Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Moore

Distributed by United Artists and Alliance Atlantis

Running time: 120 mins.

Rated R

With theaters chock full of big budget, thoughtless, big star films, “documentary” has become a dirty word. Few are released worldwide, and the ones that are disappear without a trace.Not many documentary filmmakers are household names. There’s Johnny Knoxville and his “Jackass” gang, but more realistically there’s Michael Moore (“Roger & Me”). In his latest film, “Bowling For Columbine,” Moore solidifies himself as the best documentary filmmaker alive and, arguably, one of the best filmmakers alive, period.

His masterpiece has been commonly referred to as a documentary about guns in America. Anyone who writes that probably hasn’t even seen the film.

It’s about America, not guns or schools or anything that specific. It’s about what kind of a country we live in. It’s about our leadership. It’s about racism. It’s about what we, as Americans, should and should not fear.

If this film has one underlying theme, it’s how the media twists our thoughts. Of course, the mainstream media won’t admit to this, so they label it a gun control movie. Nowhere in the film does Moore say guns are bad. In fact, Moore is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association.

The reason “Bowling For Columbine” is such an amazing film isn’t just because of its political messages. Someone completely uninterested in politics would still be entertained by it.

The intentional and unintentional comedic value of the movie is hard to ignore. America seems to have become a parody of itself, and Moore exposes that. A school safety video shows how easy it would be for a high school student with baggy clothes to conceal weapons inside his pants and shirt. The kid winds up pulling about 20 different weapons out of his clothes, including a giant shotgun, a machine gun and a pair of numchuks. There are also a few candid cartoons that aren’t very flattering to the American government.

“Bowling For Columbine” is a shocking, intelligent and hilarious movie that everyone should take the time to see. People say original films are few and far between. Well, Michael Moore has made such a film.