Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 57
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 25
WWJB is an eye opening doc about consumerism that manages to be both funny and informative.
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Critic Reviews: 15
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 6
WWJB is an eye opening doc about consumerism that manages to be both funny and informative.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 2,732
Bill Talen is a New York-based activist and performance artist who since the late '90s has won notoriety for his character Rev. Billy. Rev. Billy is a wildly charismatic street preacher and self-appointed leader of the Church of Stop Shopping, who began his career speaking out against the gentrification of New York City, the forced renovation of 42nd Street, and his favorite symbol of the evils of international marketing, the Disney Store. Since then, Rev. Billy has expanded his targets to
Nov 16, 2007 Limited
Apr 22, 2008
$0.1M
Mammouth Releasing
All Critics (61) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (35) | Rotten (25) | DVD (4)
The good reverend and his crew do their best to get busted at assorted corporate shrines (Disneyland, the Mall of America), but their media-driven antics serve only to underline Spurlock's add-water-and-stir approach to political documentary.
What Would Jesus Buy? is must-see viewing for anyone who thinks of Christmas as just a mall and its night visitors.
WWJB? encourages viewers to think outside the big box of super stores such as Wal-Mart.
Fake collar or not, he makes a pretty good preacher.
It's a wickedly effective indictment of America's consumer compulsion, our mindless shopping and the multinational corporations controlling it all.
If Gary Busey ever played Elmer Gantry, he'd look like Reverend Billy, the real-life fire-and-brimstone preacher who embarks ''on a mission to save Christmas from overconsumption."
In WWJB, we don't really feel like we get to know anyone that well, not even the primary subjects of the film: Billy and his choir.
This funny, yet thought provoking film asks many questions that have plagued consumerism for decades. While much of the ground tracked over is old, it fits perfectly into the modern economic situation.
So we need a better movie about this subject. As usual.
A tongue-in-cheek documentary questions the degree to which America has commercialized Christmas.
The shopaholic wages of sin are...the Shopocalypse!
The shopaholic wages of sin are...the Shopocalypse!
Reverend Billy is a charismatic presence, even if his shtick is too silly and the documentary too unfocused to motivate any serious change in the nation's holiday spending habits.
Seeing WWJB? in a theater is not necessary, although seeing him and the choir hijacking a mall in person would be better than Beowulf in IMAX.
Talen runs the risk of losing his purpose amid his performance.
These bits of information could have been shocking in about 1940, 1980 and 1990. But by now, Americans who don't know couldn't care less.
I love Morgan Spurlock and Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping! Think they're doing good work."What Would Jesus Buy" is a documentary that examines the commercialization of Christmas in America and the negative effects it has on American consumers as well as the sweatshop workers who produce most of these
December 4, 2008Super Reviewer
This is an eye opening documentary revealing the psychotic addiction American consumers seem to have no control over. Although quite silly at times, this film really does open your eyes to the crazyness of the situation. I highly recommend viewing because not only is this documentary informative, it's entertaining too!
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