Rating: NN
Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? (Alliance, 2008) D: Morgan Spurlock. Rating: NN DVD package: NNN
A long time ago I had a friend who used the word “dink” to describe people who were vapid and insincere. Morgan Spurlock is a dink. At least he appears that way on screen. Fuelled by fear for his as yet unborn child’s safety, Spurlock (Super Size Me) traipses off to the Middle East to ask average citizens where they can find bin Laden, what they think of America and what they think of their own regimes. It’s supposed to be funny.
He has a knack for getting his subjects to clam up and/or gaze at him in contempt. By the time he gets shoved out of a Tel Aviv neighbourhood, I was ready to cheer. When he gives us his climactic plea for peace, love and understanding, all I could think was that this is the guy Uwe Boll was lampooning in his gleefully crass Postal. (Also out this week and not worth watching unless you want to see a man who knows how to box punch out men who don’t. Raging Boll: The Director Boxes His Critics is in the extras of that package.)
In the extras, Spurlock comes across less like the wishy-washy liberal stereotype and more as a reasonable journalist. He interviews some knowledgeable figures including ex-IRA leader Martin McGuinness and Israeli president Shimon Peres. He asks a straightforward question, then shuts up for the answer.
EXTRAS Five interviews, two animated segments. Widescreen. English, French, Spanish subtitles.
