Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The Case for Movie Greatness


POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is a really long title.  But the film is all about being big, bold and making a name for oneself - in particular, a name that attracts sponsorship.

You may know Morgan Spurlock from other documentaries like Supersize Me.  He's a very aimiable man, brimming with confidence and a sense of the absurd, and not averse to making a bit of a dick of himself.  Which helps in this movie, as he is both selling himself out and staying true to himself by investigating how people can sell themselves out.  POM Wonderful, Mini Cooper, a restaurant and pizza chain, a brand of shoe and an airline all come on board - eventually - to assist in making the movie about getting sponsors on board.

Of course, part of the movie is looking at how sponsors can influence product that they have been brought in to support.  This is all pretty obvious stuff - product placement can be incredibly obvious, though Spurlock showed me how it can actually be even more prevalent than I thought.


I won't dwell on this film.  POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is everything it says on the cover, and not really that surprising.  Trusty doomsayers like Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader are wheeled out to provide their two cents, but there is no real confrontation of "sell outs" to see what they think of having sold their souls to the advertising devils.  I laughed, I loved the horse/human shampoo, and I have had a craving for POM's pomegranate juice ever since.

Verdict: There's not much I can say about POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. It's an entertaining movie, and enjoyable enough, but already dimming in my memory, even if the desire to imbibe a certain antioxidant-rich fruit juice.  7 Hyatt hotels out of 10.

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