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As Good As It Gets

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Blistering performances.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Despite being fact-filed and insightful, this doc is ultimately a dreadful and ponderous muddle. The film's weak episodic structure is haphazard and amateurish at best and is only accentuated by bad editing and total editorial ineptitude. This is the worst kind of documentary - the kind that takes good research, hard-won facts, great coverage, fabulous footage, compelling interviews... and presents them all like uncreative pablum. Energy is a very competitive documentary topic right now, and there are more and more good films and TV shows that deal with these important issues - this is not one of them. By all means watch this film, it has some very compelling information and ideas, but keep your finger firmly on the 'fast-forward' and 'next chapter' buttons. DF

To compel the audience the film relies more heavily on pathos / ethos, and less on mere presentation of empirical data supporting their perspective. Personally I would have liked more fact & figure focus. Still, it worked for me.I found the editing a bit dragging and distracting. It seemed as if someone struggled to find a few visuals to go with each narrative quote by the film's speakers. Sometimes the visuals are just dead wrong choices, such as stats that do not support what the speaker is simultaneously saying. Ouch. Mainly though the visuals linger just a little too long, leaving uncomfortable pauses in the narrative. Perhaps this is done deliberately to increase the impact of, say, this satirical comic or that horrifying photograph. But I felt these lengthy sobering pauses on visuals were done far too often, and as such they lose their efficacy. I think without too much effort this could be re-cut to be absolutely brilliant.The film succeeded in demonstrating how humanity's careless overconsumption of resources like oil is causing catastrophic levels of despair, poverty, extinction and environmental damage. It challenges us to draw moral conclusions rather than blindly follow the bombardment of misinformation masquerading as fact -- e.g. if war has always historically been about power in some form (wealth, resources, labour) then it logically follows that war in the Middle East is about power over oil reserves, NOT any damn noble desire to free people or spread democracy. It is an important piece of work that everyone should see.Tag .. you're it. ;)

Great movie, very well narrated. The facts and video evidence to back up their claims are at times, disturbing and unsettling. I think this is a good thing because it forces us to look at our own oil usages and hopefully come to an answer on how to reduce this number. As an American, I especially take this movie to heart. I encourage everyone to watch this movie! Oil is a great product, but is also a bane on society. Could we have predicted 100 years ago that oil would have lead to wars, death, cancer and a global problem? Probably not, but it's important that we look at our current problems and come to a world resolution. Oil cultivation is inevitable so the problems with cleaning up open air pits and dumping must be paramount in our international 'things to do' list.

This film examines the way in which the petrochemical industry has manipulated events around the world to its advantage. Much of the film deals with the role of Shell in Nigeria, specifically about the Ogoni people and Ken Saru Wiwa - they don't come out too well. Anyone who cares about what humanity is doing to the world should see it. I characterize it as a counter to Al Gore's film, because it is made completely dispassionately (the commentary is completely unemotional). It just tries to get the viewer thinking about the awful things that are done in our name. As a non-American who has watched Inconvenient Truth a number of times for professional reasons, I am skeptical about the motives for making it. Crude Impact is completely different in this regard.