speechdr

This is a really great view of the problems with gun ownership in the USA. Moore attacks the issues surrounding the problems that people have with guns from the perspective of someone who obviously advocates gun control. The movie is actually less about the high school shootings than it is about the bigger picture of the problem in the USA. The only reason that it did not get a higher rating is because of the ending: WARNING--HERE THERE BE SPOILERS: When he has Charlton Heston basically admitting his racist tendencies and ignorance of problems in mainstream America, it is ingenious. He should let Heston just hang himself right there. But instead, he persistently starts to harass the old man with a picture of a young girl who was shot and ends up over blowing his point. He could have just shown Heston the picture, explained his point of view, and when Heston walked away his point would have been made. Instead, he badgered him (big surprise!). All in all a great film, but with nuances of the pain in the rear end that Moore prides himself on being that just take you out of it.

I really liked "Bowling for Columbine," but this film starts out badly and just gets worse with the unfounded logic of Moore's emotionalism. For example, before the title even comes up, he asserts that the claim by Bush's cousin at Fox News that Bush won the presidency caused the other networks to automatically change their calling of the election for Gore (why would that happen? it makes no sense...), and then asserts that this somehow cemented the election for Bush (how could that possibly happen?). It goes on down hill from there...

Whereas some of Moore's films really poignantly detail the matter that he is working with, this flops because it is basically a film about blaming and accusing George Bush for everything and going beyond the boundaries of logic to do it. I am not a big fan of Bush, but Moore's claims just took me right out of the film. I am sure that if you hate George Bush like so many do you will love the film, but if you are independently minded (and surely if for some reason you actually like Bush) you will not appreciate the film.

I did. It was a wonderful message, and the directing was terrific, too. I particularly applaud the use of color in this film and would use it as an exemplar in a film appreciation class for that purpose. But this film moves way too slowly, and the reasons are the action sequences and the lack of story.

The fight scenes are too artificial. As you may guess, I was also not thrilled with "Crouching Tiger" and if I am missing anything, perhaps it is the reason for a fascination with fantasy during such scenes that utterly takes you out of the moment. I don't want to see people mystically defying gravity and doing mid-air stunts for 5 minutes. A little more Bruce Lee and a little less Disney would be nice. It also needed more storyline and less "action" although the latter is questionable as it was about as believable as a James Bond film.

More exposition and more realistic martial artistry would have made this film as good as everyone else is saying it is.