The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews
FIND MOVIES
Find a Movie
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies
Nominate-best-2010

Review: The Yes Men Fix The World

Anti-capitalism hoaxes occasionally misfire
By LANCE GOULD  |  October 21, 2009
2.5 2.5 Stars

 

Is capitalism on the ropes, or what? First came that embarrassing global financial crisis. Then, though the charge is dubious, the teabaggers bruised capitalism’s image by claiming that our president has abandoned it for socialism.

Now it’s taking its lumps from filmmakers: earlier this month from Michael Moore, and this week from culture-jamming performance artists the Yes Men. Writers Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno (who direct, with Kurt Engfehr) stage Yippie-influenced hoaxes to point out the rapaciousness of corporations — and to offer their own, often amusing market corrections.

The most successful — like the time Bichlbaum poses as a rep from Dow Chemical and announces on the BBC that the company will pay out $12 billion to the victims of the Bhopal gas leak — put multi-nationals (or even the US government) in the crosshairs. But when the butts of the jokes are mid-level losers at meaningless conferences, the guerrilla theater seems misdirected, even cruel.

Related: Prodding the free market, Yes Men take aim at Coca-Cola, Jade Garden Seafood Restaurant, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Michael Moore, The Yes Men Fix the World, The Yes Men Fix the World,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
HTML Prohibited
Add Comment

Today's Event Picks
ARTICLES BY LANCE GOULD
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   RAINBOW NATION  |  January 28, 2010
    After a torturous history of being treated like second-class citizens, the black population in this country stunned the world by pulling off the unimaginable: voting a black man in as president.
  •   INTERVIEW: OZZY OSBOURNE  |  January 29, 2010
    Long before he bit the heads off bats and doves, Ozzy Osbourne worked in a cheerless abattoir in the hardscrabble Aston section of Birmingham, England, where for 18 months he held such titles as "cow killer," "tripe hanger," "hoof puller," and "pig stunner."
  •   REVIEW: SKIN  |  January 13, 2010
    "The definition of a white person is a person who in appearance obviously is a white person . . . or who is generally accepted as a white person and is not in appearance obviously not a white person."
  •   REVIEW: ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL  |  December 22, 2009
    In playing evil ex-Chipmunk-band manager Ian Hawke, comedian David Cross draws the Short Straw of Irony, being dealt the line "At least I still have my dignity."
  •   REVIEW: THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD  |  October 21, 2009
    Is capitalism on the ropes, or what ?

 See all articles by: LANCE GOULD

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2010 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group