Watch the full documentary now
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est Comedy. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est Comedy. Afficher tous les articles
samedi 29 janvier 2011
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
Watch the full documentary now (Please read FAQ No.10 before watching)
WARNING: There are no subtitles where needed
There’s no doubt Morgan Spurlock is a brave man. In Super Size Me, the director subsisted on junk food for 30 days and suffered the consequences. In 2006, after finding out his wife, vegan chef Alexandra Jamieson (who features in his previous effort), is pregnant, Spurlock takes action–John McCain style–to secure a more peaceful planet for his unborn child.
In Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?, he gets his shots, works out, and takes a self-defense class in preparation for a jaunt through Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to track down the Al-Qaeda fugitive (his itinerary neglects Iran and Iraq). With a child on the way, the $25 million reward holds some attraction, but video-game graphics, terrorist trading cards, and action-movie music underline the quixotic nature of Spurlock’s quest.
Similarly, the movie itself is a mixed success. The humor that fueled his first film can fall flat when the stakes are higher. Pop-culture references and serious conversations with concerned citizens make for odd bedfellows. It isn’t that Spurlock disrespects his subjects, but that he tries harder to entertain than to elucidate, and his interviews merely reinforce the notion that people everywhere share similar concerns.
Unfortunately, fellow Oscar nominated filmmakers, like Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country) and James Longley (Iraq in Fragments), already beat him to the punch. Spurlock has also released a book with the same name to expand on themes explored in this somewhat superfluous documentary.
WARNING: There are no subtitles where needed
There’s no doubt Morgan Spurlock is a brave man. In Super Size Me, the director subsisted on junk food for 30 days and suffered the consequences. In 2006, after finding out his wife, vegan chef Alexandra Jamieson (who features in his previous effort), is pregnant, Spurlock takes action–John McCain style–to secure a more peaceful planet for his unborn child.
In Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?, he gets his shots, works out, and takes a self-defense class in preparation for a jaunt through Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to track down the Al-Qaeda fugitive (his itinerary neglects Iran and Iraq). With a child on the way, the $25 million reward holds some attraction, but video-game graphics, terrorist trading cards, and action-movie music underline the quixotic nature of Spurlock’s quest.
Similarly, the movie itself is a mixed success. The humor that fueled his first film can fall flat when the stakes are higher. Pop-culture references and serious conversations with concerned citizens make for odd bedfellows. It isn’t that Spurlock disrespects his subjects, but that he tries harder to entertain than to elucidate, and his interviews merely reinforce the notion that people everywhere share similar concerns.
Unfortunately, fellow Oscar nominated filmmakers, like Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country) and James Longley (Iraq in Fragments), already beat him to the punch. Spurlock has also released a book with the same name to expand on themes explored in this somewhat superfluous documentary.
Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! – Season 1
1. Talking to the Dead (Alternative link at MegaVideo).
Penn and Teller introduce their series and explain their use of profanity. Then they look into the practices of popular psychics of today and reveal how those who claim to be in contact with the dead are actually performing an age-old trick called “cold reading.”
In the investigative tradition of master illusionist and early 20th-century ghostbuster Harry Houdini, magicians Penn Jillette and partner Teller debunk the paranormal in their wildly entertaining Showtime series, Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t!
The first season of this unusual show finds the garrulous Penn and silent Teller taking aim, over 13 episodes, at such perennial hokum as “Talking to the Dead,” “ESP,” and “Ouija Boards.” But they also go after a couple of contemporary, exploitation-driven industries they believe con vulnerable people in the same way phony mediums rip off the bereaved and “regression therapists” lead on would-be alien abductees.
One of these industries is the network of charlatans promising sexual enhancement through bigger breasts or male genitals; the other is the publishing world’s raging river of self-help books. But our boys don’t stop there. Just to make sure each viewer comes away impeached at least once for championing a sacred cow, Penn and Teller take on creationists, anti-smokers, vegetarians, extreme environmentalists, and feng shui enthusiasts.
Everyone is bound to feel a little offended at some point in this boxed set’s 360 minutes, but P&T offset their indignation with wily humor and the occasional, dazzling trick.
Penn and Teller introduce their series and explain their use of profanity. Then they look into the practices of popular psychics of today and reveal how those who claim to be in contact with the dead are actually performing an age-old trick called “cold reading.”
In the investigative tradition of master illusionist and early 20th-century ghostbuster Harry Houdini, magicians Penn Jillette and partner Teller debunk the paranormal in their wildly entertaining Showtime series, Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t!
The first season of this unusual show finds the garrulous Penn and silent Teller taking aim, over 13 episodes, at such perennial hokum as “Talking to the Dead,” “ESP,” and “Ouija Boards.” But they also go after a couple of contemporary, exploitation-driven industries they believe con vulnerable people in the same way phony mediums rip off the bereaved and “regression therapists” lead on would-be alien abductees.
One of these industries is the network of charlatans promising sexual enhancement through bigger breasts or male genitals; the other is the publishing world’s raging river of self-help books. But our boys don’t stop there. Just to make sure each viewer comes away impeached at least once for championing a sacred cow, Penn and Teller take on creationists, anti-smokers, vegetarians, extreme environmentalists, and feng shui enthusiasts.
Everyone is bound to feel a little offended at some point in this boxed set’s 360 minutes, but P&T offset their indignation with wily humor and the occasional, dazzling trick.
samedi 25 décembre 2010
Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! – Season 3
The third season of this award-winning series featuring master showmen Penn & Teller, delivers viewers an aggressive, humorous exposé of taboo topics, using the duo’s trademark humor, knowledge of carnival tricks as well as hidden cameras and blatant confrontation.Winner of the prestigious 2004 and 2005 Writer’s Guild Award for Best Comedy/Variety Series and nominated the last three years for the Emmy® for Outstanding Reality Program and Outstanding Writing for Non Fiction Programming, Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! Continues its controversial muckraking throughout season three by confronting many of the institutions society holds dear.
1. Circumcision
Argues against the alleged medical benefits of circumcision, and describes the negatives of the procedure. Suggests that the practice was started by doctors as an extra charge to add to the bill.
Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! – Season 4
Libertarians may rejoice over the release of Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t – Season 4, another collection of Showtime’s provocative series debunking popular theories and so-called conventional wisdom.Hosted with an infectious sneer by skeptic-magicians Penn & Teller, Bullsh*t takes on issues of varying levels of seriousness and controversy, puncturing both liberal and conservative arguments whenever they seem, to the sarcastic hosts, specious. The Complete Fourth Season kicks things off with a swift kick to the Boy Scouts, who are shown no mercy for enforcing discriminatory policies against gays and atheists while thriving on government funding at all levels: federal, state, and local.
Bullsh*t visits with paragons of Scout virtue who were nevertheless kicked out for being homosexual, but the episode does something more: It deflates the very notion that the Scouts are even important to the teaching of survival skills as well as wholesome values.Following that is a rather eye-opening show about prostitution, and why sex-trade workers can’t always be described as slaves. An obligatory, though fun, visit to a brothel in Nevada (where prostitution is regulated by the state) is complemented by a day spent with a 25-year-old student paying her tuition through sex sessions with upscale clients. But there’s pretty serious stuff, too, in the form of activist arguments on all sides of the debate about prostitution’s alleged threat to humankind.
1. The Boy Scouts
Protests the Boy Scouts of America not allowing homosexuals or atheists to join as a government-funded organization. Claims the control of the Boy Scouts by the Mormon church as the source of the discrimination.
Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! – Season 5
Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! – Season 5 carries on the comic magicians’ Showtime series in which they debunk one or another contemporary myth or collective assumption about the way in which we live.The fifth season of this award-winning series featuring master showmen Penn & Teller, delivers viewers an aggressive, humorous exposé of taboo topics, using the duo’s trademark humor, knowledge of carnival tricks as well as hidden cameras and blatant confrontation.Nominated the last four years for the Emmy for Outstanding Reality Program and Outstanding Writing for Non Fiction Programming, Penn & Teller: Bullshit! continues its controversial muckraking throughout season five by confronting many of the institutions society holds dear.1. Obesity
Attacks claims of the emergence of an obesity epidemic and weight loss products. Investigates societal discrimination against the fat. Features National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance and Glenn A. Gaesser, a professor of exercise physiology of University of Virginia.
Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! – Season 6
Entertaining as always: a mixed season, with some hits and some misfires. You’d think they’d have run out of good subject matter, but that’s not the case.
This season they tackle such evils as the war on porn, new age medicine, the “green” lifestyle, and sensitivity training.Who else can hold up the collective American condition so effectively, yet be so entertaining?As usual, they flay the incompetent non-thinkers. Hard to believe there are actually people out there with so few functioning neurons.Only negative is I think the vulgarity is a bit over done, but hey, that’s their style. Quality of the transfer is good.
1. War on Porn
Opposes the movement to regulate pornography on the Internet and argues that it is attempting to restrict freedom of speech. Also rejects the notions that pornography can lead to addiction and aggression.
Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! – Season 7
The seventh season of this award-winning series featuring master showmen Penn & Teller, delivers viewers an aggressive, humorous exposé of taboo topics, using the duo’s trademark humor, knowledge of carnival tricks as well as hidden cameras and blatant confrontation.Nominated several consecutive years for the Emmy® for Outstanding Reality Program and Outstanding Writing for Non Fiction Programming, Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! continues its controversial muckraking throughout season seven by confronting many of the institutions society holds dear.
1. Orgasms
Questions the notion that Americans are in need of bigger and better orgasms by meeting with the inventor of a $12,000 remote-control orgasm machine, taking a $300 lesson from a sex coach, and observing a demonstration on how to unleash one’s inner erotic rock star.
Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! – Season 8
1. Cheerleaders
High school cheerleading should be classified as a sport to increase required safety measures due to its risks. Also discusses how the majority of competitions and cheerleading goods are managed by Varsity Brands Inc. and if cheerleading were to be declared a sport Varsity would have to forfeit managing competitions to an independent body creating a significant conflict of interests.
