Expelled - Ben Stein's "Intelligence" Film

[lazario]

Anyone heard of this? Ben Stein has a new commercial out- all over the place (I saw it on Comedy Central several times last night), which is an ad for his "controversial" new film (yeah- does anyone with a brain actually think "The Monotone Guy" from Ferris Bueller / the "Eyedrop" guy, could ever be controversial?). Well, at least they keep telling us it's controversial. They don't tell you what it's about. They just show you clips of Ben sitting outside what you would assume is "the principal's office" after he interrupts his "science" teacher's class and calls him "...dude."

Anyway, it's pretty obvious that he doesn't want people to know what the movie is actually about before they go to see it. I just assumed that it would be a weird "frat party" kind of movie with Ben Stein's funny dry humor or whatever. Then I read this review of the movie and... after seeing his bullshit interviews on Fox News, I'm so not surprised he's lost his cotton picking mind. He's now trying to be serious. Do you think this is all a big joke or...not?

[piggsy]

It looks like Ben's trying to rip off of Michael Moore's success by making a serious documentary.

I think he should just stick to selling eyedrops.

[lowkey]

It's about intelligent design. Pretty ironic that a guy who likes to gloat about how smart he is, would openly admit to believing in this shit. I don't think it's a joke at all, because Ben has been pretty vocal in the last few years, about his support of creationism.

[tsmooth31]

Ben Stein is one of the most annoying unfunny guys in the world

but i agree with piggsy..looks like hes just trying to rip off moore's success

[lazario]

Apr 18, 2008 15:57:21 GMT -5 lowkey said:

It's about intelligent design. Pretty ironic that a guy who likes to gloat about how smart he is, would openly admit to believing in this shit.

I think he wants to be on what he assumes is "the winning team." He's a big suck-up. And I agree, for a guy who thinks he's so smart, he sure sold his soul pretty fast.

[lowkey]

He should have learned to be careful when picking a side by now. He was Nixon's speech writer after all, and we know how that turned out. I wonder if he's the one who came up with, "I am not a crook," or if that was just an improv.

[lazario]

I think that had to have been written. Even Nixon could not have thought up something that crazy.

[lowkey]

Just an update here: Expelled is basically a flop. It's intended audience didn't fill up the churches to view it as they did with the Passion of the Christ, as producers had anticipated. By all accounts it seems to be less about promoting an open debate between ID and evolution, and more about correlating science to Hitler and Stalin. Ben Stein has even hinted in a few interviews, that the only way to enjoy it, is to get high first. I doubt it'll ever be considered a cult hit like Reefer Madness, or Duck and Cover though.

[lazario]

Sounds like exactly what I expected.

Except that now, it sounds like Ben knows it was a mistake and he might be trying to worm his way out of it by implying it was all a joke.