beginning of the film we learn Morgan's wife is pregnant, prompting him to ask himself, "How can I allow my child to grow up in such an unsafe world?" Though definitely tongue-in-cheek, this average and perfectly legitimate question leads him to the question of global terrorism and he decides to do what anyone in any big budget American action film does: a stupid ordinary guy fights back. Using his wife's pregnancy as a backdrop, he travels to Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and finally Pakistan to attempt to come to the conclusion of where Osama bin Laden is.

As an American college student, I can safely say that I am aware that the United States' foreign policy has not exactly put us in a good image for the rest of the world. Morgan Spurlock investigates what seemingly completely different cultures think of us and attempts to break the barriers of what common American propaganda has taught us about the Middle East. He interviews civilians, military officers, poor people, rich people, various relatives of Osama and other known al Qaeda operatives, government officials, heads of departments, and just people on the street to try to understand why the so-called "war on terror" is really as ridiculous as it appears to be. He tries to dispel common stereotypes about Americans while at the same time learning more about cultures and religions that we ourselves grossly stereotype to learn that we're really not all that different.

The film's greatest strength is the fact that Morgan learns with the audience. It does not feel like he is preaching to you, but you and him are both on this journey, from speaking to the Jews about Palestinians and the Palestinians about Jews, to finding relatives of known terrorists who watch professional wrestling and having dinner with farmers in the ghettos of Iraq while discussing raising kids.

It helps illuminates one of the world's greatest disappointments: how the people who are the most extreme and the most negative are the only people we care to think about, how the moderates majority's opinions are not represented, and ultimately how people are alike all over despite cultural barriers and popular stereotypes. All we are asked to find out if Osama bin Laden really is the most dangerous man in the world? Is Osama really the problem or is he the symptom of a bigger problem? Do the people we think like him even really like him?

It is a very good balance of an entertaining, mass-appealing film that neither dumbs down its material nor treats its audience like idiots or the director like a genius. It is also a very humanistic film, showing how the many good people are all too often overshadowed by the few evil ones who just happen to have more power and influence. I hope that more Americans, particularly ones constantly fed gross stereotypes and lies by their government get to see this film.

Let's make something perfectly clear: Morgan Spurlock doesn't really want to find Osama Bin Laden. I can only assume his real motivation for making Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? runs parallel with his motive behind Super Size Me - to educate fat, stupid Americans. Considering everyone around the world knows there's a lot of fat, stupid Americans, you could say the target audience for this documentary would be as big as the one that made SSM a must-see hit. But, to Spurlock's detriment, there are things people are ready to hear and there are things they aren't. Based on the critical and box office woes of WITWIOBL, it would seem no one in the USA wants to hear the truth about the so-called War on Terror.

Spurlock might be preaching to the choir of informed critics who know exactly why the US is globally detested, but right here in the good old US of A, he's asking the masses to swallow a very bitter pill. I say the pill is bitter because he spends the duration of his film humanizing Muslims, letting them speak for themselves in ways that radically contradict the conveniently palatable perception Americans have of their (ahem) enemy. The Muslims Spurlock interviews are not gun toting, blood thirsty, irrational, unreasonable or anti-American Jihadists, instead they are the exact opposite: peaceful, reasonable, rational, logical and kind. While there is no doubt a shared resentment towards the US Government, the resentment is justified.

Spurlock doesn't pull any punches in his quest, he tells the history of US foreign policy as it happened and this version doesn't hide the fact the US has been in bed with brutal dictators and regimes for a very long time. The fitting quote provided by FDR sums up the US attitude to their profitable alliances with murderous thugs: "He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." This understanding of US foreign policy begs the question: is it any surprise they hate the US Government? All actions have resultant repercussions and if you consider that US foreign policy has marginalized, oppressed and killed millions of people, then is it any surprise when the victims bite back?

There's one particular interview with one of Spurlock's subjects that basically makes us ask: if the US military can describe civilian casualties as "collateral damage," then what do you call the innocent Americans killed by a Jihadist's attack? It's all a matter of perspective and Spurlock posits the uncomfortable reality that war is war and their loss of innocent lives hurt and resonate just as much as ours do.WITWIOBL is by no means a deep or probing study of the issues in the Middle East; it glosses over the complex history of the region and, at times, does so in a very adolescent way. Spurlock, an obvious student of the Michael Moore school of documentary film-making, makes light of many topics by (over) using animated cartoons as a means to parlay a number of ideas. Spurlock uses a mock-video game template to structure WITWIOBL and, despite it being a new approach, it doesn't do the film any good. While on one hand I can appreciate Spurlock is trying to bring a little levity to a very serious subject, his gags are rarely funny and his overall schtick is wearisome. But if you stick with WITWIOBL you'll be rewarded with a film less about Spurlock's self-indulgences and more about having a better understanding of the Muslim world.

Spurlock concludes that, ultimately, Muslims and Americans want the same thing: to have a better world to bring up their children in. Fine for those who have kids or want them, but I don't. As a consolation, I'd be happy to settle with living in a world where people were introspective enough to realize it takes two to tango. WITWIOBL might open the eyes of a few, but in a country divided by two political parties, asking a filmmaker to bridge the divide between two foreign world's might be asking a bit much. Nevertheless, WITWIOBL is well intentioned even if it has nothing to do with it's title.

http://eattheblinds.blogspot.com/

I just saw this film at the Melbourne Internatinal Film Festival. I, along with everyone else in the audience (or at least, form what I could tell from audience reaction) found it very entertaining. The film begins with Spurlock deciding to seek out Osama bin Laden in order to make the world safer for his unborn child. As you would expect from this type of documentary, you have humorous animation sequences, songs and interviews. This humour often derives from Spurlocks apparent aim to find bin Laden, however this is not really what the doco is about. More than anything, I found the aim of this doco to be to say 'everyday Muslims are just like you and me' and in telling people that not all Muslims are terrorists. This is most definitely a very good and important message for the people of today. However, I don't feel that this doco really covers any new ground. This message has been covered by many people before in many different ways and will be again. No new light is shed on the topic, or, for that matter, on any topic.

That said, if you were to go in to this film with a complete ignorance toward Muslim society then it may be a different story. If that were the case you would be supplied a highly entertaining lessen in tolerance. Unfortunately, in my experience people of that type of ignorance are not necessarily the type who would sit down and watch a documentary. I suppose the all we can hope is that the cheesiness of the title will draw them in! Overall I would rate it 6/10 for being entertaining, if not groundbreaking.

We follow Morgan, a fairly average American guy, as he sets out to find bin Laden, (who, incidentally, has a US$25,000,000 bounty on his head!). So what's Morgan's motivation? Well, it's a fairly weak one, but it's valid to him (or his producers) at least. It is an anxiety he has about bringing a new-born into the world. Yes, that's right. He's a father-to-be when this film was shot.

Of course, finding Osama (as he is referred to so familiarly throughout the film) is no easy task - we are told several times that the F.B.I. itself has so far failed in this task. So, I guess you never really have high hopes about Morgan's chances. But we'll go along with him anyway right? What this documentary does well is that it takes you to the very ground-level of some very interesting and volatile places. Morgan divides the film up into (five?) segments, and presents the entire search as if it were a video-game - selecting "stages" that turn out to be Egypt, Afghanistan, Morroco and so on... In each and everyone of these places (with the exception of Pakistan), Morgan makes efforts to speak with everyday citizens, and quiz them on some fairly confronting topics.

This is the films best gift - we get to hear and see exactly what the West seems fairly deprived of: the common opinions of the common people. It's very enthralling, and towards the end, you cannot help but sympathise - and I suppose this is the films most powerful effect.

What the film does poorly is what the title alludes to - a search. Morgan never really searches for Osama (one point where he mockingly calls into a cave undermines any hope!), rather, he more or less sniffs around various markets, businesses, houses, slums and coffee-houses finding opinions.

And, the further annoyance is that the very motivation so heavily played upon at the beginning of the film (his baby), turns out to be a huge de-motivator for his search. He is constantly distracted, worrying and missing his wife, and we are all subjected to their personal "you-hang-up-first" "no you hang-up-first" smooshy phone calls. I can't help but think what a great film this would of been if the guy searching actually intended to find Osama! Rather, Morgan seems to want to make a travelogue, casually name-dropping the OBL when ever the moment strikes him to do so.

Granted, Morgan does visit some hot zones, such as the Gaza Strip, Tora Bora and Taliban territory, but we all know that Osama ain't there, and it's more about adding colour to the film then advancing his search.

It's a good watch for the conversation and the inside-stories, but a bad watch for those who actually want to see just how close can one man get to OBL. I am not convinced that Morgan really set out to find him, and really, I can't see that he added anything to others who may share that goal.

The movie tells the very actual life (even its not 100% but close enough to than any U.S public media from the past 10 years)of the people who live in the regions where we were told evils came from and the image of U.S and terrorists in their eyes.

The docu itself is moderate on its opinions about U.S foreign policy in the regions as well as the anti-terrorist campaign. You don't expect it tells you what is good or what is bad, but the differences as well as similarities that wildly exist in these cultures.

The movie seems to be one of those kind that try to wake up the ignorants or to introduce the concept of co-existence with differences. Unfortunately, those who would take time to watch the movie or those are able to understand it are not what the movie intended to. Many of them already known the message and the film doesn't go any further than that. And those whom the movie intended for are very likely not able to understand it and feel offended.

What first comes to mind when you hear you're going to a movie titled "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?"? An odd title for a quality film. I saw an advanced screening for market research purposes, and the theater was full. In a similar way to Michael Moore (but far less polarizing), Morgan Spurlock is able to make his point and maintain a great sense of humor. He travels to all major regions of the Middle East- including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan- on his quest to find Osama. Along the way, we meet many middle-easterners: regular citizens, terrorists' siblings, and islamist extremists. To see the sentiment of these people up close and personal is quite amazing, and Spurlock must be truly admired for his courage to venture into these dangerous territories.

I have gotten this far but have failed to mention the humor in it. I will say this much: You will get at least 4-5 belly laughs, and countless chuckles along the way.

It is a great follow-up to "Super Size Me" and shows that he can tackle the more political/difficult issues, but still keep that signature Spurlock smile.

GO SEE IT!

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.

The movie was quite good, but the reviews here demonstrate the limited power of even a thoughtful documentary approach, to really edify. Take a look at how many of the reviewers think they were enlightened by the movie to stop being ignorant Americans, but like some kind of shameful stereotype come to life, don't realize even after viewing the movie, that Pakistan is not part of the Middle East! A main theme of the movie is that people from diverse societies, have a very different perspective on American foreign policy than we Americans can even consider. Another very subtle theme is that we Americans should be a little ashamed at our ignorance. A point not easily taken, apparently.

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."

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. ***

Morgan Spurlock's "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?" is so utterly offensive and shallow that it makes you wonder whether his success with "Super Size Me" was a fluke, and also if this exploration of the fear the threat of terrorism has generated was little more than an excuse to avoid the daily rigours of his wife's impending child birth. Spurlock's ultimate lesson through the ordeal is that there are people in the Middle East who are just as concerned with the state of the world as they bring up their babies – something we all know by now. Anyone who believes a Muslim is automatically a terrorist might find some food-for-thought here, but not for anyone versed in the subject. This is an example of a filmmaker simplifying an important topic for the sake of getting a few laughs. I envisage only those who enjoyed the satire in "Team America: World Police" will appreciate the image of a model Osama Bin Laden dancing to the 'Can't touch this!' lyrics of that hit record.

Read the full reviews at my personal website: http://www.sightforallseasons.co.nr/

When I first heard about Where in the World is Osama bin Ladin?, I was fairly intrigued. The title was ingenious, and asks the question that practically everyone worldwide wants to know. And learning that it was directed by Morgan Spurlock, who made the thought-provoking and very enjoyable Super Size Me, it only intrigued me further. Too bad the movie was nowhere near as good.

Right from the moment the film starts, there is something off-putting about Where in the World is Osama bin Ladin? We see Spurlock prepping to take a journey to the Middle East in search of the elusive terrorist, and see him going through exhaustive defensive training to learn techniques that he may just have to use. It is a fairly ridiculous showcase, but one that is bound in the realities of potentiality. He has his goal and how he wants to accomplish it set, and his captivating and humorous sensibilities make us easily want to continue watching.

But from there, as we take the trip with Spurlock, somehow the movie runs out of gas a little too quickly. Spurlock loses sight of his topic and goals right off the bat, and rarely ever tries to recover them. Instead, he puts us through one bad insinuation and near racist moment after the other. He plays off silly graphics as comedy, but really just sounds offensive. There is even a segment near the beginning of the film that actually has Spurlock fighting bin Ladin in a video game style animation. The animation is lush and amazingly put together, but it brings nothing and gives even less to the movie as a whole. It almost feels like a forced Family Guy style reference to nothing. And it is not the only animated sequence in the film (although all of them do not have as silly an effect as this one).

And unfortunately, even some of the moments that are not animated feel just as random. He starts the film off looking like someone who is educated and knows what he is doing, but then quickly transforms almost into a movie about Spurlock acting like an arrogant American stereotype, and not trying very little to adjust the image his interview subjects have of him or his country. I realize a lot of these scenes are done for effect, and some of them are not as quite mean-spirited and blatant as others (one scene just features Spurlock being pushed around and belittled by a group of Orthodox Jewish men until he leaves their village), but his striving for comedy in a subject that is even less funny than obesity rates in the United States comes off as a bit contrived and strained.

Spurlock also fumbles on how he addresses his topic when he actually sticks to it. He seems to think that everyone coming into the film will have no pre-existing knowledge of Middle Eastern politics, and even less about the fallout of 9/11. Obviously this is not the case, but it just feels a little elitist in some sequences, and drags the film out longer than it needs to. I did like some of his broad humour in some instances, but he pads it out a bit too far for his own good. Almost as if he did not think the film would fly with everyone, and wanted to ensure that most people just in for a good time and not a documentary lesson would enjoy the film and take something from it.

But then, what are we supposed to take from this film? Is there a lesson to be had, or is it just a movie that plays on our emotions and fears of the unknown? Have we not already seen movies exactly like this, made as documentaries and as fiction films? There is an obvious universal point to the film, but it takes a very long while to get to it. And for a movie that is just over 90-minutes that long while is really not that long at all (but sure feels like it). Spurlock addresses a much harder topic than the one he did in Super Size Me, he clearly knows less about it, and the majority of information he does give either is well known or is not useful at all. I commend Spurlock for the effort and amount of time he put into the film, but it just does not play itself out very well.

He has a captivating voice and attitude however, and that is what saves this movie from just being another film about not taking action. He makes you want to hear what he has to say, and makes you want to stay with him no matter how boring and mundane the journey is becoming. He makes you want to wait and see if he meets up with the elusive terrorist or not. He knows just the buttons to push, but seems incapable of pushing them in the right way here.

And it is unfortunate, because this is a movie that could have been a classic example of a call to action. Instead, it comes off as a lesson in things we should already know about, whether we are educated in them, or simply glance at a newspaper on occasion. I think with less of a focus on humour and the obvious, and more focus on things the audience may not know about necessarily, Spurlock could have done for terrorism and the Middle East what he did for fast food: an Oscar-nominated, thought-provoking study on something that effects everyone.

6/10.

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.

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.

Although the title makes it sound like it will be interesting and it is directed and written by Morgan Spurlock from Super Size Me which was a very engaging, original film, Where in the World is neither of those.

It follows Morgan as he travels to the Middle East in search of- you guessed it- Osama Bin Laden. The movie takes you through many interviews with locals of Egypt, Israel, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and more. He asks them about their feelings towards America, and of course whether they know where OBL (as he calls him) is. None of these interviews yield any substantial, insightful or noteworthy remarks. The movie simply drags on and Morgan's mock quest seems pointless even for us to watch.

The movie is overly gimmicky and my impression was that it tried much too hard to do something that had already been done before. Certain parts reminded me of Bill Maher's Religulous which I thoroughly enjoyed and actually saw 3 times. Similarly, Spurlock inserts some comedic elements into his scenes, a few of which I have to admit are funny. For instance he shows a page in Osama's diary which reads: 1. Clean Cave (this one is crossed out and done), 2. Kill all Infidels etc.; and on another page "I hate America", "I am bored today". This was the only moment where I actually laughed.

The big difference is that Religulous posed real questions and was much more historical, analytical and instructive. If you're looking for a film where the director already has his answers before he sets upon his search, Fahrenheit 9/11 or Capitalism: A Love Story (which I will be reviewing soon) are much stronger candidates. Fabio said "it is like a bad Michael Moore" and that pretty much sums it up.

Fabio's rating: 5 Mine: 3 Read more reviews at: http://paulinasmovies.blogspot.com

This is one of the most interesting films in a long time. Morgan goes to several Middle East countries, including Afghanistan, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan to interview the average person on the street mostly to get their views on Osama Bin Laden.

We get a glimpse of people in these countries to get their views on Osama including all ages, young and old. Some westerners may be surprised at the views of most people in these countries which is quite different than many people believe There is also a look at the topography and landmarks of some of the countries. If you want to see what people are like in these countries this film is hard to beat. This is a 10 star film.

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.

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!