Yet more excellent work from documentarian Michael Moore as he hits the road in 1996 for a 47-city tour to promote his new book "Downsize This". Funded by Random House Publishing, with that company having no idea that Moore is not just going to sign books, the all-world film-maker pulls no punches as he gets to the heart of corporation down-sizing just as some of the biggest money-makers in the U.S. start to have all-time record high profits. We see regular folks laid off by monsters like Pay Day (the candy bar company), Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Johnson Controls and Pillsbury. National corporations leaving the U.S. to pay lesser fees to employees in third-world countries is explained in great detail and Moore even has a unique conversation with Phil Knight, the CEO of Nike (also the only CEO brave enough to verbally spar), and needless to say Moore comes out looking much better than his opponent. "The Big One" shows the lack of political choices for the general public (the film makes it blatantly clear that the Clinton/Dole race of 1996 was a no-win vote) as blue-collar, middle-class workers fall in the work-place due to the lack of government control on power-mad corporations that only look at the bottom line and constantly talk about competition in their industry (this makes the big-wigs look even sillier in reality). The main theme from "Pulp Fiction" late during Moore's run of metropolitan areas ends up setting the overall tone of this exceptional documentary feature. 5 stars out of 5.
