POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Name: POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
Genre: Comedy, Documentary
Released: April 22, 2011
Duration: 90 min
Rating: 66

2011

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Ratings

See All

6.8

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6.8	Your Score
6.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Now Playing: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Movie Details & Credits

Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 22, 2011 | PG-13

Summary: We live in an age where it's tough even to walk down the street without someone trying to sell you something. It's at the point where practically the entire American experience is brought to us by some corporation. Utilizing cutting-edge tools of comic exploration and total self-exploitation, Spurlock dissects the world of advertising andWe live in an age where it's tough even to walk down the street without someone trying to sell you something. It's at the point where practically the entire American experience is brought to us by some corporation. Utilizing cutting-edge tools of comic exploration and total self-exploitation, Spurlock dissects the world of advertising and marketing by using his personal integrity as currency to sell out to the highest bidder. Scathingly funny, subversive, and deceptively smart, "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" shines the definitive light on our branded future as acclaimed filmmaker and master provocateur Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me") attempts to create the "Iron Man of documentaries," the first ever "docbuster"! He may very well have succeeded. (Sony Picture Classics)

… Expand

Director: Morgan Spurlock

Genre(s): Comedy, Documentary

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 90 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Claudia Puig

Apr 21, 2011

Spurlock comes off like a new and improved Everyman, familiar but smarter and funnier than the average Joe. Read full review

Bill Goodykoontz

Apr 21, 2011

There are lots of laughs - a commercial Spurlock makes for Mane 'n Tail shampoo is hilarious. Read full review

Mike Scott

May 20, 2011

Spurlock banks on his charm and likability -- and it's that charm and likability that make The Greatest Movie Ever Sold so much fun to watch. Read full review

Justin Chang

Apr 19, 2011

A consistently amusing and not entirely vacuous stunt. Read full review

Betsy Sharkey

Apr 21, 2011

Spurlock creates a good time along with some surprisingly salient observations as he tries to keep his balance on this very slippery slope. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

May 5, 2011

The movie is at its best when Spurlock dives deep into his subject, interviewing directors such as J.J. Abrams and Quentin Tarantino. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

Apr 22, 2011

If I weren't already being paid to watch this movie, I'd feel entitled to compensation for having to sit through this many product plugs. Read full review

SEE ALL 34 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

evanbiddulph

Jun 1, 2011

I absolutely loved this movie! It is completely hilarious, caught my attention the entire movie, and I left the theater with a smile on my face. I highly recommend this movie - I hope Morgan hits his $10,000,000 goal so that POM Wonderful will pay for their sponsorship of the movie. InI absolutely loved this movie! It is completely hilarious, caught my attention the entire movie, and I left the theater with a smile on my face. I highly recommend this movie - I hope Morgan hits his $10,000,000 goal so that POM Wonderful will pay for their sponsorship of the movie. In what other film will you see the filmmaker bathing a pony in a tub?… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

TVJerry

May 16, 2011

This time, doc director Morgan Spurlock takes product placement to the ultimate level. He determines to finance the film entirely from sponsors and we are treated to his process. Turns out it's is not just informative, but highly entertaining.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Shiira

May 23, 2011

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. After twenty-nine days of eating nothing but McDonald's fare, the filmmaker can hardly make it up the stairs to his apartment. To the camera, the subject reports on experiencing hot flashes, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath. The food porn of "Super-Size Me" could have easily turned into a self-induced snuff film. As a result of his study, this human guinea pig gained twenty-five pounds, saw a major spike in his cholesterol, and had a liver described to him by an attending physician as being "pickled". What an idiot, right? One-and-a-half films later, somebody finally concurs, a Ban executive, albeit for the provocateur's latest stunt, the self-reflexive deconstruction of product placement for the meta-documentary "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold", adding that , "[Morgan Spurlock] thinks all Americans are idiots," too. Well, does he? While Spurlock may possess the same cheeky sense of humor as Michael Moore, he's a lot more objective, playing down the crusader bit that Moore favors. In the matter of the lawsuit against McDonald's which charged the fast food restaurant chain with making two teenaged girls unduly large, the filmmaker comes down on the side of the corporate defendant, rightfully so, in his estimation, since "most of us know it isn't good for you to begin with." Whereas Moore uses music to poke fun at the enemy("Believe it or Not" was employed in "Fahrenheit 9/11" to illustrate Bush's shortcomings as a great American hero), his closest descendant of the "pop doc" wave employs songs like "Fat-Bottomed Girls" and "Fat" at the expense of the people he's purported to champion in his role as an advocate for change. The idea that consumers are helpless against the exorbitant direct media advertising budget of a behemoth such as Pepsi is weakened considerably by the asserted inference of overweight people being inherently hilarious. The deodorant executive's words, despite being tongue-in-cheek, nevertheless echoes a similar sentiment made by Martha Bernays about her father, public relations pioneer Edward Bernays, in "The Century of Self", saying that "[her] father believed the people were too stupid to meaningfully participate in a democracy." To help remedy his misanthropic worldview of mankind, Bernays had co-opted Freud's theories about the irrational forces of the subconscious mind as a way to manipulate the masses into believing that material things could bring them happiness. The peacetime propagandist helped orchestrate the country's shift from a needs to a desire culture by psychoanalytic means, in which he circumvented consumers' intellects and made an appeal to their emotions. People entering the new decade of the 1940s comprised the first generation of Americans who presumed that democracy and capitalism were conceptually interlinked. They were conditioned into accepting that a healthy democracy wasn't defined by active citizenry, but passive consumerism. In "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold", Spurlock trades in his muckraking shoes for a nice pair of Merrells. It suits him well. To paraphrase Bernay's daughter who ideologically opposed President Roosevelt's New Deal for being unfriendly to big business, Spurlock appears to uphold a homologous pessimism, suggesting that people are too stupid to meaningfully participate in a consumer culture without a paternal hand for guidance. Is he joking? Most of us have seen "The Truman Show", not to mention the increasing number of television shows and movies that's seemingly predicated on product placement, a Bernays invention which allows companies to market their wares within the context of an artistic setting. Done right, according to J.J. Abrams, it makes the characters seem more real, like in "E.T." when the alien pops open a can of Bud, but more often than not, the brand name upstages the actors and becomes the focal point of the scene, just the way the company wants it. An indie filmmaker by definition, Spurlock banks on his cachet as a paragon of the anti-establishment when he shills for his proposed film in the corporate boardrooms of Jet-Blue, Hyatt Hotels, and Amy's Kitchen, among others. The audience is supposed to be shocked that the guy who made "Super-Size Me" is selling out. But they're not. In the wake of a meeting with his lawyer, the filmmaker is less a documentarian than a raconteur, as he expresses apprehension about the possibility of artistic compromise, due to the stipulations in the contract made by the pomegranate juice company. The concern is a disingenuous one because he already should, and probably does know, that corporate interference is part and parcel in the marketing game. Being no babe in the woods, the filmmaker was no doubt counting on the roadblock to help with the film's dramatic arc. Arguably, his indie cred was lost right out of the chute, since "Super-Size Me" is nothing but product placement, a dissonant commercial, yet a commercial nevertheless.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

LaGuerta

Feb 27, 2013

The film is perhaps too light-hearted and not as cutting as it needs to be but it retains its message throughout, albeit to different extents.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

CooterPatooter

Mar 18, 2012

A vast improvement over Spurlock's freshman effort. This time he takes a much more ambiguous position, neither approving of nor altogether discrediting the overuse of product placement in the media and our everyday lives. After riding a high horse on the subject of fast food in SupersizeA vast improvement over Spurlock's freshman effort. This time he takes a much more ambiguous position, neither approving of nor altogether discrediting the overuse of product placement in the media and our everyday lives. After riding a high horse on the subject of fast food in Supersize Me with questionable (at best) results, he decides this time to take a more muted and neutral stance. His intention in this film seems to be more about informing than finger-wagging, which shows a huge growth of character and maturity from his previous film. Crisp and entertaining but still harmed by a lack of interesting subject matter. I also tried POM Wonderful after seeing this film. It's good!… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

beingryanjude

Aug 31, 2014

Morgan Spurlock is not a skilled filmmaker. Why should we expect to be entertained by his next venture in selling crap cinema? Documentary or not, it's not interesting, Morgan.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SEE ALL 6 REVIEWS