Good, but not great, documentary. The idea of a movie-within-that-same- movie, basically "The making of...(the movie)" IS the movie, is brilliant. Morgan Spurlock (of Super Size Me fame) handles this part superbly, setting out from the beginning to have this Mobius Strip-like structure to the movie, and weaving a great web around this.
However, the central theme of the movie, marketing and all its disguises, is hardly revolutionary or controversial. The idea of brand positioning in movies is not new, or even subtly done. So Spurlock's movie doesn't really cover new ground in that respect, though it does neatly package and inform us on the subject.
The problem with using corporate sponsors to fund the movie means Spurlock has to pull his punches when exposing the lengths of evils of brand positioning. If he had set out to trash the concept, he would have no sponsors and no funding, thus no movie.
So the movie's own concept dooms it to being less than brilliant.
Overall, worth watching, but not as enthralling as I would have expected.
However, the central theme of the movie, marketing and all its disguises, is hardly revolutionary or controversial. The idea of brand positioning in movies is not new, or even subtly done. So Spurlock's movie doesn't really cover new ground in that respect, though it does neatly package and inform us on the subject.
The problem with using corporate sponsors to fund the movie means Spurlock has to pull his punches when exposing the lengths of evils of brand positioning. If he had set out to trash the concept, he would have no sponsors and no funding, thus no movie.
So the movie's own concept dooms it to being less than brilliant.
Overall, worth watching, but not as enthralling as I would have expected.