Captain Mike Across America

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Departing from the usual style he employs for his left wing documentaries, Michael Moore here takes us on a journey of his nationwide tour of America to target young 'slackers' at colleges and convention centres, and launch a campaign to get them to get out and vote to get George Bush out of office and John Kerry in at the 2004 Presidential Elections. Coming a year after the invasion of Iraq, Moore has plenty of ammunition to hand, dragging out bereaved families, embittered, disillusioned troops and popular, anti war celebrities such as REM. None of it worked, but targeting no less than all the key states needed for a Kerry victory (though this is spurious all along with the corruption he exposes from the Bush camp, especially since, once again, the Florida vote is needed here), Moore certainly met a lot of people and has a lot of experiences to share with his audience.

The people who loathe him have probably made him more famous than the people who love him, but all the same, Moore has got to be probably the most well known, mainstream documentary maker in the west at the moment. So it's odd that this one appears to have skipped a cinema release over here and the first I knew of it was in the bargain bin at Morrison's. As I said, it's notable for not employing the usual style Moore uses for these such films, absent are his voice overs and usual distinctive styles. Still, it's no less him and one of his films, with his liberal politics and persistive bear baiting all over it. His sarcastic sense of humour aimed at the hypocrisy and nonsense of the Republican Party, is in evidence again, but no less lightens matters.

It's a different style and approach, but it highlights Moore's driven passion and commitment to his cause. As ever, he gets a bit carried away with himself at times, but in his own way, he is a performer trying to showcase his art and, like any showman, he can't bear to be ignored. ***

One long cheery, energetic rally to support student voting in 2004, which could be used as well as a mental support boost to go vote in 2020. Why? Because the margin of winning is so small in America, time and again. Only a 100 thousand votes made the difference back in 2004 when Bush was re elected. So voting in large numbers does matter. But we need the youngsters to make a difference.

Tens of thousands of young students did came out to see Michael Moore in big arenas in 60 different cities. And he would tell them to go vote democrat in 2004. These young Americans did vote in the largest numbers ever. Thank you! Their parents voted the opposite though and won. Bummer! But the young people have the future in their hands. That's why this support rally for the democrats was released again right before the 2008 election which elected democrat Obama into the White House.

In the sixties the young Americans were the biggest group in society. Many progressive changes were made back then. Now the young people are no longer a majority, but that setback in numbers makes their vote even more important, because without the young voters vote change will never happen. Young Americans, your vote counts. Please go vote in 2020.

Oh yes, this support rally by Michael Moore is funny, energetic and empowering. Ideally suited for any young American in need of a mental boost to support the young voters of America to go out and vote.

GO VOTE IN 2020!

I'm a rather serious fan of Moore's work and lean heavily liberal in my politics. And even so, this film got tedious and felt very self-serving on Moore's part. There are good parts, no doubt, but did we really need to see him signing autographs and hugging women with "Hug me Michael" signs? What on earth is that besides self-aggrandizement? I can't imagine what he was thinking other than "I need some more filler here."

Michael: We've seen you do better. Much better. And your timing here is very suspect--you are releasing this in the final days of the 2008 election season because you think people will, in their fervor, watch your film for some input about the election. Yet you have little-to-nothing to offer. You're looking four years in the past here while Obama is looking forward. Sure, your message "the young should vote" is currently applicable, but I think Mr. Obama has already done an amazing job of getting that out.

Overall, this is somewhat interesting for us die-hards, but I can't see it being all that captivating for the masses.

Firstly, this is a film that is really about more than just raising awareness of the need to vote.

It comes across as a film about the right to protest, the right to object, the right to meet, and the right to live in a democracy.

Whatever your political persuasion a good society needs its Michael Moore's, he's a voice of conscience, a voice that says what needs to be said when no-one else will do. He is doing what MLK and Bob Dylan did in the 1960s, what Democrates did in the Agora in Ancient Greece... Michael Moore is the voice of the underdog for a new generation - who genuinely cares that the excluded, the poor, the workers, and the unemployed are Americans too.

Even if you hate MM, and really disagree with everything he's ever made, you should still agree that his films are a voice that is allowed to be heard.

The documentary itself is without a doubt good propaganda for the Democratic vote, but it also pretty good entertainment - it is very funny, and very, very poignant in places...

....And the students love him.

Pretty stirring in places, with some good live music thrown in, MM is an excellent orator - let's just hope he never becomes a politician - even though he's got the chops for it - because he is the living proof that to hope is to be an American. And that one person can by getting off his or her slacker behind remind us what is means to care for We, the People rather than just Me...

Definitely worth the free download...

I voted against Bush in 2004, but the film was actually pretty boring and didn't bring anything new to the table. He had promised he'd throw his next documentary online, maybe he threw out this stuff because he didn't want to skimp out on the earning potential of an actual decent documentary he's making.

I had thought he was making a documentary showing all the things corporations have been getting away with in the last four years, but actually it's about Michael Moore's tours around the country for the 2004 elections. Literally it's just footage of his speeches to different universities and local press conferences when he toured several cities in swing states. Moore didn't present anything new we hadn't been hearing for the last 8 years and he said absolutely nothing about the 2008 candidates.

The format of the video was depressing. Moore says bring back the troops, kick out bush for a while to a cheering audience, it shows a random musical guest or celebrity then it shows a news caster talking about what the polls show to give a little time effect. While there's nothing particularly wrong with format, that's all there is to this film, it just repeats over and over as he tours different cities.

What the heck just happened? The blip.TV embed does not allow seeking so I couldn't just skip to the end to see if he had something more aggressive or interesting up his sleeve. Moore is know for stirring up controversy and attacking what he feels are the "bad guys" straight-on. There was no face-to-face talks and interviews, only speeches to loving supporters and in a few instances, quips to the opposition that also showed up. He should have made a real documentary or at least critical review of the 2008 candidates, the slacker uprising could have been a DVD extra at best. Edited footage of him as super hero almost changing the tide in the swing states will only gain support from the hardcore Michael Moore fans. Moore brags in the film about how 30 - 40% of republicans that watched Fahrenheit 911 ended up liking it. The same cannot be said for this film. There is no investigative journalism like his previous documentaries. It's Moore talking to his supporters and registered democrats in addition to having the benefit of editing his "best of" moments.

Republicans that watch it will only get annoyed. The film starts by saying Kerry was in the lead until the Bush admin ran an unfair smear campaign on Kerry. Kerry did nothing and his popularity dropped among veterans. Moore countered this pretty well in the movie, but he didn't counter the footage of Kerry saying he would have voted for the war even if he knew the intelligence was false at the time. A few moments in the film would drive zealous republicans crazy like: allowing a guest to sing the Finland national anthem to a confused crowd that wasn't properly told why, his comments on immigration, some of Roseanne's over the top jokes, and finally Moore insanely accepted, I believe it was, a bronze star that belonged to the grand father of one of the people in an event. Literally a guy went up and offered a family war metal from a deceased relative. I cringed as Moore seem to give as little humility to it as someone offering to pay for his dinner, "Really are you sure? Wow thanks." It's a waste. People fight to defend their country but more so to defend their family. You just can't take something so personal to someone's family history when its completely meaningless to yours. Democrats who watch this movie will get bored, since it's the same rhetoric we've already heard. Go watch several of Obama's speeches or check his website instead of watching this movie. Republicans who watch it will get annoyed and have more to complain about, further outlining the divisions between the parties that we should instead work to break.