Film Review: What The Bleep Do We Know!?

"bleep me... my head's going to implode!"


What The Bleep Do We Know!?
Dir. Mark Vicente, Betsy Chasse and William Arntz

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Apparently Madonna said: “I found What The Bleep!? to be incredibly thought-provoking and inspiring” and it's not hard to see why. I was only telling my mate Dave the other day over a beer that I find it hard to understand how anyone can be alive and not be curious about issues such as: quantum physics, biochemistry, psychology and spirituality. Spirituality in particular seeing as I'm a signed up born again Christian and all... He looked at me, then lent me ‘The Universe Next Door’ to read and gave me Hitman Contracts for the PS2 to play – surely Dave is guy who has a sound philosophy of life!?

What the Bleep!? is a documentary film that asks the audience to consider the most fundamental of questions: What am I doing here? What are thoughts made of? What is reality? To quote the bloke who seems to know quite a bit in this area - Stephen W. Hawkings: “To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit,” quite...

Bleep!? claims to be an exploration of the world in which we live and the world which we perceive to exist around us. ‘Composed of an engrossing blend of popular science and spirituality with animation and a dramatic heroine played by academy award winner Marlee Matlin, the film subverts established ideals of self, religion, and the 'reality' in which we all believe ourselves to exist.’

Unfortunately – even though the subject matter is right up my street (I think Christians have to be willing to assess and investigate theories that deal with the very core of our existence rather than put heads in the sand and hope that the Bible will be enough), it's slightly undermined because, it feels like the filmmakers are students of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. Why else would Ramtha (you know - Ramtha that 35,000 year-old spirit-warrior who appeared in J.Z. Knight’s kitchen in Tacoma, Washington in 1977) get so much screen time when denounced as a crackpot by many? And I’m not being a knee jerker but how come the religion bashing is rampant and yet any meaningful balancing right to reply is missing? Hhhmmm…

So, how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go? Well, i'd say that What The Bleep!? is certainly worth seeing – but if you find yourself unconsciously reaching for your wallet with a strong urge to donate your life savings to an obscure cult as a result – don’t say I didn’t warn you!!

And as the promotional blurb for the film goes: “One of the US’ Highest Ever Grossing Documentary Hits… Is on its bleep-ing way to the UK 20th May 2005!” – get ready to open your mind (but maybe make this just one source of input on the subject).

Darkmatt Rating: öö (great topic, interesting thinking but flawed line up of "experts")