Review of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008) by Samantha R — 11 Jan 2010

Holy Cow,... where to start.

20% only for production value and it kept me interested throughout (although my interest was in whether or not this obviously intelligent man was going to prove his point or not).

He didn't. I'm all for debate. But if this was an attempt at debate? Yikes. Failed miserably.

Begin with debate 101.

Present yourself as an open minded observer of facts with no prejudice or opinion on the matter at hand. Even portray yourself as a once believer in the side you now are "having trouble with after deep contemplation". Present each person you bring forward to testify on your behalf also as open-minded and blank slates that have been filled with information you may find astounding! - if only you too could be without preconceived notions... so forget everything you know!!!

(If you pay attention to this "film" closely, just about each person betrays their initial claims about themselves and reveals subtly they in fact DO have prejudices and preconceived notions with regard to this debate and thus each of these people then become discounted. But not to the filmmaker. He's still onboard.

For good measure, show a concentration camp where an idea like darwinism had been perverted by a psychopathic leader. It will of course be a setting that will infuriate the most passive viewer on the subject at hand and lines will be blurred to your advantage. Throw in clips of archival footage for "humor" (hmmm, debatable itself) and by the end of this trainwreck you may have convinced some people that you are right on the money. I mean, afterall, he refers to darwinism and eugenics as interchangable basically. And he has the gall to refer to advocates of eugenics as liberal. Hitler was a liberal? Race purification attempts in the south were "liberal"? Wow,.. talk about blurring lines to make a case built on straw.

The entire movie.. documentary.. travesty... whatever you want to call it, I kept shouting "um,.. you realize your argument basically is that Darwinism is wrong because it can be perverted and used for evil?" By those standards, all religion would be evil as well. No?

Ben go home. Do another game show. Something. Anything but this drivel.