Film Review – The Yes Men Fix The World

November 11th, 2009 | POSTED BY Spencer Fornaciari

The Yes Men Fix The World is the sequel to The Yes Men, a documentary that followed the exploits of two men, as they attempted to show the lies of corporate America by conducting elaborate hoaxes that put corporations at the center of their jokes.  I had seen the previous film about a year ago and was interested to see the next chapter in their story.

Their basic hoax goes something like this: they setup a dummy website that mimics the website of a corporation and use that as a way to work themselves into important presentations on behalf of the corporation.  This presentation calls into question the morality of the corporation’s actions.  Sometimes they are caught, sometimes they get away with it, but they always create an elaborate spectacle in the process.

Much like a Michael Moore movie, the message is very heavy handed.  You know what you are getting right from the beginning.  Personally, I enjoy this, but it is certainly a style that will turn off a lot of people.  Like all good sequels this one takes the hoaxes to a much larger scale, including one that was broadcast on BBC Worldwide to 300 million people.

It is somewhat of a mystery to me that they are constantly able to get away with the hoaxes.  I guess it proves how much trust people provide in one individual information source.  If it looks and sounds real, they have no reason to doubt it.  One would think by now though that people would begin to recognize them like Michael Moore, and they would get caught.

Ultimately, it is unlikely that this film will change any perspectives.  Disregarding political perspectives, I actually found the process through which they manufactured the hoaxes was quite entertaining and one of the best parts of the film.  Additionally, there was some interesting historical information in the film and the footage from around the world was pretty neat.  It kept me interested and entertained, you can’t ask for much more than that.  I’d give The Yes Men Fix The World a 6 out of 10.   If you are interested in seeing it, it is available on DVD.

Michael Moore, The Yes Men, The Yes Men Fix The World