The Yes Men have mastered the art of deception: they imitate the dress codes, roles and diction of power so perfectly that they can even speak in the name of major corporations without arousing suspicion (e.g. as in the case of falsified announcements by Dow Chemicals concerning the compensation of the Bhopal victims). It is brilliant to watch.

Yes Men Fix the World is much less a documentary than it is an attempt at comedy in the spirit of Borat or Dog Bites Man. The two principals are hoaxters who pass themselves off as government or corporate spokesman on television or at conferences, focusing on the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal,India and Hurricane Katrina.Most of the entertainment comes with the ease at which they are invited to speak publicly, the shock and shtick of their outrageous speech and presentation, and the subsequent discovery of the hoax. They pull off the deception masterfully and, save for the odd inquisitive reporter or genuinely interested attendee, their audiences are either amused, confused or completely uninterested.What is distracting and ultimately confusing about the film is their modus operandi and their justification for their actions. It is hard to tell if they are carnival barkers just out to make a buck at the expense of unsuspecting corporate types and television anchors or they are genuine activists using this medium to draw attention to causes they think deserve it.If it is the former, we can credit them for pulling a fast one but the gag from revealing their props and proposals wears off rather quickly. That they only complete four pranks makes for a lot of unfunny filler material. Also, if humor is the intent, it is a very preachy humor in which corporations and, strangely enough, economist Milton Friedman are demonized and simplistic moral outrage is celebrated.If it is the latter, they seem to be blissfully unaware of the impact (and slight hypocrisy) of raising the hopes of victims of a tragedy in the name of sheer attention. And it may have been inconveniently timed that they chose to focus on Friedman's quotes on crises being the catalyst for change in a year that the White House chief of staff was quoted making the same points.What we get is a short collection of pranks, not as juvenile as Borat but not as subtle as Dog Bites Man, with some interesting audience reactions and a self-righteous tone ("We didn't lie, we told the truth") If your political views are left of center you most likely enjoy this movie more than center and center-right folks. While Ebert is my only movie review source, given his political views I wasn't too surprised he gave three stars to such a mediocre film.

Despite the fact that some people seem to feel that it is cruel to state that Dow Chemical accepts full responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe, or that HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) wants to give former inhabitants of houses in New Orleans back their apartments, the affected people don't seem to think so. They're happy that people bring attention to their problem, and doing so by adding humor to it is often what is needed in a dour political climate such as these examples show, when multi-national corporations rule international business and - indeed - politics for most part.Much like Bill Hicks showed us, adding humor as spice often brings attention to the facts. The Yes Men were sharper in their previous film, but this one is still very valid as they continue to show the dangers of a free market taking over interests only to make as much money for their shareholders as is possible, not existing in the interest for the state at all.

The Yes Men are back... and this time, their leftist guerrilla tactics prove much more effective than the first time around: The cinematic presentation is more professional, the pace is much livelier, the pranks are more elaborate and there is more additional background information and emotional resonance.Still, some of the hoaxes remain childish and some new aspects on globalization bashing would be welcome, but all in all it's more than watchable stuff. (And the final stunt involving a famous newspaper is wonderful.) 7 out of 10 gilded skeletons