So shallow and silly that it makes reading The Nation seem like the deepest kind of bliss.
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:97
Fresh:36
Rotten:61
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: Morgan Sprulock's doc offers occasional insights but gets bogged down by the director/subject's gimmicky schtick.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for some strong language.
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
Theatrical Release:Apr 18, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $264,438
Synopsis: Documentarian Morgan Spurlock rocketed to fame after daring to take on the fast food industry in the entertaining and much-lauded SUPERSIZE ME. For his follow-up, Spurlock wades back into... Documentarian Morgan Spurlock rocketed to fame after daring to take on the fast food industry in the entertaining and much-lauded SUPERSIZE ME. For his follow-up, Spurlock wades back into controversial waters, and attempts something even more dangerous than a month of eating Big Macs: he decides to hunt down the globe's foremost terrorist, Osama Bin Laden. When the film opens, Spurlock has just learned that his wife, Alex, is pregnant. Using this news as a springboard, he decides he must hunt down the "world's most dangerous man" in order to guarantee the safety of his new child. Thus begins Spurlock's journey into some of the most wartorn and perilous places on the globe: Egypt, Israel, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco. Spurlock travels from country to country, popping into mosques, fundamentalist Muslim schools, shantytowns, army bases, the Gaza strip, and the local mall, asking everyone along the way if they might know where he can find Osama. The provocative question never fails to elicit an interesting response, and Spurlock uses it to open up a dialogue about the people's feelings and attitudes toward America and the war on terror. Throughout the film, Spurlock comes across as one of the most genial fellows you could ever meet, and his good-natured charm goes a long way in getting interviews with people who might otherwise become hostile when smirkingly asked, "Where's Osama?" Some viewers might find fault with Spurlock's rather gimmicky, stunt man techniques, but others might enjoy his light approach to such a complex and heavy issue. While the film will undoubtedly spark a few heated debates, one thing is for certain: Spurlock does nice job of removing some of the mystery that surrounds the Middle East. He creates a very human portrait of the people, and reminds us that, at the end of the day, we are perhaps not so different. [More]
Director: Morgan Spurlock
Director: Morgan Spurlock
Screenwriter: Jeremy Chilnick, Morgan Spurlock
Producer: Jeremy Chilnick, Stacey Offman, Morgan Spurlock
Composer: Jon Spurney
Studio: Weinstein Company
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Reviews for Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?
As he jets from place to place, he provides glib, oversimplified tidbits about Mideast history along the way.
Kudos to Spurlock for going into enemy territory and coming back with the message that there really is no enemy territory.
Where In The World is a conversation-starter for ADD-stricken adolescents who can't bear to think about one thing for too long, or too deeply.
A come-on in search of a movie, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?
Spurlock and his team of collaborators never find the movie amid all their material. If he's a questionable journalist and a poor detective, he's an even more woeful filmmaker.
A nearly note-perfect anthem for virtually everything about American policy it seeks to critique.
Remember the wise old saying about the journey being more important than the destination? Spurlock no doubt prays you do, because from the outset of his search-and-destroy gimmick, the journey is the only authentic part.
It's impossible to take Morgan Spurlock seriously as a big-screen documentarian. Clearly he comes from the Michael Moore school of "infotainment," only without the sharp wit or, frankly, compelling subject matters.
Obviously, we would have heard if he'd found the guy, and obviously, no film was really going to get to that point. So it makes its point a different way and ends up explaining what it's really about, and that's fine.
It's a little insulting to all the real reporters who've died in the field looking for hard information, not weak indie comedy.
A superficial primer for people who aren't likely to go see it in the first place.
Morgan Spurlock is a living, breathing cautionary tale. Take a good, long look, kids: This is what happens when society validates really annoying people.
Morgan Spurlock is a jokester politico in the Michael Moore vein, and his latest documentary is a low concept posing as a high concept.
Dependent on a gimmick which is feels like a death sentence Spurlock spends the entire movie trying to dodge.
... While Spurlock may not actually answer the question of where, he actually tackles, with humor, probing wit and a certain grace, the much more important question of why.
Complicated global problems require something a bit more challenging than this.
Sadly, the subject matter might not make this the kind of movie that anyone would rush out to see, but it's a successful effort at informing while entertaining.
Latest News for Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?
August 25, 2008:
RT on DVD: Watch Uwe Boll Box Critic, Heroes Season Two Clips
It's a good week to catch up on your favorite shows before the new TV season begins (Heroes Season Two) and a good week to satisfy your curiosity for a certain guilty pleasure... More...
July 30, 2008:
Spurlock draws some weird paternal parallels, subconscious or not, between Osama as the fugitive founding father of Al Qaeda, and his own possibly wayward, pre-partum depression, stressed situation as an imminently expectant, first time fugitive dad-to-be ![]()
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May 09, 2008:
RT Interview: Morgan Spurlock on the Personal, the Political and Osama bin Laden
The documentarian comes over all Kandahar as we talk his latest, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?. More...
February 09, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
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