Movie Review: The Yes Men

I had seen a review of The Yes Men on an episode of Ebert & Roeper a month or so ago, and the film looked interesting, despite the disagreement on the merits of the film from the two critics. I didn't think that I'd get the opportunity to see it, but lo and behold, it appeared on the schedule for the local indie theater. Next up was the debate on whether or not I would actually make the drive out to see it. I guess, by the fact that I'm writing a review you can guess what my decision was.

I walked out of the theater with mixed feelings. While watching the film I wasn't sure whether to laugh, or just feel depressed over the state of the world. And when I did laugh, I didn't know if I was laughing at the absurdity of the situations, or the gullibility of those swallowing the swill the Yes Men were shoveling.

For those of you, probably a lot of you, who are unfamiliar with this movie, allow me to give you a quick overview of what the Yes Men are. This is my first exposure to them as well, so please forgive me if you find any of my information to be inaccurate. Most of this I gleaned from the film itself. It started in the late 90's when they were offered an oinline domain, gwbush.org. They used the domain to create a parody site of George W. Bush's own site. The site looked almost exactly the same, but the content was twisting a lot of the inaccuriacies that Bush had on his own site. The success of this site brought them to gatt.org, GATT was the precursor to the World Trade Organization. So, they make a WTO parody site which, like the Bush site, looks just like the real thing. This is where it gets interesting and is the main focus of the film.

Apparently, there are people around the world that believe they are the actual WTO. So, they get invitations to appear at various conventions, and even to appear on television, such as CNBC. They, of course, accept these invitations and set out to present themselves to the best of their ability, which usually involves outlandish props and speeches which present ideals which the WTO seems to support but don't come right out and say. Each time they make an appearance they are prepared to have their bluff called and their plans shutdown, but surprisingly, nobody seems to catch on.

Article Author: Chris Beaumont

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about music and movies when he isn't indulging in them. He is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Follow: Twitter and Tumblr. Visit: Critical Outcast. …

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