Rating: 
Summary: Don't run with the sheep.
Review: Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" won the Oscar for best documentary. Unfortunately, it is not a documentary, by the Academy's own definition.The injustice here is not so much to the viewer, as to the independent producers of real documentaries. These struggle in a field which receives but a fraction of the recognition and financing of the "entertainment industry." They are protected by Academy rules limiting the documentary competition to nonfiction. Bowling is fiction. It makes its points by deceiving and by misleading the viewer. Statements are made which are false. Moore leads the reader to draw inferences which he must have known were wrong. Indeed, even speeches shown on screen are heavily edited, so that sentences are assembled in the speaker's voice, but which he never uttered. Bowling uses deliberate deception as its primary tool of persuasion and effect. A film which does this may be a commercial success. It may be entertaining. But it is not a documentary. One need only consult Rule 12 of the rules for the Academy Award: a documentary is a non-fictional movie. The point is not that Bowling is biased. No, the point is that Bowling is deliberately, seriously, and consistently deceptive...
Rating: 
Summary: Amusing, I'll give it that.
Review: I've watched the DVD of Michael Moore in "Bowling for Columbine" a couple times now, mostly for the laughs. I, too, came from southeastern MI, so maybe he'd like to do a movie on why I'm as kooky as the rest of my fellow NRA members. I almost forgot about Flint, MI, where he does his own sensational coverage of the elementary school shooting. Thanks for reminding me. He breathes a little life into the old Columbine story, admittedly difficult on something that has been journalized to death. I've been to the towns in Ontario he visits, to see what another nation with a "hunting and fishing" tradition like America does with its guns. I'm wondering about those claims of being able to buy a Glock with "the correct paperwork". His attempt to play on metaphors with Lockheed Martin is a little distracting, if you ask me. The best thing he seems to expose is something that may not be all that far-fetched, as the 00's boil on down to the 10's and 20's: we Americans, as a rule, are a perpetually "scared" bunch. But there are firearms afficionadoes who just like to go through some rounds at the range once in awhile, even if it is just a bunch of clay birds or a paper bull's eye. It's a hobby, like any other. Oh, and Mr. Moore, I don't think you've read many of your issues of American Rifleman lately. Go into any proper gun-shop, instead of your little farce regarding K-Mart, a downed creature of my beloved youth that you didn't have to kick that hard, and if you ask as you did for "bullets", the man will show you the Nosler, Speer and Hornady components that are made into complete "rounds" of ammunition at a hand-loading bench. I think the word, which may have been intentionally withheld in this spoof, is "cartridge". The magazine holds 10 rounds, Mr. Moore, and these are the cartridges that are fed into the chamber. The film looks to me like preaching to the choir, always an easy stunt. Someone into the shooting sports will just turn him off. It isn't that simple. It is a tonic, the proper and lawful discharge of a round, from a well-maintained small arm. This is what makes the totality of the sport. If I'm a gun-nut, I've not been cracked by "Bowling for Columbine". I'll agree we're prone to being "nuts" in general in the US, but it's probably from too much of the kind of incessant, over-stimulating media feed we get with this film. Oh, and by the way, Mr. Moore, you made K-Mart stop selling "bullets" for "assault rifles", whatever that means. So off the list, obviously are the naughty little .223 Rems that keep getting jammed in the select fire M-16's overseas. Our boys like the .308, so I'm thinking you meant the 7.62x39 and the 7.62x51. That means that your bargain-hunting hunter won't be getting any .308 Winchester, which after all could be loaded into an old M14 sporter conversion. Hey, and no 30'06, either, for there must be a lot of M1 Garands laying around those grubby gun shows. See, it just isn't that simple. A good laugh, though, and I give it 4 stars, since some parts drag on account of Mr. Moore's time on what looks like a rather shaky soap-box. Hey--that was the "South Park" production crew that made the little "History of the United States", wasn't it? I loved it, except to the extent that there is a piece of truth in there somewhere that you bite down on like the bone fragment in a Dick Clark's hamburger. But really, now, race is only a myth, invented by the like of those wonderfully-peaceful Germans whose handguns have now all become plowshares. I predict that a few of the more terrified "victims" amidst the masses have been regimented in the school of statist utopia that he clings to. But there's a body out here of folks who are already on a different spot on the curve. I can understand now what sent Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and Bill Williams into the American Outback. People like that just want to be free.
Rating:
Summary: Stee-rike!
Review: Very interesting movie. I've read the criticims of it here, and all seem to miss the point. Moore asks the questions about violence in America. No one has the answer. That is the problem he wants us to see. One commentor here ratio'd up the gun deaths in other countries because he felt it was not based on equal population. OK, after doing so, instead of America having 10 times as many deaths as the rest combined, it is only 4 times as much. Another docked Moore for harassing bank clerks and receptionists, etc. Not very accurate. At the bank, he asked a few questions about the gun-give-away offer and made some jokes about proper spelling on forms. At the one clinic that did possibly dangerous bugspray testing on uninformed humans, he did get in people faces, trying to locate the previously convicted, now released, doctor. He also asked many people to explain their positions, such as NRA prez Heston - who blames racism, and says "we had a lot of problems with civil rights". Heston also seemed unaffected that his NRA rally was asked by the mayor not to come to Littleton, near Columbine, shortly after the tragedy. In fact, he says (believe it or not) that he and the NRA was unaware that a 6-year old shot another 6-year old in Flint, just one week earlier than another pep rally. Hmmm. Moore, with some injured Columbine survivors, essentially invaded K-Mart headquarters, and eventually got them to not sell hand-gun ammo. Lots of comedy, lots of tragedy. There is no such thing as a objective documentary, by the way. The DVD has some question-answer bits at various colleges, Moore's appearance on "The Charlie Rose Show", his "explanation" of his Oscar acceptance speech (not shown cuz he could not get clearance), and other bits. The "commentary" is intro'd by Moore, but is by the lowest rung of Moore's production secretaries and assistants, and quite frankly, can be skipped without missing much.
Rating: 
Summary: Five Stars Plus
Review: Sometimes I silently lament that no one will stand up for what he/she believes in; and, just when I feel that way, up jumps Michael Moore. He's not infallible -- he doesn't need to be -- but he says things that need to be said and discussed. The very large number of reviews of this movie testify to that.
Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal!
Review: Michael Moore has done a phenomenal job making a documentary movie on the pressing issue of gun control! What an inspiring movie - showing that a small group of individuals can truly make a difference (in reference to Moore's attempt to get Kmart to change their practice of selling firearm ammo by bringing two powerful lobbyists with him - two survivors of Columbine). In addition to that, Moore's interview with Heston is also incredibly powerful, as Moore put the NRA President under a lot of fire. This is a movie that hits home with the issue of gun control and should be watched by all citizens who care about the future of our nation's safety in the domestic arena.
Rating:
Summary: Lord help us!
Review: What do you do with a Liberal screed from a pompous, college drop-out: of course---what am thinking of? Perfect for PBS!
Rating:
Summary: A country that lives by the gun....
Review: BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE is perhaps the best film I have seen all year. It examines the American failure to trace cause and effect: a country that averages a major war every ten years can't help but instill in children the idea that violence is the solution to all problems.
Rating:
Summary: As if by a double barreled shotgun, I was blown away
Review: Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" is one of the greatest, most meaningful documentaries ever created. Michael Moore sets off to find out why America leads the world in the most homicides purported by guns. Other supposed violent nations, Moore points out, don't even come close to the amount of violence by guns (Japan has about 63 a year, Germany has about 183) -- America has 11,500.
During the film, Moore convinced K-mart to stop selling bullets. We follow him to an arcade in the town with Timothy McVeigh grew up. We follow him him to Littleton, CO -- and to the estate of NRA spokesman Charleston Heston. During the film, Moore makes many astonishing points about the fear in America.
Moore's film doesn't come without criticism. Some people will point out that Moore is a millionaire, which makes him a hypocrit for criticizing corporate america in being responsible for the fear and violence in America. He also regretably stretched the truth in describing the role of the Lockheed Corporation Gun Manufacturer's role in Iraq, as they sell satellite launching missiles, not weapons. These satellite launching missles however, DO launch satellites that launch nuclear weapons, therefore true, but stretched.
Moore's good points outweigh the editorializations, and makes for a great, eye opening picture. Don't let the people who take one minor flaw convince you that Moore's film is not factual or is some sort of "propaganda"; Moore clearly expresses his views as his own, and does not try to support them as fact. "Columbine" is based mostly on fact, every statistic (there are four dozen of them) that is in the film can not be disproved by any naysayer, no matter how right wing and angered by the movie. Bowling for Columbine, **** out of ****; will blow you away.
Rating:
Summary: Reality Check and Polish
Review: Let us all keep in mind that it was possible to create Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" in a believeable presentation on screen. Entertainment is just that. Laugh, cry, and especially be scared at this one. I beg of all of you who are interested in the political views of this film to read the document that made the United States the greatest, most free and powerful nation in the world: our constitution. Education and reality is the only thing to save Americans from Communist who are convincing with a microphone in front of them. I watched it. I also have three post graduate degrees in politics and policy-making. Laugh, cry, be scared and most of all, educate yourselves to protect against people like Mr. Moore.
Rating: 
Summary: Lets distort the facts and make Michael some money
Review: Unfortunately people seem to mistakenly view Michael Moore as an investigative reporter and the products he produces/markets as documentaries. Nothing could be further from the truth. He embarks on a quest with a closed mind and a definite agenda to portray any given situation in a specific light. The resulting piece is biased, full of distortion, and contains a large number of out of context statements and events that are portrayed in a manner that best suits the message that Mr. Moore is attempting to transmit. It is unfortunate that he does not produce a product that clearly examines the issues in an unbiased and open manner. Mr. Moore's style of "Reporting" or "Journalism" is quite clearly a throw back to the days of William Randolf Hearst and the the muckraking yellow journalistic style that actually caused our country to wage war on another nation through the distorted presentation of events, conversations and out-right falsehoods as fact. View this film as "entertainment" not as a documentary.
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