Rating: 
Summary: bloated trash
Review: I could not sit through the 2 hours plus of the self righteous biased bloated michael moore without being nauseated. please will someone shoot this guy !!!
Rating: 
Summary: Not really about Guns...
Review: Don't make the mistake of thinking Bowling for Columbine is just about guns. It's more about Americans - who we are, how we came to be that way, where it's taking us whether we like it or not.It beautifully illustrates a paranoia, specific to our culture, that has to be addressed if we are to have sound, sane public policy. This should be shown in our schools, our Churches, Temples and Synagogues. It should be watched at home by every family and discussed. Brilliant, insightful and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Documentary that makes you think
Review: Michael Moore has created a documentary that will truly make you question everything you thought you knew. And that's the ultimate goal of a documentary, isn't it? In "Bowling for Columbine", Moore examines the fascination with guns and violence in America. In doing so, he compares the U.S. with Canada, England, German, and other countries with a large amount of guns, but not the same amount of violence. He poses the question, why the U.S? Why do we have the violence with guns that other countries don't? He doesn't necessarily give us the answer, but he does give us a lot of food for thought, allowing us to make our own decisions. I'm aware that this movie has offended a lot of people, specifically with how the U.S. is portrayed. Let's face it, though, everything he mentioned was the truth, and we all know the truth hurts. This movie definitely deserved the awards and positive praise it's received, and the DVD is an excellent supplement to the movie. Several documentaries, a music video, and a commentary are all included. The commentary, by the interns that worked on the movie, is very entertaining and does offer a lot of insight into how the film was made. Overall, I would definitely recommend this DVD to anyone who isn't afraid of facing the truth with an open mind.
Rating: 
Summary: No Simple Answers
Review: Like many other people in the US, I first heard about this movie via the news (TV and Radio). So much was said; both negative and positive, that it raised my curiosity about the movie. The furor made me pay to go see for myself what all the controversy was about. After watching the movie, I do not understand why some people seem to think that this movie is anti-gun. Mr. Moore raised several good points in the movie that tells me that violence in our culture has no simple answer. I believe some math can help with all the confusion. In the movie, Mr. Moore states some figures that I will use: Total Population in Canada - 30,000,000
Total Population in America - 260,000,000
Total Murder in Canada - 554
Total Murder in America - 15,000 Divide Total Murder by Total Population.
Multiply your answer by 100,000 and you will get the following statistics Canadian Murder Rate - 1.8 Murders for every 100,000 people.
American Murder Rate - 5.8 Murders for every 100,000 people. As you can see, there are more people in America, hence the chances for violence is greater. I do not mean to imply that violence is not a major issue in this country, because it is, but let us address the issue with clear, rational minds. Is an increase in population an answer for all the ills in our society? No. But the above example illustrates how important it is to take things with a grain of salt. The news agencies are always bombarding the public with statistics and numbers that may seem scary, until you take the time to figure out what they really mean. Mr. Moore did a great job of bringing to our attention a difficult issue, violence in our culture. But the answers to stopping the violence are not simple. It isn't violent television or video games; go to Japan where all the children have access to even more violent games and television, the crime rate there is lower. It can't just be gun ownership, because Canada has a large portion of their population who own guns, yet less violence occurs in Canada. It can't just be our history, because there are other countries with even more violence in their histories than our own and yes, their crime rate is lower. For myself, I believe it is a whole host of factors that contribute to the violence in our country. The only way to figure out how to stop it is if we devote time and energy to study the problem and come-up with a solution. I can't promise a Utopia or even to stop all the violence, but we can at least minimize it.
Rating:
Summary: Passionate rambling by a talentless well-meaning sad man
Review: The best thing that can be said about the film is that it's passionate. Michael Moore truly believes the things he says, and he sees righting the world as his mission. Nothing wrong with that. But what about the film? Well, it a lot of unprofessional, talentless, well-meaning and inconsistent drivel. Here's another proof (if you needed one) that some people (including clever, educated and sophisticated people) will swallow anything and give it a big thumbs-up, as long as it has bad things to say about Dubya and as long as it repeats tired mantras about evil American imperialism and capitalists stealing from the working people. Add a generous helping of shallow rambling about race (apparently, America became rich through slavery), general failure to understand cause and effect in any social phenomenon, and the usual self-centered and self-important stage presence of the author, so often seen in poorly made documentaries, and you have a general description of this unberably boring, predictable and lame documentary.
Rating:
Summary: All Americans should be required to watch this movie.
Review: Everyone who says this movie is just liberal propaganda obviously slept through most of it. Though Michael Moore obviously recieved a lot of criticism for this documentary none of it is deserved, and much of this film is indisputable fact. Everybody in this country should watch this movie and then take a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror.
The basic goal of this movie is to show what makes America more violent than anyother industrialized nation, but it does not draw its own conclusion, rather, it lets the viewer form their own opinions. Although what it does make very clear is that things must change in America.
Rating:
Summary: riveting documentary about violence in America
Review: I've seen all of Michael Moore's films, and enjoyed them all, and I believe this is the best film he's made. In the past I've sometimes been uncomfortable when Moore puts underlings on the spot, harassing them for the actions of corporate heads, but happily that never happens here. Instead, each scene is thoughtful and insightful, raising provocative questions that any thoughtful person -- conservative or liberal -- should ask themselves about violence in this country. I've long been interested in this issue and have read a lot, but I still found surprising information here. It's easy to think that we are more violent (with over eleven thousand gun deaths a year) because we watch violent movies and play violent video games -- but so do the Japanese; it's easy to think we may be more violent because we have a violent past -- but so do Germans; it's easy to think we might be more violent because we have so many guns in this country -- but so do Canadians. Moore travels to Littleton Colorado, Flint Michigan, California and Canada, and he speaks to law enforcement officials, teachers, Marilyn Manson, Charleton Heston and Columbine students as he tries to piece together what makes America so uniquely violent. Moore and his team come up with some answers, but even more questions, in this important film. DVD extras are plentiful and include: a trailer; a short introduction by Moore; a 15-minute monologue about his Academy Award acceptance speech (though the Academy wouldn't let Moore use footage of the event); film commentary by secretaries, interns and production assistants; a talk Moore gave to a Littleton, Colorado, crowd in February 2003; a 16-minute featurette about the film's reception at Cannes, the Oscars and the Toronto Film Festival; and Marilyn Manson's "Fight Song" music video. The issue of violence in America should supersede politics, and Moore does not mention politics in the film. When so many of us have been touched by violence, it is in ALL our interests to try to make sense of it and improve the situation. Do conservatives OR liberals want to live in a world where we are afraid, where we are victimized, where we are torn from friends and relatives by violence? This is an important issue and Moore has made an important film. Great viewing with a group -- lively discussion afterward!
Rating:
Summary: Just another Stupid White Man
Review: Moore is such a typical liberal liar. One person mentioned the differences between Candians and Americans. During the black out, New Yorkers were mainly peaceful where in Toronto there were riots and looting. If that's "laid back" I'd take "Freaked Out" any time. Canadians get "free" health care? Wrong again. Your taxes pay for it. That's not free. Get an education. This "film" basically was so bad I returned the DVD claiming it was defective. If they made a movie about killer garden slugs and the liberal media promoted it like this junk, Gullable people would all lock their doors and stay home. Probably put salt around the doors and windows. Stop being so dumb and learn to see the world for yourself instead of relying on twisted opinions of liberal morons.
Rating: 
Summary: A few good thoughts hidden in the jumbled mess
Review: 90% of the movie is a combination of Moore's pot shots at American leadership (business & gov't) and his usual game of embarrassing people on camera. He is very good at the latter and if that is your thing then there is a fair amount for you to enjoy in this film. There were insightful comments from Moore and Marilyn Manson regarding the impact of fear in the US and how fear is used to manipulate. While insightful, I'm not sure about the correlation to the problem of gun deaths (ie. the topic of the movie). The movie claims to be a documentary, but it is not objective and it does not go to experts on the subject. Moore asks some good questions - too bad he doesn't ask anyone remotely qualified to give thoughtful answers. While this may seem charming to some, it basically amounts to a bunch of incomplete opinions formed without much data - which Moore is able to point out since he has at least done enough research to squash a few typical responses to his questions. C. Heston is justifiably humiliated for some of the poor & thoughtless choices he has made and it was interesting, sad & surprising that he did not have better thought out answers to Moore's questions. I think he scored a hit with that one. The film may be entertaining & insightful in parts, but it is generally short on thoughtful analysis and long on Moore's whining and theatrics. At one point Moore tries to draw a connection between a work program for women on welfare and a child of one of the women who gets a gun from her brother's house and kills another child. The connection between the welfare program and the overall problem of gun deaths in America was tenuous at best, but it was an opportunity for Moore to try to embarrass Dick Clark since the mother happened to be working at one of his restaurants at the time. It was frequent cheap, loosely connected, stunts & half information like this that cheapened the film.
Rating:
Summary: Asks a question worth asking...
Review: What's interesting about Bolwing For Columbine is that Michael Moore doesn't really come to many conclusions. Instead, he opens up a discussion about the alarming fact that America has a lot more gun violence than almost any country on earth. Using the Columbine school shooting as the basis of his inquiry, Moore looks at the wider question and talks to a lot of people, from victims of the shooting to Marilyn Manson to Chuck Heston. A lot of possibilities are thrown around but this film is more about the problem than pinning down a solution. The extras are interesting, too, including Moore's own detailed account of the infamous Oscar speech. He explains why he gave the speech, and after seeing the movie and hearing his explanation it's understandable why he gave the speech he did.
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