MovieChat Forums > Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus (2006) Discussion > Look at me! I'm awesome, I made a movie...

Look at me! I'm awesome, I made a movie!

posted 16 years ago by SeanOBackHair
7 replies | jump to latest

Don't get me wrong, the subject matter of this movie is really good. It's an interesting topic, but boy is this movie bad. The main thing thing that's wrong with it, is that Randy Olson can't keep himself out of the film. Not only is he in 85% of it, but the rest of the time his mom is in it, or his friends from college.

We go to the locations he grew up at, the places he ate, and makes sure to give us his opinions. I understand people like Michael Moore and Werner Herzog appear in their documentaries, but their personalities are far more entertaining and interesting.

He also presents us with so much information that he talks really fast during his voice overs. Overall, a dissapointing film and by the end of it I wanted to punch myself in the face because I was so sick of listening to him.

"Hey camera crew, make sure you get me in the shot so you watch me laugh and nod my head with whatever they're saying!" "Oh, make sure my mom gets to close out the film too!"

[–] Edward_de_Vere 16 years ago

That's what I thought when I saw it. It's a shame that he turned what could have been an interesting documentary on an important subject into "Hi Mom!"

[–] carbonated_turtle 15 years ago

Why wouldn't he put himself in there? When he's having a discussion with someone he puts them on camera when they speak, why not point the camera at himself when he speaks.

This is pretty common for this type of documentary. He's not just the creator of this movie, he's also the leading man. Why wouldn't the star of the movie be in it?

Personally I didn't find him annoying like you guys. I think it would have been pretty stupid if the camera just stayed on the people he was interviewing while he talks.

[–] SeanOBackHair 15 years ago

It's completely fine that he is in the film, but the amount of time he is in the film is absurd. Consider "Man on Wire", "Paradise Lost", "Grizzly Man", "Deliver Us From Evil", "Constantine's Sword" "The King of Kong", etc. etc. The people who made those films, kept themselves out, or kept their appearances to a minimum. I can't think of a documentary I've seen that is so self serving. Ben Stein's might be the closest I can think of, and yet it's still not even close.

The subject is really interesting, let it speak for itself. Don't show yourself sitting around playing poker with your buddies, don't interview your own mother multiple times. If you're the leading man you should have some sort of charisma or humor, and not just sit there with this smug look on your face that shows he believes he's right and everyone who disagrees with him is full of crap.

[–] RandyL712 15 years ago

I think you're missing the point - this isn't a documentary about the Kansas evolution debate per se. (If you really want to see a great documentary about the evolution vs ID debate, check out the 2-hour Nova special "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial"). I believe it's about his experiences interviewing people on both sides of the coin, and realizing it isn't as simple as "smart people versus bad people". Reminds me of "The God Who Wasn't There" - another movie about the filmmaker more than the subject itself.

[–] bbobbbbb 14 years ago

I liked it.

[–] rrpostal 14 years ago

I liked "The God Who Wasn't There" also. There's really no reason to avoid placing yourself into a movie of this sort because I don't think you can possibly keep your opinions out of the subject. Personally if you completely remove yourself and your ideas on this topic it would fail entirely because it would assume both of these claims to be "equal". If "Intelligent Design" is raised into equal footing with reality (I'm sorry- see, can't avoid the bias here) Let's try again: If ID is raised to the level of evolution, it has already won.

I can understand you'd dislike this movie if you really think the world is 6000 yrs old or that we were zapped into existence by magic. But I think you'd hate a great many things if that's the case. I asked my aunt recently, who taught biology for 32 yrs in a catholic high school, how she handled evolution. She shirked it off and said "the evidence for evolution is pretty overwhelming" and said they spend a whole section on it exclusively. The conversation ended there and I was happy to move on to other more important reasonable things. It's time wed move on as well.

I also didn't mind his personal stories as much because I live in Lawrence, Kansas as well.

[–] RavynLoony 12 years ago

Honestly that didn't bother me as much as his apparent need to stop the film every five seconds to define any word over two syllables long to his audience, and then make it even more demeaning by adding a little Baroque underscoring.