stevenwillis-57495 Have you noticed how the world seems to be really messed up today? From wars to innocent Americans being shot in the streets; the national news is shocking and seems to keep getting worse. Tom Shadyac, the director Jim Carry's funniest movies, had catastrophic event that altered his life. He sold all his property, stop directly comedies, and dug deep into finding out "What's Wrong With the World? and What Can We Do About it?. The answers he discovered resonate with what the ancients, saints, sages, educators of today already know; the world is broken; and we are doing it. Tom interviews scientists, religious leaders, environmentalists and philosophers and the information they reveal is compelling, inspiring, and motivating! To solve our greed, hostility, and violent world transformation is required; individually and collectively. Transformation requires knowledge, desire, and effort. This film gives us the knowledge. Dare to look at reality.

bradgad I can't not give this film less than 10.There are films you love, films that excite you, films that move you, films that make you laugh, films that make you laugh so hard stuff comes out your nose... and docudramas and guilty pleasures... you get the idea. Films. Movies. Then, there are films (and books) that rearrange your mental furniture. You are a different person after you have seen (or read) them. This is one of those.Tom Shadyac turns a traumatic event into the occasion to examine what truly matters... for him and, amazingly, for all of us and our planet. There are tons of little things in the film that show Tom is a smart guy (UVa transcripts, etc.). What's so great and what's so heart-lifting and encouraging for all of us, is we also see this smart guy becoming a wise man. I make it a practice of luring people into my house and making them watch this film. My little bit.

imdb-1978 Even though in my opinion there are enjoyable parts in the documentary -those being how the individual struggle for power is pointless and counterproductive-, it falls easily into the definition of a new-age, pseudo-scientific documentary.I always think when I hear some kind of statements like those put by some of the interviewees. And those thoughts end up revolving the question "if you know so little of science, why are you using science to sell your delusional spiritual idea?". Just go with the spiritual idea and don't bastardize (i.e.) quantum mechanics! Yeah, a bit like "The Secret". Thanks to films like this you'll have somebody telling you that "The 'electromagnetic aura' that your heart is producing communicates with me in spiritual ways". Or equivalent mumbo-jumbo. This should be like church and state: don't mix science with pseudo-spiritualism.There are fine interviewees like Noam Chomsky or Desmond Tutu. There's a nice message promoting empathy and coexistence through cooperation. However, those fine feelings don't surpass the perception of facing a documentary that is pretentiously deep, but doesn't even scratch the surface of the complexity of our current overpopulated civilization. Or the surface of the complexity of human behaviour, for that matter. In my opinion, it doesn't link humans with the nature of societies in a satisfactory way. In a way, I feel like "it's food for thought of simple minds". Even though that sounds quite arrogant.In the technical approach, I would say that somebody in the editing should learn the concept of 'aspect ratio' (that intermittent stretching that I doubt it's only in my copy of the film).

highlama After watching 20 minutes I developed a profound sadness in realizing that the "wise" of our times have a very limited perspective of our nature, time, and place. The persistent two dimensional assumptions fail in providing a meaningful insight into the human condition.One significant disappointment is the observations about the pursuit of ever more wealth even though it doesn't bring more happiness. Two things: Many of these people thrive on the game itself, finding inner benefits other than happiness. Additionally, in the 60's we were made acutely aware of the idea of keeping up with the Joneses - it may not make me happy, but at least it's clear that you're no better than me.But Shadyac is telling the story he wants and while he doesn't get it all wrong, his "math" is sloppy. For example he gets the G K Chesterton quote right, but fails to understand the inherently dual nature of the answer.