It opens in very limited release today.

It's at 95% Fresh right now at rottentomatoes.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/enron_the_smartest_guys_in_the_room/

I'm watching it tonight via HDNet (thanks Mark Cuban).

Let me know how it is. It looks like it could go either way. You have to remember The Corporation got stellar reviews last year and was so aweful. The political documentaries are the one place where critics don't seperate contents from film. I think that's great since I never seperate them, but I have learned to read the documentary reviews with a grain of salt after getting tricked into watching one of the worst films of last year.

Looks interesting, I hope the cover the "Ladies of Enron" Playboy covershoot. Really, I actually do, it was interesting.

If its any good I will try to throw my 10$ at it, so let me know. I can't help but feeling this is a late release like Year of the Yao. These films cover 2003 events, and should have come out in 2004 when people were still interested. OUt national collective memory is shorter than that guy from Memento.

Yow! Harsh criticism of an important, though perhaps overlong doc...

But, I do agree with your point - I recently saw The End of Suburbia - and though it's message is a crucial one, it's production was strictly amateur...[/quote]

http://www.worldofkj.com/Galia-Corporation.php

Keep in mind it was probably on of the first three full length reviews I ever wrote.

It hurt to review Corporation exactly because I was so invested in its message. i went to a special screening, with the direcotrs/documenterors on hand to answer questions. My friends and I lined up two hours in advance since it was first come first entry special.

People started walking out after 20 minutes. Even with the directors on hand. It was a bit sad.

I think they did a poor job. In their desire to incriminate the big bad company they failed to assign any blame to political encouragement. Failed to take any position, and procurred this very eco-aware ceo of a rug company. Which would have been great had they emphasized influencing the market to be more responsible with one's dollarbill...but they didn't. They didn't actually say anything. Not about the history, present, future.

It came across like a list. A simple list. It was unfortunate, I would have given it an even lower grade, but i think my desire to encourage films that fail (but are mildly more ambitious) is still stronger than to punish them for trying something new. I'm more offended by bad Hollywood gloss. But I really did struggle to find redeeming qualities in the film, outside of the idealogical platform of course.

The Smartest Guys in the Room was based on a book, so it's not as big an empty question mark as most documentaries are before we see them.

Like The Trials of Henry Kissinger?

That probably will give it more focus and structure, but you never know; there are some pretty poor books out there. They could have based this off of an Anne Coultier fiction piece...

...But somehow, I doubt it.

I'm hoping to put together a formal review.

I was surprised how entertaining the film was. I had no idea what Enron did as a company. I also had no idea, besides generalized large scale theft, what specific law Enron broke.

Skilling and Lay, amoung other top Enron execs, were dealing in some insane schemes. The most insane, trading weather.

The above is an example of torrino being uber lazy, only to find out after creating a thread that loyal already had one. And, I'm supposed to preach using the search button. ](*,)

Anyways, what's HDNet?

HDNet is a High Definition cable channel. Steven Soderbergh announced this weekend that he will also be releasing films simultaneously on HDNet and in theaters.

Hmmph. I have Comcast Digital Cable hooked up to an HDTV (with the receiver). Any chance I might have the channel?

I used to have Comcast but I have Mediacom now. I don't think HDNet is unique to one cable company, at least I hope not. It's a pretty good channel, lots of docs and specials, and now they're getting exclusive first run films. All in HD. \:D/

You mean cumcrap? . We have Comcast Internet, too. Service sucks. I found my e-mail addy's pword changed, as well as my dad's and mom's e-mail pword.
I love the HD channels. I only have the HBO, Encore, Flix, Sundance, and Showtime of the movie channels (not Cinemax, Starz, or TMC. Which sucks because whenever I look at the schedule, there's always something I want to see on one of those, heh), but watching in HD is a pleasure...

Do you know if you can record off digital cable? Or, is it like DVD in that you can't make a copy?

Wow, did you guys see how well it performed this week. 49 theatres and still holding an 9,000/theatre average. Not bad for a moderate expansion. This is a good sign. I'm going to try and see it soon as well. Anything that is smart about Enron and the Stock Market is good by me. Was it an intelligently done movie Loyal, or just poking fun at one company?

Torr, I think you can record, though I've never tried to copy HD content.

Dolce, it's well made and quite funny. I think by year's end, it'll stand as one of the best docs of the year. The best part for me was how it presented the information. I didn't know nearly as much about Enron as I thought I did. It doesn't linger too long on certain elements, perfect pace.

I just saw it!

I was shaking by the end...

But, yeah, there's some interesting facts in here. Such as Arnold Schwarzenegger being elected due to Enron's need to cover up losses (which ended up costing $30 billion for California, which was blamed on Davis...)

Dolce, it was pretty empty at the theatre. I'd say around 20 people (4:45 showing).

And, no, it doesn't poke a lot of fun. There's usually a funny line at the end of each segment (it's divided into eight or so segments. first, it focuses on the people. it then goes into the timeline of what happened and how...) with some other things thrown in (such as a Simpsons snippet).

I DARE you to give it a grade lower than B+.

I will try to see it soon. I saw the trailer for it just now, and I have to say it looks interesting if not bitter. You can't dare me torri, I give the movie the grade I think it deserves...most of the time. :wink:

Any of you two got more detailed reviews yet? I'm actually very interested in seeing this, and its performing quite well over here too.

I'm doing the review right now. Then it's time to see how Crash really is... \:D/

I've been slacking lately so my Enron review is about 2 weeks late.

And Torr, I'm still looking for someone else to review Crash honestly here. Good luck.

Bleh.

6:00 = sold out.

http://www.worldofkj.com/torrino-Enron.php

w00t. I'm a lil' attention whore.

loyal, is the movie political or strictly about Enron?

BTW, if you think trading weather is crazy, what do you think of trading pollution? ;-)

It talks about the race for Governor in California and how it relates to the company but I would say it's almost exclusively about Enron. It doesn't have a political slant or vibe to it IMO.

This documentary endeavors to lay out the sordid tale of a corporation's ruin. It is a very clearly told tale of a story that was never clearly laid out like this in the media. Why? Probably because the media is just another tottering amoral corporate brother in arms. The fact that the director, Alex Gibney, can make a criminal accounting scam into a highly entertaining two hour movie is a credit to both his skill and to the universality of the underlying corporate ethics. Forget terrorism - this is what you should be scared of...

5 out of 5.

Well, we're actually 3 for 3 on reviews from people who have seen this, so I'm going to try and catch it sometime soon. I knew there was a bit about the government in it from the trailer. Some guy laughed about how they didn't really forsee Arnold being governor. I don't think anyone saw that coming. Call it silver lining. Sounds lie he's been doing a good job in Cali so far.

I'm getting more and more excited for this. We could be seeing the another 5 million + dollar doc in the workings here. Tori said he went to sold out shows, which is rare for documentaries to say the least. Exciting.