University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen Dubner wrote the popular book taking an unconventional look at the world using the science of economics. This movie takes the ideas from the book into several different sections.The vast variation does tend to make the movie somewhat meandering and disjointed. Some sections are more interesting than others. It's not a natural narrative that builds to a climax. It's basically one study case after another. The most controversial section is probably the abortion one. Although my personal favorite is the sumo wrestlers. What's there not to love about sumo wrestlers. Sometimes it's a little dumb down but other times it is fascinating.

now I've seen something by morgan spurlock finally, which at least didn't involve watching him doing schtick or shooting off at the mouth, and yet... it couldn't have been more annoying! the piece on sumo wrestlers begins with this "artistic" minute or so of wrestling shots with Japanese characters and numbers ticking off on either side of the screen. what's the point? Art? What a joke. This movie had far too much ground to cover to waste time with dubious post production wizardry that served only to slow the thing down.Also, the music is INCREDIBLY annoying and far too loud a lot of the time. The opening credits were also far too long and "fancified" as if bells and whistles would make them any less of a waste of time to sit through.I could not get through the Sumo section. I also found, I have to say, the authors, as I guess they were, the two guys "playing off each other" cause they imagine themselves to be "funny"... to be incredibly annoying. As in, guy 1: I'm about to sell my house. Guy 2: and a very nice house it is! I say so! I'm the real estate agent1" LOLs galore try just shutting your butt face and letting the damn information proceed. Or is it clever or funny in some way for filmmakers to ask 2 experts, "so is there a name I could name my child that would guarantee his success in the world?" HAHAHA it's that famous "Wit" again! Obviously this isn't possible! Anybody would know, especially at the end of this overlong segment that established this over and over first from the mouth of one expert then from another mouth of another expert. Why it must be HUMOR and COMEDY that motivated the question! HAHAHAH! LOL! HORRIBLE attempt at infotainment that had me feeling like kicking in my television...Life is far too short for a film like this to pollute my brain. I'll take the advice of another reviewer here to check out the wiki entries on the book, since it's clear to me I wouldn't enjoy the style of these two entertaining economics professors or whatever they are, borderline criminals offers the "funny guy" LOL HAHAHA!

I read the book enough years ago to have forgotten a big part of it, yet I still saw that the movie omitted major topics, while dragging a lot on others (sumo and the experiment of bribing the 9th graders).In general, the movie could have mentioned more convincing data and statistics, instead of dwelling on obscure bits. For example, the parenting chapter was massively abridged. The book talks about 10 factors that actually make a difference, like parents having lots of book in their home. The chapter on why drug dealers still live with their moms was omitted, and so was the chapter on Ku Klux Klan.And here's an actually *useful* bit of information, as opposed to my opinions about this movie: You're much better off spending 5 minutes reading the summary of the book from Wikisummaries.org (short URL - http://bit.ly/haT4i2).

As for the movie and book I thought they were both great. I would just like to add my own personal insight on the portion a out the sumo "cheaters.". I don't think they are cheaters at all. I think their behavior falls into a different category called self preservation. Just like any NFL team that has already sealed a playoff spot facing a team trying to make the post season. The better playoff team is not going to try as hard. i.e. not play all their starters or not play as aggressive. That team is not throwing the game in hopes of getting the favor returned. They are just just avoiding injury and resting up for a more important match. I imagine in japan as in America it's not a big secret that teams or wrestlers in these situations are expected to perform sub-par and the statistics showing this pattern would be accepted as normal.