THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD review by John Delia

 

 

 

 

Cast: Morgan Spurlock

Directed by: Morgan Spurlock

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some language and sexual material

Genres: Documentary, Advertisement

Running Time: 1 hr 30 min

Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics

 

 

By John Delia

 

I’m sitting here watching a 1 hour and 30 minute long advertisement called The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and asking myself, ‘what did I do to deserve this torture, become a critic?’  Well at least as a member of the movie society, albeit not a popular member, the movie does have tongue-in-cheek nuances that do entertain. Of course it’s your right to walk out after the first 20 minutes, as that’s probably all you can take. Unless you are a devout advertising executive for which The Greatest Movie Ever Sold becomes mandatory.

In most every film there is a reference to a product; i.e. holding up a can of Pepsi Cola while making a gesture and spouting a line during an emotional moment in the movie. The showing of their product is probably paid for by Pepsi Cola and the ad  industry has dubbed type of advertising  ‘product placement’.  So, in this film we find the ‘Super Size Me’ writer, director and producer Morgan Spurlock out to find as many gullible Madison Avenue executives that would actually pay for a movie  about just that, ‘Product Placement.’ And Morgan is able to convince a bevy of players to jump at a chance to be in movie theaters all over the world.

Now, Spurlock surely does his sales job and delivers this hour and a half advertisement to theaters, most likely going then to DVD and HBO.  If it catches on the ditsy documentary may just turn out filling Morgan’s pockets with the hard cash that unsuspecting moviegoers plunk down to see the dreadful ‘ho hummer’.

 

Truthfully though, although his first film ‘Super Size Me’ was a great idea and has a lot of laughs nicely tucked inside, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, does not.  Unless you’re a filmmaker wanting to find out about this special ad technique for the movie you are making, DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT waste your money and get suckered into this Documentary completing the only lesson Spurlock has to prove.  “There’s a sucker born every minute”.

 

The film is rated PG-13 and for what reason I could hardly find.  Spurlock must have convinced the MPAA that using their rating symbol in his film was considered product placement and therefore they provide the much needed PG-13 rating to attract an older demographic.  Wow that was a long sentence, I hope my 5^th grade English teacher doesn’t read this review.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  NO SALE!…(product placement goes here). (F)

 

(Please note that since we did not get a product placement for our website in Spurlock’s film I have only mentioned one product in this article and it isn’t one that’s  in the movie…it’s actually next to my desk while I am typing this review.)