Michael Moore is knocking at the corporate door again, but this time his social/ satiric efforts are not confined to General Motors and Flint, Mich., where he so hilariously pursued GM chairman Roger Smith trying to get some answers.
This time, Moore travels mainly in the Midwest, stumping against welfare freeloaders -- no, not welfare mothers, but the big mothers of them all, corporations. Big business, we're told, receives about $170 billion a year in government assistance; for instance, McDonald's got $3 million for such a worthy cause as promoting Chicken McNuggets in Singapore and Pillsbury bagged $11 million in government handouts to promote the Dough Boy in the Third World.
In the same droll style as his pithy "Roger & Me," corporate jester Moore's deadpan questioning of corporate PR officers, security guards and even Nike head Richard Knight are wickedly funny; with his low-key ruses and mock-reverential manner, Moore gets more with his honey-hammed manner than Mike Wallace and Sam Donaldson ever get with their hard stares and thick eyebrows. "The Big One" crackles with belly laughs as Moore pokes fun, and articulates low-key resentment at the contradictions of big business, namely, corporations laying off workers in times of huge profits and hiking off to such expanses as Mexico and Indonesia to maintain their "competitiveness."
Moore's style is a curious and amusing mix: a combination of Charles Kuralt with Mark Twain's satiric sensibility. As a humorist, his low-key fulminations are similar to fellow Midwesterner Garrison Keillor, whom he encounters on this criss-cross of America. The reasons for the roly-poly Moore's travels are to promote his new book, "Downsize This!" a tirade against layoffs in times of plenty. His book publisher, Random House, is not aware of Moore's hidden agenda of making a documentary about his trip, and the perky media "escorts" -- assigned by the publisher to keep him on track -- are constantly tested by his on-the-road side-trips to corporate USA.
Topped always by a local sports cap and outfitted in clothing that can best be described as neo-hardware store, Moore is a rollicksome sight. He's especially funny when speaking to college kids and fulminating on the nonsense of everyday life. While he's among the elite as a stand-up comic, he's a bit flabby when it comes to economics; in one particular telling scene, his ambush backfires in a visit to Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson's office, arriving with a group of ornery welfare mothers. He's quickly sliced and diced by an unflappable Thompson aide who punctures Moore's ruse and nails him with specific answers about social welfare reform. Moore can only hunker and hide in the chaos of the scene.
Still, Moore's casually caustic style is a delight: in his shaggy-dog way, he's as fire-and-brimstone as any stump preacher and, often, as funny, as a Will Rogers. His comic diatribes are keen and, a la Art Buchwald, point up the absurdity of so-called reality. The title, by the way, comes from his idea that the United States of America is a lousy name for this country: We should be more titanic, noting that a tiny, island racked by unemployment, bad food and weird monarchs has the audacity to call itself Great Britain. And the national anthem should be changed to "We will rock you!" These are good ideas -- E-mail your congressman.
THE BIG ONE
Dog Eat Dog Films/BBC Television
Producer Kathleen Glynn
Director Michael Moore
Director of photography Brian Danitz,
Chris Smith
Executive producer David Mortimer,
Jeremy Gibson
Editor Meg Reticker
Sound Sarah Price
Music World Famous Blue Jays
Color/stereo
Running time -- 94 minutes
No MPAA rating...
This time, Moore travels mainly in the Midwest, stumping against welfare freeloaders -- no, not welfare mothers, but the big mothers of them all, corporations. Big business, we're told, receives about $170 billion a year in government assistance; for instance, McDonald's got $3 million for such a worthy cause as promoting Chicken McNuggets in Singapore and Pillsbury bagged $11 million in government handouts to promote the Dough Boy in the Third World.
In the same droll style as his pithy "Roger & Me," corporate jester Moore's deadpan questioning of corporate PR officers, security guards and even Nike head Richard Knight are wickedly funny; with his low-key ruses and mock-reverential manner, Moore gets more with his honey-hammed manner than Mike Wallace and Sam Donaldson ever get with their hard stares and thick eyebrows. "The Big One" crackles with belly laughs as Moore pokes fun, and articulates low-key resentment at the contradictions of big business, namely, corporations laying off workers in times of huge profits and hiking off to such expanses as Mexico and Indonesia to maintain their "competitiveness."
Moore's style is a curious and amusing mix: a combination of Charles Kuralt with Mark Twain's satiric sensibility. As a humorist, his low-key fulminations are similar to fellow Midwesterner Garrison Keillor, whom he encounters on this criss-cross of America. The reasons for the roly-poly Moore's travels are to promote his new book, "Downsize This!" a tirade against layoffs in times of plenty. His book publisher, Random House, is not aware of Moore's hidden agenda of making a documentary about his trip, and the perky media "escorts" -- assigned by the publisher to keep him on track -- are constantly tested by his on-the-road side-trips to corporate USA.
Topped always by a local sports cap and outfitted in clothing that can best be described as neo-hardware store, Moore is a rollicksome sight. He's especially funny when speaking to college kids and fulminating on the nonsense of everyday life. While he's among the elite as a stand-up comic, he's a bit flabby when it comes to economics; in one particular telling scene, his ambush backfires in a visit to Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson's office, arriving with a group of ornery welfare mothers. He's quickly sliced and diced by an unflappable Thompson aide who punctures Moore's ruse and nails him with specific answers about social welfare reform. Moore can only hunker and hide in the chaos of the scene.
Still, Moore's casually caustic style is a delight: in his shaggy-dog way, he's as fire-and-brimstone as any stump preacher and, often, as funny, as a Will Rogers. His comic diatribes are keen and, a la Art Buchwald, point up the absurdity of so-called reality. The title, by the way, comes from his idea that the United States of America is a lousy name for this country: We should be more titanic, noting that a tiny, island racked by unemployment, bad food and weird monarchs has the audacity to call itself Great Britain. And the national anthem should be changed to "We will rock you!" These are good ideas -- E-mail your congressman.
THE BIG ONE
Dog Eat Dog Films/BBC Television
Producer Kathleen Glynn
Director Michael Moore
Director of photography Brian Danitz,
Chris Smith
Executive producer David Mortimer,
Jeremy Gibson
Editor Meg Reticker
Sound Sarah Price
Music World Famous Blue Jays
Color/stereo
Running time -- 94 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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