Manuel-Hoerth

Normally I give the movies I review a rating and in the review I give my opinion. I can't do that with this movie though, cause everyone seems to have already formed their opinion about this movie anyway.

So whatever opinion I might have will be loved by the people with the same opinion and hated by everyone else and no one is gonna look at any actual arguments and see if they make sense or not, because let's be honest, the reason most people read the reviews on 2000 Mules is so that they can down vote the reviews that disagree with their political stance and have those reviews that agree with their political views reinforce their political bias so that they can form an opinion on the movie without actually watching it.

That's a mistake. Cause no matter what your political stance is and no matter if you love or hate D'Souza, you SHOULD watch this movie. And if you hate D'Souza and Trump, you should ESPECIALLY watch it, cause if you think people aren't gonna be able to tell that you haven't watched it as long as you just skim through some IMDb reviews, then you are wrong - the only reason people don't usually notice it is because they haven't watched the movie either. But if you have watched it and the other person hasn't, that puts you in a clear advantage in any argument no matter your political stance ;-)

A lot of people just see this as just yet another adult humor animation in the same vein of so many others that came before. Even those that find this show unique and say it stands out, can't quite explain what it is that makes it stand out.

Of course I can't answer for other people, but I tell why it stood out to me. This isn't just another show in the vein of Rick and Morty or Bob's Burger's etc, though on the surface it looks like that. But here the humor isn't random and the show doesn't exist for the jokes, rather the humor serves the show and the plot. And it's really a satire about our current society and the humor serves as a sort of shield that allows them to address societal issues that a more serious life action show couldn't.

As someone who was a victim of child sexual abuse myself and as someone who admittedly likes Trump (who praised this movie to no end) and also as a tiny bit of conspiracy nut and seeing all the mainstream media attack this movie and trying to smear it, I really, REALLY wanted to like and support and even praise this movie - but I just can't.

I have to admit that it's a bit difficult for me to agree with the mainstream media's warning about this movie, but they really are correct for once - sometimes they throw you curve balls like that. I mean after all, there was a time when I trusted the mainstream media and I lost trust in them not because they were mainstream, but because they just started to get a lot of things wrong. But that also means that if they get things right for once, I can't just categorically disagree with them.

And it's really not like they are just smearing this movie for no good reason. They do (for the most part) have a valid point. This movie does nothing to actually stop this crime or to help the victims or to help people recognize this crime when they see it. On the contrary, because it claims to be based on true events, it causes people to have a completely wrong impression about this and therefore makes it harder for people to detect it when it's happening, because this movie is less accurate in its depiction of the real world than a Liam Neeson action thriller. Actually, Liam Neeson's recent film "Memory" was pretty good and actually much more accurate in it's depiction of child trafficking than this movie.

Because this movie really does nothing but reinforce outdated and completely wrong stereotypes. This type of thing isn't something that mainly happens in South America or in "other" countries and children don't just get kidnapped out of the blue by complete strangers and against their will. The sad truth is that most cases don't involve a stranger at all, but someone the child trusts and the child isn't gonna come running to you begging for help, cause the truth is they are victims of years of extremely systematic and sophisticated psychological manipulation.

And the perpetrators aren't all tough guys either. Actually a lot of them are quite educated, sophisticated and female because they don't raise suspicion. And also it's not just about forcing the kids to make movies - that only plays a very, very small part, but this movie would have you believe that that's the main part - that's the smallest part by far! Most of the aspects involved are MUCH worse than "just" that.

And as much as I would love to think that there are plenty of officers (official or rogue) of government security agencies who are incorruptible and ceaselessly fight the "bad guys" in relentless sting operations, the reality sadly isn't as clear cut. Yes, sometimes SOME children do get rescued, but actually very rarely by police, much less government security agencies. Well, there was that ONE case in Bosnia where a policewoman and member of an international agency uncovered a human trafficking operation - but then again the people running it were her colleagues...