Moore, Michael

Bowling for Columbine

Michael Moore's superb documentary (following in the footsteps of Roger & Me and The Big One) tackles a meaty subject: gun control. Moore skillfully lays out arguments surrounding the issue and short-circuits them all, leaving one impossible question: why do Americans kill each other more often than people in any other democratic nation? Moore focuses his quest around the shootings at Columbine High School and the shooting of one 6-year-old by another near his own hometown of Flint, Michigan. By approaching the headquarters of K-Mart (where the Columbine shooters bought their ammo) and going to Charlton Heston's own home, Moore demands accountability from the forces that support unrestricted gun sales in the U.S. His arguments are conducted with the humor and empathy that have made Moore more than just a gadfly; he's become a genuine voice of reason in a world driven by fear and greed. --Bret Fetzer

Explores people's facination with the handgun and the possible reasons for the increase in gun violence in the United States.
Genre: Documentary
Rating: R
Release Date: 13-FEB-2007
Media Type: DVD

Roger & Me

Roger and Me is a loose, smart-alecky documentary directed and narrated by Michael Moore, an everyman host with a devastating wit and a working-class pose. When his hometown is devastated by the plant closure of an American corporate giant (making record profits, one should note), the hell-raising political commentator with a prankster streak tries to turn his camera on General Motors Chairman Roger B. Smith, the elusive Roger of the title, and the film is loosely structured around Moore's odyssey to track down the corporate giant for an interview.

While Moore ambushes his corporate subjects like a blue-collar Geraldo Rivera, a guerrilla interviewer who treasures his comic rebuffs as much as his interviews, his portraits of the colorful characters he meets along the way can be patronizing. The famous come off as absurdly out of touch (Anita Bryant appears for some can-do cheerleading, and hometown celebrity Bob Eubanks tells some boorish jokes), and the disenfranchised poor (notably an unemployed woman who sells rabbit meat to make ends meet) all too often appear as buffoons or hicks. But behind his loose play with the facts and snarky attitude is a devastating look at the victims of downsizing in the midst of the 1980s economic boom. This portrait of Reagan's America and the tarnish on the American dream comes down to a simple question: what is corporate America's responsibility to the country's citizens? That's a question no one at GM wants to answer. --Sean Axmaker

In 1989 Michael Moore winner of 2002's Best Documentary Feature Academy Award and Cannes Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Bowling for Columbinetriumphantly burst upon the American moviemaking scene with Roger & Mea hilarious penetrating forerunner of the independent film movement to follow.Moore doggedly and hilariously tried to do what every working stiff dreams of: talk to the man at the top. His efforts to meet General Motors Chairman Roger Smith and persuade him to visit Flint Michigan frame a film that uses humor to devsatating effect. Roger & Me champions people over profits and slyly lampoons corporate America as it shows how the Flint folks cope with economic setbacks.Running Time: 90 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. UPC: 085392764525

Canadian Bacon

Fresh from the success of Roger and Me, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore made the mistake of trying his hand at fiction film. Hoping to satirize America's leap into the Gulf War (and its abandonment of its industrial base), he wrote and directed this disappointing comedy, which fell flat despite a cast that included Alan Alda, Rip Torn, Rhea Perlman, John Candy, and Kevin Pollak. The premise is that the president (Alda) is so far down in the polls that he has to create a war to bolster his popularity; he picks a fight with Canada, demonizing the bland denizens of the Great White North to the point that a group of Niagara Falls law-enforcement types (led by Candy in one of his final film roles) decides to invade on their own initiative. There are a couple of funny moments (mostly having to do with the propaganda campaign against Canada), but otherwise, a frozen stiff. --Marshall Fine

"Surrender pronto, or we'll level Toronto!" Writer/director Michael Moore (Roger and Me) serves up a "delightfully ludicrous" (Sight and Sound) political send-up brimming with madcap hilarity and side-splitting slapstick! Starring legendary funnyman John Candy, as well as Rhea Perlman, Alan Alda, Kevin Pollak, Rip Torn and Steven Wright, Canadian Bacon is one "funny, acidic satire" (Variety)! Faced with sagging approval ratings and disgruntled arms manufacturers, the U.S. President (Alda) decides to cook up a new Cold War with Canada! And after a flood ofmedia propaganda, Americans waste no time in "patriotically" burning their ice skates and swearing off maple syrup. But when bumbling U.S. sheriff Boomer (Candy) and his hair-trigger deputy Honey (Perlman) decide to take matters into their own hands and lead a preemptive strike, they soon find themselves embroiled in a hilarious international incident that's too close for comfort, eh!

The Awful Truth - The Complete DVD Set (Seasons 1 & 2)

Can you handle the truth? If you're Mickey Mouse, George Will, a Philip Morris executive, or any one of the corporate no-good-doers who pollute the environment, abandon their customers, or cheat their workers, best be on your guard: Michael Moore has got your number, or at the very least, your home address! Moore, muckraking journalist, guerilla filmmaker (Roger & Me), and all-around nonpartisan offender, follows up his Emmy-winning, albeit short-lived, TV series TV Nation with this even more confrontational series that can be seen on Bravo ("Between the Playboy Channel and Cartoon Network"). This set contains all the episodes from the show's premiere season. It is perhaps the most outrageous television you have never seen. The series is much more than Moore "going in someplace to bug somebody." There is method to Moore's madness. His outrage is palpable as he shames an insurance company into paying for a customer's life-or-death pancreas transplant by staging the man's mock funeral outside corporate headquarters. At the height of Monica-gate, Moore shows Washington, D.C., what a real witch-hunt looks like, complete with shrieking costumed Pilgrims. Other season 1 highlights include the return of Crackers, the plucky Corporate Crime-Fighting Chicken, who visits Disneyland to advise Mickey Mouse about Disney's alleged unfair labor practices. Moore also spreads holiday jeer inside Philip Morris by leading a choir of cigarette-ravaged carolers, each of whom must use a voice box. The Awful Truth is not for the faint of heart (or conservatives, for that matter). As Moore remarks after a segment in which his "Gay Team" cruises America in a pink Sodommobile, "We'll never be back on NBC now." You go, Mike!

In the sophomore season, Moore rails against politics as usual and exposes what he calls your "basic, everyday, run of the mill evil corporations." The Awful Truth was anything but comfort television, as witness the episode "Compassionate Conservative Night," in which "Team Dow" and "Team Nasdaq" engage in such contests as "Dunk the Homeless" and "Pie the Poor." In another segment, Moore launches an orange day-glow wallet exchange program after a spate of shootings in which police mistook African American victims' wallets for firearms. Moore makes hay with the 2000 presidential election. In one audacious segment, he offers his support to any candidate who will jump into the Awful Truth's portable mosh pit. George W. Bush's response, "Go find real work," made its way into Fahrenheit 9/11. Only Alan Keyes is game, incurring attacks by the other candidates during a televised debate. In this series' version of a Very Special Episode, Moore presents a short film he directed, "The Choice," in which Moore runs a Ficus plant against an unopposed candidate for the New Jersey House of Representatives. Throughout the season, Moore plants the seeds that will pollinate in his two controversial cross-over theatrical documentaries. Anticipating Bowling for Columbine, one segment takes aim at the NRA with the introduction of a new gun mascot, Pistol Pete, a costumed weapon, who is summarily tossed out of a Las Vegas gun show, NRA headquarters, and our nation's capitol. Moore also turns up the temperature on then-Texas Governor George W. Bush in a segment that pits the man who would be president against his brother Jeb to see which of their respective states, Texas or Florida, will prevail in the number of executions. For a brief and shining moment, the revolution was televised. At 30 minutes an episode, The Awful Truth remains swift (or Swiftian) satire. For fans, this two-disc set will complete the Moore manifesto, and give more ammunition to his critics. --Donald Liebenson

From acclaimed filmmaker and author Michael Moore comes THE AWFUL TRUTH, the most daring documentary show to hit the American public since Moore's own TV Nation. Now, for the first time, this Emmy nominated series is available in one complete DVD set.

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The Big One

A brazen mixture of stand-up comedy, political commentary, CEO confrontations, and shenanigans with Random House tour escorts, Michael Moore's second foray into dark docucomedy after Roger and Me follows his Midwest book tour to promote Downsize This. One of his Milwaukee tour escorts explains that medium-sized cities in the Midwest tend not to attract tours by the self-important celebrities of the Coasts; instead, they attract "more thoughtful authors like Michael." His kind of thoughtfulness evokes both laughter at, and disgust with, corporate America. To be sure, there is a certain naiveté in Moore's proworker take on corporate and political America--his half-serious plan for a Nike shoe factory in Flint, Michigan, makes as much business sense as coal mining on Maui--but he gives voice to well-reasoned arguments that have most easily gotten lost amid the Clinton-era boom's corporate downsizing and reliance on "temporary" employees.

In cities like Des Moines, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Portland, The Big One juxtaposes both Moore's lighthearted-sounding but deeply biting humor speaking before bookstore patrons and painful-to-watch confrontations with security personnel at companies such as Procter & Gamble and PayDay. (For future targets of Moore's style of journalism, take note of Nike CEO Phil Knight's fairly effective approach as Moore calls him to task on Nike's Indonesian labor.) Moore speaks clandestinely with Borders employees organizing a union; a woman laid off from Ford attends Moore's Rockford, Illinois, bookstore visit the same day. Though slow in spots, frustrating if not depressing in others, it's intensely funny the rest of the time. The Big One is fundamental viewing. --Erik Macki

Michael Moore on a book tour of his book \""Downsize this\"" which criticizes American corporate behavior.
Genre: Documentary
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 28-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD

The Awful Truth - The Complete Second Season

Elvis Costello once sang, "I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused." One gets the feeling that it is the exact opposite with Michael Moore. In this sophomore season of his subversively funny, albeit short-lived, Bravo series The Awful Truth, the working class hero operates under the basic-cable radar to rail against politics as usual and to expose what he calls your "basic, everyday, run of the mill evil corporations." The Awful Truth was anything but comfort television, as witness the episode "Compassionate Conservative Night," in which "Team Dow" and "Team Nasdaq" engage in such contests as "Dunk the Homeless" and "Pie the Poor." In another segment, Moore launches an orange day-glow wallet exchange program after a spate of shootings in which police mistook African American victims' wallets for firearms. Moore makes hay with the 2000 presidential election. In one audacious segment, he offers his support to any candidate who will jump into the Awful Truth's portable mosh pit. George W. Bush's response, "Go find real work," made its way into Fahrenheit 9/11. Only Alan Keyes is game, incurring attacks by the other candidates during a televised debate. In this series' version of a Very Special Episode, Moore presents a short film he directed, "The Choice," in which Moore runs a Ficus plant against an unopposed candidate for the New Jersey House of Representatives.

Throughout the season, Moore plants the seeds that will pollinate in his two controversial cross-over theatrical documentaries. Anticipating Bowling for Columbine, one segment takes aim at the NRA with the introduction of a new gun mascot, Pistol Pete, a costumed weapon, who is summarily tossed out of a Las Vegas gun show, NRA headquarters, and our nation's capitol. Moore also turns up the temperature on then-Texas Governor George W. Bush in a segment that pits the man who would be president against his brother Jeb to see which of their respective states, Texas or Florida, will prevail in the number of executions. For a brief and shining moment, the revolution was televised. At 30 minutes an episode, The Awful Truth remains swift (or Swiftian) satire. For fans, this two-disc set will complete the Moore manifesto, and give more ammunition to his critics. --Donald Liebenson

He's back! Michael Moore, America's Emmy-nominated gadfly of gall, takes to the road again for a second season of The Awful Truth, hailed by critics as the most daring show to hit the American public since Moore's own critically acclaimed TV Nation. In th

The Awful Truth - The Complete First Season

Can you handle the truth? If you're Mickey Mouse, George Will, a Philip Morris executive, or any one of the corporate no-good-doers who pollute the environment, abandon their customers, or cheat their workers, best be on your guard: Michael Moore has got your number, or at the very least, your home address! Moore, muckraking journalist, guerilla filmmaker (Roger & Me), and all-around nonpartisan offender, follows up his Emmy-winning, albeit short-lived, TV series TV Nation with this even more confrontational series that can be seen on Bravo ("Between the Playboy Channel and Cartoon Network"). This set contains all the episodes from the show's premiere season. It is perhaps the most outrageous television you have never seen. The series is much more than Moore "going in someplace to bug somebody." There is method to Moore's madness. His outrage is palpable as he shames an insurance company into paying for a customer's life-or-death pancreas transplant by staging the man's mock funeral outside corporate headquarters. At the height of Monica-gate, Moore shows Washington, D.C., what a real witch-hunt looks like, complete with shrieking costumed Pilgrims. Other season 1 highlights include the return of Crackers, the plucky Corporate Crime-Fighting Chicken, who visits Disneyland to advise Mickey Mouse about Disney's alleged unfair labor practices. Moore also spreads holiday jeer inside Philip Morris by leading a choir of cigarette-ravaged carolers, each of whom must use a voice box. The Awful Truth is not for the faint of heart (or conservatives, for that matter). As Moore remarks after a segment in which his "Gay Team" cruises America in a pink Sodommobile, "We'll never be back on NBC now." You go, Mike! --Donald Liebenson

From the acclaimed filmmaker who brought you Roger & Me comes the most daring documentary show to hit the American Public since Moore's TV Nation: THE AWFUL TRUTH

Michael Moore, hailed by the New York Times as a modern-day Mark Twain, is at it again with the show that was shut down by the mayor of NYC, got Moore sued by a wealthy industrialist, and landed his Corporate Crime-Fighting Chicken in Disney World's very own jail.

Shot in his signature "guerilla video" style, each half hour episode is filled with scathingly funny observations that bridge comedy and controversy and places Moore in the middle of today's hot topics.

DVD Features: Michael Moore Biography; "Moore Awful Truths"; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection

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