Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? (2008)

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Although the title makes it sound like it will be interesting and it is directed and written by Morgan Spurlock from Super Size Me which was a very engaging, original film, Where in the World is neither of those.It follows Morgan as he travels to the Middle East in search of- you guessed it- Osama Bin Laden. The movie takes you through many interviews with locals of Egypt, Israel, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and more. He asks them about their feelings towards America, and of course whether they know where OBL (as he calls him) is. None of these interviews yield any substantial, insightful or noteworthy remarks. The movie simply drags on and Morgan's mock quest seems pointless even for us to watch.The movie is overly gimmicky and my impression was that it tried much too hard to do something that had already been done before. Certain parts reminded me of Bill Maher's Religulous which I thoroughly enjoyed and actually saw 3 times. Similarly, Spurlock inserts some comedic elements into his scenes, a few of which I have to admit are funny. For instance he shows a page in Osama's diary which reads: 1. Clean Cave (this one is crossed out and done), 2. Kill all Infidels etc.; and on another page "I hate America", "I am bored today". This was the only moment where I actually laughed.The big difference is that Religulous posed real questions and was much more historical, analytical and instructive. If you're looking for a film where the director already has his answers before he sets upon his search, Fahrenheit 9/11 or Capitalism: A Love Story (which I will be reviewing soon) are much stronger candidates. Fabio said "it is like a bad Michael Moore" and that pretty much sums it up.Fabio's rating: 5 Mine: 3 Read more reviews at: http://paulinasmovies.blogspot.com

It isn't often that I give up watching a DVD before the (sometimes bitter) end but this one I did! You may ask why and my answer is really very simple. As can be seen throughout the documentary where various people are identified, the producers DO know how to create captions so WHY didn't they provide subtitles to all the Arabic, French and goodness-knows-what-else answers to questions that Morgan Spurlock asked in English? I imagine like most viewers, I am NOT fluent in every language of the world and so, when, for example, Morgan asks something like "What do you hope for in the future for your children?" and the long response in (I presume) Arabic brings peals of laughter, I am left totally bewildered wondering (and, of course, WANTING TO KNOW) what was said.I imagine that, had I known, I may have found this a most interesting and enlightening documentary but, as it is, what a waste of time!

When Morgan Spurlock discovers he is going to be a father his initial feelings of joy are overcome with an intense worry about how he can protect his child from the dangers of the world. Of course saving for the future, educating from a young age and moving to a good area flash through his mind but instead Spurlock decides that the most productive thing he can do is head out to the Middle East in an attempt to locate and capture terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden.I really liked Super Size Me. It used a gimmick to build an effective and engaging documentary into the importance of diet and the impact of poor eating. So whenever his latest film came out I had assumed that the overall product would be the same even if the topic was much larger. The film just about starts out this way as Spurlock essentially uses his gimmick as an introduction to a couple of the countries of the Middle East where he superficially explores politics and discovers, hey, they're just people – just like us yeah? OK, so far so basic but I am assuming that he is just easing us into something right? Well, no. Actually what the film does is become more and more about the gimmick and less and less about anything of substance. Ultimately what we end up with is lots of bemused reactions to the question "where is Osama?" It is a real shame but for some reason Spurlock has aimed his film at people who do not get access to any news coverage outside of their own country. Maybe this is me being snobbish though, maybe lots of people do think that the Middle East contains nothing but goats and people who would happily die if only they could kill one Western Infidel™ at the same time. Well, for those people this film might blow your mind but honestly it is just so basic that I doubt even those with zero world view will not be engaged by Spurlock's film.The conclusion of the film suggests that Spurlock has learnt a lesson but, if that is the case, I have to wonder why he couldn't work it out to let us into it as well. The film cries out to be taken in hand in the editing room and really pulled into a structure that works – even if it means using less of the "on-location" footage than you would like. Sadly this doesn't happen either and the film gets more and more basic as it goes on, sinking into the gimmick and losing site of any chance to make intelligent points, educate or challenge the viewer. Could have been an interesting and insightful film but instead is just a fairly pointless mess of wasted potential.

If this movie knows where he is, there'll be international headlines made, and the filmmakers will get that US$25 million (or more?) bounty that is placed on his head. Of course it will be silly to presume that this film can find the answers to the multi-million dollar question, or even come close to it, so just what was the intention?Morgan Spurlock isn't new to controversy, having burst onto the documentary scene with his real life gorging on MacDonald's for every meal in order to drive home the point that junk food really does junk your well being. So for this new film of his, it stems from his desire to seek out the world's #1 wanted man, and ask him just what floats his boat. He may be putting on his jester cap with his somewhat hilarious introduction, but looking at the preparation with vaccination and even attending some terrorism survival course, he's quite dead set in his mission to find that elusive man.Until of course you realize that he's hitting all the relative safe havens for the most part, before venturing into the more likely places in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But what he seeks to unearth is the Middle East's attitudes towards Americans, and it seems that the common consensus is that while they have nothing against the people, almost everyone that Spurlock chose to showcase, has issues with the foreign policies. And from interviews with the average Joes, they sure have issues with politics at home more than those that are from abroad. Spurlock also takes opportunity to slam the US foreign policy, and does so through a hilarious animated sequence involving Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty herself, in what would be a realistic case of sleeping with the wrong bedfellows.Bringing the camera from Morocco to Saudi Arabia, and interview people from both the state of Palestine and Israel, what he had presented were compelling arguments for and against, as well as plenty of moderate views that seek to debunk the bulk of western media who find delight in demonizing those in the Middle East. Through the looking glass peering at their everyday lives, the film comes to present the basic need for survival and providing for one's family, no matter one's geography, country, religion and culture. Naturally there were some feathers ruffled, especially when dealing with closed cultures who clam up, or intolerant folks who have no qualms in using violence, but in general, this documentary serves to be rather tame.Yes it's gimmicky in its title, and half the time you're not sure whether MXXSpulock will take that plunge and really head to where he will likely find some inkling of positive leads, but what it had presented instead, is something more powerful that this world really needs to reach out and have everyone taking a more tolerant attitude and to understand one another a lot more, to avoid conflict. This should be a world without strangers, and the documentary managed to show just a glimmer of that hope.