First there was McDonald's, which he targeted with masochistic precision in Super Size Me. Four years later, director Morgan Spurlock went for something bigger, louder and more controversial. The result is tremendously funny most of the time, but unlike fellow provocateur Michael Moore, Spurlock has yet to master the skills required to properly mix sharp sociological commentary and broad comedy.The beginning is a masterstroke in humor: starting with an air view and the usual pretentious-sounding narration, the director says this is one of those days when something is bound to go wrong. Next shot: his girlfriend announces she's pregnant. While happy he's finally going to be a father, Spurlock is also concerned about his unborn child's safety: how is it possible to raise a kid when no one has been able to find the world's most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden? One man, and it's impossible to locate him - that's what bugs Spurlock. In addition, he thinks the reward that's been promised for Bin Laden's capture could be useful to pay for the kid's education.And so he sets out on a journey to some of the most dangerous areas on the planet (i.e. the Middle East), looking for the notorious terrorist leader. First he prepares for the trip visiting the doctor and attending a boot camp where he learns how to survive bombings, then it's off to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and finally Afghanistan. Wherever he goes, no one seems to know exactly where Osama is. On the other hand, he gets to learn a lot about his country's misconceptions when it comes to Islam traditions.Unsurprisingly, that last part becomes the real focus of the movie: like Moore, Spurlock seizes the opportunity to highlight the shortcomings of America's attitude towards foreigners, and these flaws are exposed with a mixture of seriousness and irony. Unfortunately, none of that is really any news - American prejudice is a well known reality, and we certainly didn't need a Bin Laden-centric documentary to point that out. The director has a point to make, there's no doubt about that, but he can't find a more original way to do it.Whatever the film lacks in poignancy, though, it makes up for in great comedy. In fact, it is perhaps to consider it a comedy rather than a documentary, from the spot-on prologue to the hilarious video game-like opening credits (complete with absurd titular song), with the climax being the famous shot of Spurlock outside the Tora Bora caves (Bin Laden's alleged hiding place in Afghanistan), yelling: "Yoo hoo, Osama?". It's those moments of absurd humor that make Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? an entertaining watch. Certainly not as memorable as Super Size Me, but then again that's the kind of stuff that happens when you cover all too familiar ground.

When Morgan Spurlock discovers he is going to be a father his initial feelings of joy are overcome with an intense worry about how he can protect his child from the dangers of the world. Of course saving for the future, educating from a young age and moving to a good area flash through his mind but instead Spurlock decides that the most productive thing he can do is head out to the Middle East in an attempt to locate and capture terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden.I really liked Super Size Me. It used a gimmick to build an effective and engaging documentary into the importance of diet and the impact of poor eating. So whenever his latest film came out I had assumed that the overall product would be the same even if the topic was much larger. The film just about starts out this way as Spurlock essentially uses his gimmick as an introduction to a couple of the countries of the Middle East where he superficially explores politics and discovers, hey, they're just people – just like us yeah? OK, so far so basic but I am assuming that he is just easing us into something right? Well, no. Actually what the film does is become more and more about the gimmick and less and less about anything of substance. Ultimately what we end up with is lots of bemused reactions to the question "where is Osama?" It is a real shame but for some reason Spurlock has aimed his film at people who do not get access to any news coverage outside of their own country. Maybe this is me being snobbish though, maybe lots of people do think that the Middle East contains nothing but goats and people who would happily die if only they could kill one Western Infidel™ at the same time. Well, for those people this film might blow your mind but honestly it is just so basic that I doubt even those with zero world view will not be engaged by Spurlock's film.The conclusion of the film suggests that Spurlock has learnt a lesson but, if that is the case, I have to wonder why he couldn't work it out to let us into it as well. The film cries out to be taken in hand in the editing room and really pulled into a structure that works – even if it means using less of the "on-location" footage than you would like. Sadly this doesn't happen either and the film gets more and more basic as it goes on, sinking into the gimmick and losing site of any chance to make intelligent points, educate or challenge the viewer. Could have been an interesting and insightful film but instead is just a fairly pointless mess of wasted potential.

If this movie knows where he is, there'll be international headlines made, and the filmmakers will get that US$25 million (or more?) bounty that is placed on his head. Of course it will be silly to presume that this film can find the answers to the multi-million dollar question, or even come close to it, so just what was the intention?Morgan Spurlock isn't new to controversy, having burst onto the documentary scene with his real life gorging on MacDonald's for every meal in order to drive home the point that junk food really does junk your well being. So for this new film of his, it stems from his desire to seek out the world's #1 wanted man, and ask him just what floats his boat. He may be putting on his jester cap with his somewhat hilarious introduction, but looking at the preparation with vaccination and even attending some terrorism survival course, he's quite dead set in his mission to find that elusive man.Until of course you realize that he's hitting all the relative safe havens for the most part, before venturing into the more likely places in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But what he seeks to unearth is the Middle East's attitudes towards Americans, and it seems that the common consensus is that while they have nothing against the people, almost everyone that Spurlock chose to showcase, has issues with the foreign policies. And from interviews with the average Joes, they sure have issues with politics at home more than those that are from abroad. Spurlock also takes opportunity to slam the US foreign policy, and does so through a hilarious animated sequence involving Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty herself, in what would be a realistic case of sleeping with the wrong bedfellows.Bringing the camera from Morocco to Saudi Arabia, and interview people from both the state of Palestine and Israel, what he had presented were compelling arguments for and against, as well as plenty of moderate views that seek to debunk the bulk of western media who find delight in demonizing those in the Middle East. Through the looking glass peering at their everyday lives, the film comes to present the basic need for survival and providing for one's family, no matter one's geography, country, religion and culture. Naturally there were some feathers ruffled, especially when dealing with closed cultures who clam up, or intolerant folks who have no qualms in using violence, but in general, this documentary serves to be rather tame.Yes it's gimmicky in its title, and half the time you're not sure whether MXXSpulock will take that plunge and really head to where he will likely find some inkling of positive leads, but what it had presented instead, is something more powerful that this world really needs to reach out and have everyone taking a more tolerant attitude and to understand one another a lot more, to avoid conflict. This should be a world without strangers, and the documentary managed to show just a glimmer of that hope.

Let's make something perfectly clear: Morgan Spurlock doesn't really want to find Osama Bin Laden. I can only assume his real motivation for making Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? runs parallel with his motive behind Super Size Me - to educate fat, stupid Americans. Considering everyone around the world knows there's a lot of fat, stupid Americans, you could say the target audience for this documentary would be as big as the one that made SSM a must-see hit. But, to Spurlock's detriment, there are things people are ready to hear and there are things they aren't. Based on the critical and box office woes of WITWIOBL, it would seem no one in the USA wants to hear the truth about the so-called War on Terror.Spurlock might be preaching to the choir of informed critics who know exactly why the US is globally detested, but right here in the good old US of A, he's asking the masses to swallow a very bitter pill. I say the pill is bitter because he spends the duration of his film humanizing Muslims, letting them speak for themselves in ways that radically contradict the conveniently palatable perception Americans have of their (ahem) enemy. The Muslims Spurlock interviews are not gun toting, blood thirsty, irrational, unreasonable or anti-American Jihadists, instead they are the exact opposite: peaceful, reasonable, rational, logical and kind. While there is no doubt a shared resentment towards the US Government, the resentment is justified. Spurlock doesn't pull any punches in his quest, he tells the history of US foreign policy as it happened and this version doesn't hide the fact the US has been in bed with brutal dictators and regimes for a very long time. The fitting quote provided by FDR sums up the US attitude to their profitable alliances with murderous thugs: "He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." This understanding of US foreign policy begs the question: is it any surprise they hate the US Government? All actions have resultant repercussions and if you consider that US foreign policy has marginalized, oppressed and killed millions of people, then is it any surprise when the victims bite back?There's one particular interview with one of Spurlock's subjects that basically makes us ask: if the US military can describe civilian casualties as "collateral damage," then what do you call the innocent Americans killed by a Jihadist's attack? It's all a matter of perspective and Spurlock posits the uncomfortable reality that war is war and their loss of innocent lives hurt and resonate just as much as ours do.WITWIOBL is by no means a deep or probing study of the issues in the Middle East; it glosses over the complex history of the region and, at times, does so in a very adolescent way. Spurlock, an obvious student of the Michael Moore school of documentary film-making, makes light of many topics by (over) using animated cartoons as a means to parlay a number of ideas. Spurlock uses a mock-video game template to structure WITWIOBL and, despite it being a new approach, it doesn't do the film any good. While on one hand I can appreciate Spurlock is trying to bring a little levity to a very serious subject, his gags are rarely funny and his overall schtick is wearisome. But if you stick with WITWIOBL you'll be rewarded with a film less about Spurlock's self-indulgences and more about having a better understanding of the Muslim world. Spurlock concludes that, ultimately, Muslims and Americans want the same thing: to have a better world to bring up their children in. Fine for those who have kids or want them, but I don't. As a consolation, I'd be happy to settle with living in a world where people were introspective enough to realize it takes two to tango. WITWIOBL might open the eyes of a few, but in a country divided by two political parties, asking a filmmaker to bridge the divide between two foreign world's might be asking a bit much. Nevertheless, WITWIOBL is well intentioned even if it has nothing to do with it's title.http://eattheblinds.blogspot.com/