Bowling for Columbine: Critic Reviews

We need [Moore's] noisy, cocky energy, his passion and class consciousness; we need his shticks, we need his stones.

I hope the movie is widely seen and debated with appropriate ferocity and thoughtfulness.

Even Moore's detractors, should they be inclined to see the film, will admit that he takes a refreshingly nuanced view of the issue.

A lot of this is amusing and somehow telling. But what does it all add up to?

It's a crazy, enthralling, sometimes hilarious mess of hypotheses, accusations, and head-scratching flights of folly, and it's there to be wrestled with.

The movie can be devastating and is often hilarious.

[Moore's] better at fingering problems than finding solutions. But though he only scratches the surface, at least he provides a strong itch to explore more.

Even those who would like to dismiss the film outright should find much to mull and debate.

At its best, which occurs often, Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine rekindles the muckraking, soul-searching spirit of the 'Are we a sick society?' journalism of the 1960s.

A documentary that is both hilarious and sorrowful.

It's unnerving, stimulating, likely to provoke anger and sorrow on both political sides -- and, above all, it's extremely funny.

Irreverent, provocative and provoking.

There is simply no doubt that this film asks the right questions at the right time in the history of our country.

All in all, Mr. Moore has given us a lot to think about in Bowling for Columbine, and he has entertained us royally in the process.

Mr. Moore aims at so many targets and tilts at so many windmills that his arguments lose persuasion.

A worthy successor to Roger & Me.

A great documentary challenges social norms and demands reaction, and on that score Moore hits us right between the eyes.

Stuffed with content that is sometimes riveting and occasionally meandering and often arguable, the documentary is a bit of a shambles -- yet an intriguing and, in light of the timid conservatism that typifies pop Americana, a valuable shambles.

Regardless of how dubious its documentary tactics may be, Bowling for Columbine is powerful, thought-provoking, and, upon occasion, bitingly funny.

A flat-out brilliant cinematic essay on the issue of guns and violence in American society.

This volcanically funny and seriously scary look at America's obsession with guns is meant to shake us up good. And it does.

Anything that coaxes us into thinking about why we are the way we are, even as imperfectly as Bowling for Columbine does, is an energizing change of pace.