Rating: 
Summary: Not Good.
Review: 'Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control' was a film I lost interest in very quickly. I turned it off after about 30 minutes.
Rating:
Summary: Not Good.
Review: 'Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control' was a film I lost interest in very quickly. I turned it off after about 30 minutes.
Rating: 
Summary: Just Great
Review: A splendid, whimsical look at life, biology, innovation, evolution, technology. Defies catagorization. Creative, thoughtful and intelligent.
Rating: 
Summary: wild editing, interesting characters.
Review: a story of four guys who have very fascinating things to say about some relatively obscure fields. vague connections between their fields are made, and that was interesting, but the disjointed editing was a little over the top. for example, often while the guys talk, we are shown long cutaways of circus scenes. the dvd is described as an examination of the thin line between genius and madness, but i didnt find any of these guys to be even close to mad. especially rodney brooks, whom the amazon review descibes as a wacko, but is actually extraordinarily thoughtful and rational. so this movie isnt entertaining as an examination of genius/madness, but more simply an entertaining profile of 4 noteworthy men in unconventional fields.
Rating: 
Summary: A Review Haiku by Todd Marrone
Review: Compelling premise
that never gets off the ground,
you'll only watch once.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent documentary
Review: Documentarian Errol Morris points his lens at four men who are attempting to exert control over and wrest meaning from the raw stuff of nature through highly idiosyncratic means. They include a topiary gardener, a lion tamer, an expert on the naked mole rat (the only mammal that has the same social organization as insects), and a roboticist. They each discuss the intricacies of their individual callings; the parallels and recurring themes that emerge result in a rather touching meditation on man's drive to impose control on his environment. It is also worth noting that each of these men is clearly happy, at least when working. In this way, they show us how to be truly alive--find your passion, let it consume you, and don't worry whether the reviewer for Amazon.com thinks you are a weirdo.
Rating:
Summary: Artistically Well-Done:
Review: During the first few moments of this film, it is a little hard to really appreciate the story. What these three characters (a wild animal trainer, a gardner who sculpts wild animals, a scientist, and a sci-fi looking robototics engineer) have in common is that (a) they all have a unyielding desire to do what they do irrespective of monetary rewards; (b) they are curious individuals who hold a great deal of skill in learning and applying their craft; (c) thus, they are, in all senses of the word, "experts," since they have learned their craft through education, experience, and unusual, rare, knowledge. The producer of this film has a keen eye for knowing how the human mind works, because often times there would be scenes during the documentary where a speaker was talking about their craft, yet scenes from the other dedicated careerist's work life was being shown. For instance, the scientist would be speaking about real, live animals, yet there would be scenes of robotic instruments at work. This definitely is a film to go to; it will make you more creative, and there are many scenes that serve as effective eye candy. Michael Gordon
Los Angeles
Rating:
Summary: Artistically Well-Done:
Review: During the first few moments of this film, it is a little hard to really appreciate the story. What these three characters (a wild animal trainer, a gardner who sculpts wild animals, a scientist, and a sci-fi looking robototics engineer) have in common is that (a) they all have a unyielding desire to do what they do irrespective of monetary rewards; (b) they are curious individuals who hold a great deal of skill in learning and applying their craft; (c) thus, they are, in all senses of the word, "experts," since they have learned their craft through education, experience, and unusual, rare, knowledge. The producer of this film has a keen eye for knowing how the human mind works, because often times there would be scenes during the documentary where a speaker was talking about their craft, yet scenes from the other dedicated careerist's work life was being shown. For instance, the scientist would be speaking about real, live animals, yet there would be scenes of robotic instruments at work. This definitely is a film to go to; it will make you more creative, and there are many scenes that serve as effective eye candy. Michael Gordon
Los Angeles
Rating:
Summary: On the Fringe...
Review: Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of four eccentric men, each obsessed by their disparate professions. Dave Hoover (a lion tamer), George Mendonça (a topiary gardener), Ray Mendez (a mole-rate expert), and Rodney Brooks (a robot scientist), are oddballs so driven by their respective passions that they totally tune out the world around them. Taken separately, each man is, himself, an interesting story. Hoover is barbarous to his beautiful lions but totally devoted to them as well. He is like a husband who beats his wife in the belief she will love him the more for it. Mendonça is a charming relic, Brooks a cyber-dweeb. By far the strangest among them is Mendez, the mole-rat afficionado. He delights in engineering an environment most suitable for their naked, twitching bodies. He animatedly describes how they, as the only mammals without sweatglands, use the odor of their feces as a species signature. One guesses that, if he could, he'd like nothing more than to crawl inside those plastic tubes with his beloved mole-rats. It is a puzzling documentary to watch; I was constantly trying to figure out the commonality Morris wanted me to see. What is the thread that can be sewn through all their lives? They all work in fields involving animals. A couple of them work in dying professions, while a couple others see mankind as the breed on its way out. Ultimately, the only commonality I found amongst them was their uncompromising commitment to live on the fringes of society and their total disinterest in the rest of us. Morris, though, is clearly at the top of his game. From seeing The Thin Blue Line, we trust that Morris knows how to tell a story. Here, he explores the technical side of his craft in a rather cut-and-loose fashion. Working with cinematographer Robert Richardson, Morris utilizes numerous film resolutions to create a singularly impressionistic collage of images. He splices black and white footage with different film formats to create a jagged and eerie mood that is pervasive throughout the film. The music by Caleb Sampson at times enhances the awe we feel in observing these unique men, and provokes wonder. Occasionally it goes over-the-top and overwhelms the story, almost to the point of distraction. Absurd, original, and dark, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control is a voyeuristic peek at the iconoclastic nature of human diversion.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful study of four men's life work
Review: Fast, Cheap and Out of Control is an engagingly intertwined documentary of how a topiary gardener, lion tamer, mole rat biologist and robot scientist attempt to interact with and understand the natural world around them. Errol Morris weaves the different stories together, both narratively and visually, in a manner that at first seems chaotic. Ultimately, however, the film makes broad and deep connections between these very different endeavors. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control is often reviewed -- and marketed -- as an examination of eccentrics. While Morris does play up personality quirks, particularly of the two scientists, it is not the central theme of the movie. Perhaps it is the passion that these four men hold for their life work that comes across as so unusual to people
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