Slacker Uprising

I lean pretty far left politically, and parts of this low-key made me like the Democrats less. I used to not care about politics, and didn't lean either way... and if I'd seen this during that stage of my life, it would've made me feel even less compelled to go out and vote.

I've liked every Michael Moore movie I've seen so far. Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 are among the best documentaries of their decade. This is the first film of his I've seen that I'd call bad. My ratings on this site are all public- you can see how positively I've rated all his other documentaries, if you need to.

It's barely a film, and it's so strange that it came out years after the events it depicts, when the 2004 election was well over. I've seen worse documentaries I guess, but this honestly wasn't very good at all. Nothing particularly funny, nothing particulalty clever. Even Michael Moore In Trumpland is significantly better, more engaging, more useful, and better thought out than this one.

Oh and the music sections were so awful, and I reckon just there to get it to feature length.

I won't call it the worst documentary I've ever seen, because I think it had somewhat good intentions... but of the political documentaries I technically "agree" with, I think it's the worst. Skip it, even if you're a fan of Moore like me.

I'm a rather serious fan of Moore's work and lean heavily liberal in my politics. And even so, this film got tedious and felt very self-serving on Moore's part. There are good parts, no doubt, but did we really need to see him signing autographs and hugging women with "Hug me Michael" signs? What on earth is that besides self-aggrandizement? I can't imagine what he was thinking other than "I need some more filler here."

Michael: We've seen you do better. Much better. And your timing here is very suspect--you are releasing this in the final days of the 2008 election season because you think people will, in their fervor, watch your film for some input about the election. Yet you have little-to-nothing to offer. You're looking four years in the past here while Obama is looking forward. Sure, your message "the young should vote" is currently applicable, but I think Mr. Obama has already done an amazing job of getting that out.

Overall, this is somewhat interesting for us die-hards, but I can't see it being all that captivating for the masses.

Michael Moore traipses across the battleground States to visit 60 cities before the 2004 election and passes out Ramen noodles and clean underwear to slackers who will promise to register and vote.

This film about his journey is just as relevant as it was four years ago. This year's election will also turn on getting the slackers out from behind their X-Boxes and get them to vote.

A combination of speeches, great music, film clips, interviews with regular folks, this was a film for all those who want their country back.

It's yours to watch for free at http://slackeruprising.com/

I voted against Bush in 2004, but the film was actually pretty boring and didn't bring anything new to the table. He had promised he'd throw his next documentary online, maybe he threw out this stuff because he didn't want to skimp out on the earning potential of an actual decent documentary he's making.

I had thought he was making a documentary showing all the things corporations have been getting away with in the last four years, but actually it's about Michael Moore's tours around the country for the 2004 elections. Literally it's just footage of his speeches to different universities and local press conferences when he toured several cities in swing states. Moore didn't present anything new we hadn't been hearing for the last 8 years and he said absolutely nothing about the 2008 candidates.

The format of the video was depressing. Moore says bring back the troops, kick out bush for a while to a cheering audience, it shows a random musical guest or celebrity then it shows a news caster talking about what the polls show to give a little time effect. While there's nothing particularly wrong with format, that's all there is to this film, it just repeats over and over as he tours different cities.

What the heck just happened? The blip.TV embed does not allow seeking so I couldn't just skip to the end to see if he had something more aggressive or interesting up his sleeve. Moore is know for stirring up controversy and attacking what he feels are the "bad guys" straight-on. There was no face-to-face talks and interviews, only speeches to loving supporters and in a few instances, quips to the opposition that also showed up. He should have made a real documentary or at least critical review of the 2008 candidates, the slacker uprising could have been a DVD extra at best. Edited footage of him as super hero almost changing the tide in the swing states will only gain support from the hardcore Michael Moore fans. Moore brags in the film about how 30 - 40% of republicans that watched Fahrenheit 911 ended up liking it. The same cannot be said for this film. There is no investigative journalism like his previous documentaries. It's Moore talking to his supporters and registered democrats in addition to having the benefit of editing his "best of" moments.

Republicans that watch it will only get annoyed. The film starts by saying Kerry was in the lead until the Bush admin ran an unfair smear campaign on Kerry. Kerry did nothing and his popularity dropped among veterans. Moore countered this pretty well in the movie, but he didn't counter the footage of Kerry saying he would have voted for the war even if he knew the intelligence was false at the time. A few moments in the film would drive zealous republicans crazy like: allowing a guest to sing the Finland national anthem to a confused crowd that wasn't properly told why, his comments on immigration, some of Roseanne's over the top jokes, and finally Moore insanely accepted, I believe it was, a bronze star that belonged to the grand father of one of the people in an event. Literally a guy went up and offered a family war metal from a deceased relative. I cringed as Moore seem to give as little humility to it as someone offering to pay for his dinner, "Really are you sure? Wow thanks." It's a waste. People fight to defend their country but more so to defend their family. You just can't take something so personal to someone's family history when its completely meaningless to yours. Democrats who watch this movie will get bored, since it's the same rhetoric we've already heard. Go watch several of Obama's speeches or check his website instead of watching this movie. Republicans who watch it will get annoyed and have more to complain about, further outlining the divisions between the parties that we should instead work to break.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Departing from the usual style he employs for his left wing documentaries, Michael Moore here takes us on a journey of his nationwide tour of America to target young 'slackers' at colleges and convention centres, and launch a campaign to get them to get out and vote to get George Bush out of office and John Kerry in at the 2004 Presidential Elections. Coming a year after the invasion of Iraq, Moore has plenty of ammunition to hand, dragging out bereaved families, embittered, disillusioned troops and popular, anti war celebrities such as REM. None of it worked, but targeting no less than all the key states needed for a Kerry victory (though this is spurious all along with the corruption he exposes from the Bush camp, especially since, once again, the Florida vote is needed here), Moore certainly met a lot of people and has a lot of experiences to share with his audience.

The people who loathe him have probably made him more famous than the people who love him, but all the same, Moore has got to be probably the most well known, mainstream documentary maker in the west at the moment. So it's odd that this one appears to have skipped a cinema release over here and the first I knew of it was in the bargain bin at Morrison's. As I said, it's notable for not employing the usual style Moore uses for these such films, absent are his voice overs and usual distinctive styles. Still, it's no less him and one of his films, with his liberal politics and persistive bear baiting all over it. His sarcastic sense of humour aimed at the hypocrisy and nonsense of the Republican Party, is in evidence again, but no less lightens matters.

It's a different style and approach, but it highlights Moore's driven passion and commitment to his cause. As ever, he gets a bit carried away with himself at times, but in his own way, he is a performer trying to showcase his art and, like any showman, he can't bear to be ignored. ***