MovieChat Forums > Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers (2003) Discussion > Don't bother watching it

Don't bother watching it

posted 16 years ago by tharg3691-1
9 replies | jump to latest

This movie is pretty awful.
The opening speech at the 2001 G8 summit was interesting & showed promise but it all went rapidly down hill from there.
The production & editing quickly became extremely annoying.Incongruous montages of politicians & corporate figures edited so they look like they are mouthing the words to lines repeated too many times. It's perspective is drawn from 2 extremes of anti-consumerism in the form of Castro's Cuba & the radical (but not convincing) John Zerzan who has some interesting views but they are poorly presented & backed up with little statistical information or facts. The could have cut out all of the irrelevant crap , art student style cinematography & terrible music to leave less than 10 mins of relevant content.
The whole experience was like watching a bad 90's music video.
Utter *beep*

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Steijer 16 years ago

Jesus christ, the editing was horrible and ruined the whole picture.

[–] ponte1 16 years ago

its not an information piece, its a presentation. If you dont get it, keep it to yourself.

[–] Bank_of_Liberia 15 years ago

So... What exactly did it present. It certainly didn't have much to say.

"Jeffery Dahmer, eat your heart out!"

[–] TasosAv 15 years ago

you are just a bunch of ignorant people.
this film, like "the corporation" are important films.

[–] wisof 15 years ago

I think the subject matter (whatever there was of it) is something important to discuss, but the way this was presented totally destroyed any credibility to the movie. There were some beautiful images, but maybe that's where it should remain, as static images found in Adbusters instead of wasting time with little content.

[–] crayford548 15 years ago

Completely disagree with this post. Even if people disagree with the content; the actual film i.e. cinematography, editing, music were excellent. I think some people are misunderstanding the point of view of the film maker and hsould perhaps be a little more open minded for differing opinions. I didn't necessarily agree with what the film was trying to promote, however it was a fresh take on modern capitalist/communist societies and perhaps the ridiculousness of both.

[–] Roddenhyzer 14 years ago

I agree with the OP. Regardless of the point of view it was trying to present (or rather promote), 'Surplus' just failed as a documentary. It didn't contain any real information, just a few minutes worth of random opinions drowned in a sea of absolutely meaningless, endlessly repeated soundbites and horribly amateurish music video editing. I couldn't have been more disappointed.

[–] earlyhigh 13 years ago

Well said tharg3691-1, I honestly couldn't have put it better myself.