MORGAN Spurlock super-sizes stupidity as he flees his pregnant wife to wander around the Middle East in search of a certain war criminal in “Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?”
Spurlock gained 25 pounds and an elevated cholesterol level by eating at McDonald’s for his previous documentary
“Super-Size Me,” but nobody except the filmmaker gains anything from the inane questions he asks of locals during a tour of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel.
Nobody has a good idea where Osama is, but some people hate him, some hate America, and some just hate the American government. You could learn more about current affairs by watching MTV.
Taking his badwill tour to Israel, Spurlock offers the stunning insight in a bombed-out classroom that it must be awful to grow up in a country constantly under attack. And he’s baffled when he and his rude camera crew are kicked out of an ultra-
Orthodox community.
Spurlock’s astounded by an ultra-upscale mall in Saudi Arabia (apparently unaware that oil drives the region’s wealth and much of its politics) and is shocked – shocked! – that when he asks school-
children what they think of Israel, authorities halt the interview.
The clueless filmmaker, who makes Michael Moore look like Anderson Cooper by comparison, dresses up his nonfindings (“there are so many things wrong on both sides”) with lots of animation – and a rocket attack on Tora Bora, which we’re told is the site of a future amusement park.
“Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?” jokes about Spurlock capturing the bounty on Osama’s head, or making the world safe for his child-to-be, but it’s really about the narcissistic filmmaker and his enablers the Weinsteins making a few bucks.
One of my critical brethren opined that this sort of dumbing-down and low comedy may be the only way to sell the public a movie about the Iraq war. If that’s true, God help us.
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN?
Michael Moore, all is forgiven.
Running time: 93 minutes. Rated PG-13 (profanity). At the Lincoln Square, the East 86th Street, the Sunshine, others.