Man on the Run

Man on the Run: Great documentary about the IMDB scandal. Corruption at the highest levels across the globe. The film tells the tale of the ongoing 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal and the involvement of former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak and the fugitive businessman, Jho Low in a scandal that shook Malaysia. Razak was sentenced to 12 years in prison, $681 million was resting in his account. He likely got away with murder though, an official from the Attorney General's office was found dead in an oil barrel. The official had signed a warrant for the arrest of Razak while he was still in power. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Paris Hilton, The Fugees, Kim Kardashian, Goldman Sachs et al were also involved in this affair. The conman Jho Low is still on the run. Enormously entertaining. Directed, written and executive produced by Cassius Michael Kim. On Netflix. 8/10.

The trailer seemed interesting. That this would be an exciting documentary about a "Man on the Run" (aka Jho Low), who stole a billion dollars and used it to fund an extravagant lifestyle full of parties with rich people and celebrities. Only problem is, it isn't that at all. The trailer is basically just scenes taken from the first 5 minutes and then for the rest of the documentary, Jho Low is only talked about sporadically as a connection point for a number of other shady characters.

You know when a teacher would give you a minimum word count but you were 200 words short at the end of an essay so you would add fluff in there to make it longer even though it added no value? Well that's what this felt like. The documentary could have been about 60 minutes instead of 98 minutes and it would have been substantially better. The creators would drag out their creepy artwork(?) shots for 30 seconds instead of moving on to the next scene.

In the end it's not a documentary I would recommend to anyone, which is sad because it's an interesting topic.

To one of the biggest financial scandals of recent times. It does a good job of introducing the players, and explaining what happened. I have two observations. The first is that the audacity that some people have, you are caught red handled stealing money from the country you were elected to lead and you blame other people? Shameless. The other observation that I have is about the practice of paying celebrities to attend your parties. So basically if you have enough money you can pay pretty much whoever you want to show up, it doesn't matter what shady or immoral things you might be up to. It's a bizarre world.

Financial malfeasance is certainly noxious, but as subject matter for a doc film runs the risk of being pedantic or procedural. Man On The Run deftly weaves the facts and faces of the 1MDB scandal into a pacey, emotional, (but still dense) narrative. A mostly charismatic and sympathetic cast of characters tells the story, and the filmmakers manage to get some of the bad guys in too. The film also surprises with a great dose of humor and levity. The Malaysian subjects particularly bring a lot of heart and warmth to the film. Creative visuals capture the flavor and rhythms of the region, and the soundtrack really shines. I was able to see the film on the big screen and enjoyed it from start to finish. Kudos.

Man On The Run uses celebrities as the hook to get you to watch this expose on a name you would never recognize otherwise. It's common knowledge that celebs get paid for appearances so big deal. They don't know where every dollar comes from people they are acquainted with for gosh sake. As far as the man "on the run" part of the story and the fraud he committed - it's a web of corruption and politics at the highest level but a rather boring story overall IMO. It actually put me to sleep 3 times and came back in the morning to finish it. Doesn't say much for such a short documentary or story. One thing I did learn from it though is who the man is that is on the run - will remember the name now Jho Low, which by the way sounds like a fake name anyway, If I hear it discussed in a social setting at least I will know who and what is being discussed, so I will give it that which is what my 3 stars are for.

#JhoLow #ManOnTheRun.