This Documentary indeed changed my lifestyle, after watching it I was able to go easier WITHOUT nonstop consuming, brands after brands, the best, the most expansive and so on. I recommend everyone on earth who is living in one of the few rich nations to watch this movie and deeply think about it once in a while, than maybe renewing the input by watching it again after a few years. This Movie is not only about money and consumption, its about the awareness of your own acting and lifestyle. If you carefully analyze western society, you might find out that the greatest accumulating of free choice you can get is between one product or 432 similar products while shopping. Consumption IS the factor which moves our hole society along the day, it drives people crazy and by the way destroys half of the Earth without attracting attention (the other half seems to be reserved for war). ...So - You can also do without it! ... beans rice, rice and beans. beans. beans-rice - rice and beans

I'd like to offer a shiny review of this film, however this one seemed to me more eye candy than substance. There are many points were you'd expect some substantiation to the sound bites you hear from protagonists, bystanders, corporate leaders, or politicians. Instead you get taken off to more imagery or repetition of the same idea (Max Headroom style). You'd think a picture would be worth a thousand words, but in this case I don't think I learned anything remotely new, and the film isn't likely to win any converts.Perhaps the sound bite format is intentional. Who knows? A film is supposed to be an artist's venue for expression so why try to hamper your own message using this stifling technique. You have a whole film to say something so why waste it? In a very basic sense you might walk away with a general feeling of "consumerism bad...primitivism good" (or one of the two) but then again the proponent of this idea is made to look like a bit of a moron and often the counter arguments seem stronger than those that the movie title suggest. In short the arguments this film makes which support the title theme could be torn to shreds in a second in their current format.

This documentary was a bit disappointing. Very similar to "Lucky People Center International" from 1998, only more repetative and less imaginative. Maybe that is because Johan Söderberg was co-director on both of them?The movie deals with consumption, for me a very interesting subject. It was no suprise that this movie held a critical stance towards capitalism and consumerism, as that kind of view is very politically correct and trendy nowadays in Sweden. However, to my disappointment, the movie really doesn't contain much fact or discussion at all - some nice looking images with good-sounding music are shown, some of them repeated over and over again. While this was used in a good way in "LPCI", where it created a nice flow between the different scenes, here it just becomes... repetative.Conclusion: If you don't have much to say, better to shut up.4/10

It was quite a good movie actually, very well put together visually. I would have liked to see more dialogue and maybe a bit more debate going down. Basically what it was a depiction of John Zerzan's claim for a huge dismantling project of consumerism and everything that goes with it. In a way Zerzan (who you can gather is an anarchist, or has anarchist tendencies) is a bit idealistic, he wants us to return to a hunter/gatherer society where everyone lives in peace and happiness.The doccy has images of loads of speeches (Bush after 9/11, mike Balmer (Microsoft), Blair, Fidel Castro, and loads of others). and includes one (my favourite) where bush goes: "We must not let the terrorists scare people... to the extent where they don't shop." it's brilliantly cut with music and other visuals.The movie has a bit of a music video feel to it, but that makes it even more "enjoyable", it makes it a bit more accessible to some people who don't really know about protests and wat-have-you. One memorable part was where you have the head of Adbusters speaking, and the visuals are all the hot shot corporates and presidents who are "synched" to his words, brilliantly done!Another striking thing was where you had Fidel Castro speaking, and he is going on about how Cubans are free and have true democracy and true choice and then they cut to a scene in a shop where there are only about 3 different kinds of shoes and how they ration food and this one chick who went to Europe who was blown away by the bright lights, big city and fast food.Then it swings back to Zerzan who goes justifies the use of violence at protests infused with images of protests outside G8 meetings. Visually, a brilliant movie, and although I don't agree with a few of Zerzan's means or ends, I do agree the problem(s) he highlights. Politically, also brilliant as it makes the problems easily accessible to the average person who might not know that much about stuff, while I never felt "oh yeah, I know that s***, yawn" even if you don't feel like checking it as a "message movie", the part where they interview sex doll manufacturers is quite funny.I'd definitely recommend surplus.