Rating: 
Summary: Moore bowls a perfect game!
Review: I saw this documentary and I have to tell you that I'm becoming a bigger Michael Moore fan with each project he releases. I loved his latest book, "Stupid White Men" and his series, "The Awful Truth", was a riot. This documentary tackles the serious issue of gun control. While there are very somber moments throughout the film due to the subject matter, Moore also uses humor to get his point across. And there are scenes in the documentary that are worth the price of admission alone. When he visits Charleton Heston, for example, it is pure pleasure to see Heston squirming in his seat by the end of the interview when Moore starts asking him questions that he can't answer. Another interesting interview is with Terry Nichols, one of the men charged in the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. I won't go into details about it but its funny as well. He gives lots of information about death by guns---the U. S. has an astronomically high rate of around 11,000 a year as compared to, for example, Japan which has 39 deaths. While there is no easy answer to this huge problem, at least this documentary addresses the issue and gets people to talking about it. Upon leaving the cinema I heard several groups of people discussing their views on the film and it's subject matter and that is what a director wants to achieve out of his/her film. Well, done, Mr. Moore. I look forward to your next take on our society.
Rating:
Summary: Can I give this more than 5 stars? PLEASE?
Review: Mike Moore has guts, wit and humor for producing this excellent flick on what exactly is wrong with the USA that we have over 11,000 deaths due to gun violence every year. He compares us to other countries with access to guns and the deaths from gun violence they experience (very low comapred to the USA.) Moore explores true incidences in his quest for explanation -- for example, he answers a newspaper ad to go open an account at a bank in exchange for a gun. He interviews and asks probing questions of students from Columbine High School, the brother of Terry Nichols, Charlton Heston himself. Interesting on how two occasions people silently walked away from him when he asked a tough question! Some parts are funny -- for instance, when he goes to Canada and a group of people say that residents of their city don't lock their doors, he actually walks up to random houses and opens the doors, yelling "Just checking!" to the residents. And for all those who say "Why would anyone hate America so much?" he recounts a 50-year history of the USA causing political violence in countries all around the world, causing hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths ... all set ironically to the classic tune "What a Wonderful World." So ... what is it, then? The breakdown of the family unit? Violent video games? The media? Moore explores all of these and gives up-to-date statistics. The end result will shock you, and make you admire the man who had the guts to speak from the unpopular-but-true perspective.
Rating:
Summary: an attack on evil and stupidity
Review: this film is amazing. i hold it in such high regard, i am not certain of my ability to justify it with words. it made corporate america (k-mart, wal-mart, dick clark, lockheed martin) out to be the monster that it really is. michael moore shows how stupid the point of some pro-gun activists is, while proving what a horrible person a figurehead of the pro-gun movement is. it explores the misfocused media in america, and the fear of just about everything experienced by the american
public. i dont know how michael moore puts all this into two hours, which go from incredibly depressing, to disturbingly hilarious, to just plain hilarious. given, this movie could do more to get into the heads of pro-gun militants, and people on the other side ,but these people are usually so close minded and blinded by republican, right wing america, that its virtually useless to try to appeal to them. i loved this movie, michael moore is a genius, and deserves all the praise he can get.
Rating: 
Summary: Engaging, biased documentary on gun violence
Review: Michael Moore certainly knows how to put together an entertaining and persuasive documentary. When you leave the theater after this one, however, if you really think about what you've seen rather then simply respond on cue to the implied message, you are left with more questions than answers. Moore seems intent on blaming the NRA and the generally paranoid and gun-crazy tendency of America for events such as Columbine, but he doesn't make much of a case for this. He is mostly content to bombard us with interviews and confrontations in which his intended audience (mainly liberal, upscale and urban) can be relied upon to draw the appropriate conclusions. Where I saw the film, for instance, the audience snickered on cue when camouflage-clad militia men defended their right to bear arms. Dismissive laughter also ensued whenever President Bush or NRA president Charlton Heston appeared on screen. I am not a supporter of either Bush or the NRA, but I resent being manipulated by such tactics, especially when the issue is so complex. Moore himself presents evidence that calls into question some of his (mostly unstated) conclusions. He reveals, for example, that Canadians are just as fond of guns (as well as violent movies) as Americans. So why is their murder rate so much lower? The question remains unanswered. Fair enough --there may not be a simple answer, but the overall tone of this film would have you assume that guns are the essence of the problem. Moore may be more on target (pun intended) when he points out the hypocrisy of President Clinton talking about the tragedy of Columbine at the same time he is authorizing the killing of civilians in Kosovo. No doubt some people will be offended by the portrayal of the U.S. as essentially an aggressive, violent nation, but it's hard to argue with the history of the last fifty years. Moore has created an engaging, informative documentary. I only wish he had presented the material more evenly. At one point, the brother of one of Timothy McVeigh's associates (who was arrrested in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing but had the charges against him dropped), a tofu farmer, is interviewed. Once again, the audience laughed at his supposedly paranoid rantings about the people's right to oppose their government. Later in the film, Moore interviews Marilyn Manson, who sounds articulate and lucid compared to many of the rural right-wing types who preceded him. Of course, this is Moore's film and he has a great deal to say about how his subjects come across. He never confronts Manson about the role his music or lyrics may have played in the lives of the Columbine shooters (who, it is said, listened to Manson). This possible influence is dismissed as beneath consideration. By contrast, when Moore briefly interviews Charlton Heston, he seems callous about Columbine as well as the site of another shooting where Heston appeared at an NRA rally. Heston walks away as Moore tries to show him the photo of a murdered girl. This is effective propaganda, but it proves nothing; we can hardly expect Heston to take responsibility for every shooting that takes place. Interestingly, Moore reveals that he himself is an NRA member, but never elaborates on the reason for this. Bowling For Columbine (the title comes from the fact that the Columbine students went bowling before their shooting spree) is an interesting, though far from conclusive study on gun violence in America. Moore presents enough material to allow you to draw your own conclusions, as long as you don't passively absorb his biases.
Rating:
Summary: Spotty, tenuously funny, but with a catch.
Review: How anyone can declare this movie as "hilarious" or "a howl", "a hoot" etc ... is beyond me. Yes, it has some laughs, and some good ones, but, considering the disturbing facts it points out about the American existence ie. 11,000+ murders to Canada's (and most other industrialized countries') fewer than 200, it's hard to leave the film feeling "refreshed" as with a good comedy. Moreover, while Moore does a good job of ferreting out the facts, he also leaves us with an ambiguous feeling that the violence is a product of racism, and does nothing really to address that issue. He sandbags Charlton Heston and Dick Clark shamelessly, and while the viewer is initially brought along on Moore's side, reflection gives one pause. Why couldn't he have been honest about his intentions and allowed for real debate? As it stands, though, Clark and Heston look like unfeeling monsters, while Moore comes off as though he were some kind of crusading saint. Which wouldn't be a bad thing to do, considering the level of the tragedy of gun violence in America and that something really should be done to solve it, instead of sweeping it under the rug, or continuing to allow the media and gun manufacturers to profit from it. However, this film is designed, intentionally or not, to appeal mainly to left-of-center audiences, and alienate those who do not share gun control sympathies. In this regard, if this were to be intended to be used as a tool for change, this film fails because it is basically "preaching to the choir". Moore should have spent some time getting into the heads of those who would most oppose a change in our current gun culture and structure his film to effect those folks, and spent a little less time trying to structure his film to make himself look like a hero. For this reason, I do not wholeheartedly agree with this film, but I do recommend it to all Americans who care even the slightest about the violence in our streets and what can be done to make our country safe. This film doesn't provide the answers, but does, very forcefully beg the question and provide grist for debate.
Rating:
Summary: my review
Review: An excellent, entertaining, and disturbing documentary. Deffinately worth seeing.
Rating: 
Summary: I laughed, I cried, I got a little bored by the end
Review: I'm not a huge Michael Moore fan, but I think "Bowling for Columbine" may be the best thing he's done. There are some just amazingly funny parts, like the interview with Terry Nichols' brother the organic tofu farmer and gun enthusiast. And the part about the day of the Columbine shootings is genuinely moving, which I wouldn't have expected given the (often trite) overexposure it's gotten other places. The best part of the entire movie, perhaps the best 10 or so minutes of documentary film-making I've seen in years, was the section on the school shooting in Flint, Michigan, in which a 6-year-old boy shot and killed a 6-year-old girl with a gun he found where he and his mother were staying because they'd been evicted from their home. The mother was on Michigan's welfare-to-work program and couldn't pay her rent despite working 70 hours a week. That part of the movie is a horrifyingly powerful indictment of how this country treats its poor, and it's to the credit of the Flint public officials that Moore interviews that they understand the connection between that family's poverty and the little girl's death. "Bowling for Columbine" is about 20-30 minutes too long, and by the time you get to his interview with Charlton Heston it's like "enough already--we already know that Charlton Heston is a big jerk, why do we need 10 more minutes about what a jerk he is?" But then, the thing I don't like about Moore is precisely his seeming belief that if he shows what creeps his opponents are, he will have made his political point. You can get some cheap laughs from the fact that Heston is not just a jerk but also apparently a doddering fool, but it doesn't really contribute to the movie's argument. It's a gimmick and nothing more. Individual people can be jerks, can do horribly offensive things, but a problem like the one this movie addresses -- that Americans are so prone to shooting each other -- is not attributable to one or two or ten people. It's a broader societal and cultural problem and Moore is at his best when he treats it as such.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional!
Review: "Bowling for Columbine" is a documentary film that charts the course of firearms and violence in American culture. The Columbine High School shootings serve as the catalyst for the talented Michael Moore as he attempts to answer the question "How could it have happened?" The film points out how fear, irresponsible media, misguided government programs and racial stereotyping contribute to the staggering death rate in America. Compound these social ills with the ease with which firearms are obtained and it becomes apparent why the "greatest" nation on earth surpasses all other developed countries in deaths attributed to firearms. The film is smart, funny at times, serious always and ultimately saddening. It is my hope that this documentary makes its way into America's education system. Until then pass the word. This one is Highly Recommended!
Rating:
Summary: A thought-provoking look at the American psyche
Review: "Bowling for Columbine," a documentary by Michael Moore, alludes to the tragic mass murder at Columbine High School in its title. Much of the film is about gun violence and gun "culture" in the United States, but the film also explores other related issues: racism, the role of the media, weapons of mass destruction, etc. Along the way, Moore incorporates an interesting medley of material: old TV commercials, a clip from a comedy concert, promotional film, etc. Much of the film consists of interviews with various people: an official from a school touched by gun violence, controversial singer Marilyn Manson, one of the makers of the TV show COPS, survivors of the Columbine massacre, etc. Despite the deadly seriousness of his material, Moore uses a lot of humor throughout the film. Some of his interviewees seem to be unintentionally funny--and disturbingly so. Much of the film is also very moving, and even heartbreaking; a couple of interviewees nearly break down and cry on camera. Moore is a bi-partisan political gadfly in this film, criticizing both Democratic and Republican political administrations with venom. The film is not without flaws. Some of Moore's segments feel too much like "Candid Camera"-esque "gotcha!" stunts. And some of his political ranting seems to be insufficiently backed by comprehensive data. Still, "Bowling" is an undeniably gripping and thought-provoking documentary film. I see Moore as a real champion of the First Amendment, and I admire him for asking some really disturbing questions--and for not flinching when he gets disturbing answers. The whole film seems to build up to Moore's climactic interview with Charlton Heston, president of the National Rifle Association; this part of the film is truly disturbing and at times painful to watch. Whatever your position on gun control and related issues, I recommend this intriguing film as food for thought.
Rating: 
Summary: [Please don't even think about seeing or buying this movie! ]
Review: There is no humor from this anit-american humorist. Wheeling a crippled girl into Wal-mart to return the bullets that were in her, demanding a refund was the sickest thing I've seen in years. This man is out of touch with reality and his lack of intelligent humor leaves much to be desired. Don't let him make a buck on this tragedy!
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