Spurlock’s Latest Effort Generates Little Buzz

In a post Dec. 5, 2007, I expressed skepticism about fast-food filmmaker Morgan Spurlock’s claim that he had found Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Three months later, I wrote a post about the release of a trailer for Spurlock’s documentary, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? Since then however, I’ve heard very few news media mentions of Spurlock and his documentary — that is, until today.

Today, almost a month after the documentary was finally released, I finally heard some buzz about it while listening to talk radio on my way to Lambert International Airport this afternoon. It was described as “interesting” and received “three and three-quarter stars” during a movie review segment on the Frank O. Pinion show (a.k.a., “St. Louis’ only large morning show in the afternoon”).

When I returned to blogging a few hours later, I decided to look up other reviews of the flick and found this one published on the London Sunday Times web site. The newspaper review was less glowing and began this way:

In his previous film, Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock was the little guy who took on the Big Mac. Now he’s back with a new mission impossible: to find the most wanted man on the planet, Osama Bin Laden. I don’t think anyone can accuse me of giving the plot away if I reveal that we don’t actually find Bin Laden - but we do discover a very different, and less appealing, Spurlock than the one we saw before.

The review ended this way:

By the end, you feel you haven’t really learnt anything new. Spurlock’s big insight is that the majority of Muslims want to work, provide for their families and give their children the best start in life, just like you and me. I think he would have done better to give his family the best start by staying at home instead of making this film.

After carefully weighing these reviews, I’m recommending that you stay away from the theater whenever this documentary is showing. If, however, you feel you need to do something related to the topic of Spurlock’s documentary, I recommend you follow the filmmaker’s lead and make the claim that you found the world’s most-wanted terrorist.

-- Bob McCarty Writes