Overrated films part 22.

A few years back a friend of mine highly recommended the film "What the Bleep do we Know?" to me. I asked him what it was about and he stood there silent for a while, then told me it's a documentary with a blend of quantum mechanics and spiritual consciousness.

Sounded kind of interesting, if not far fetched, but I never rushed out to view it as it seemed like some new age nonsense trying to pass itself off as true science.

To my surprise my roommate has it in his collection so a few days ago I sat down to watch the sleeper hit. Part documentary and part fiction the film jumps back and forth between the story of Amanda, a deaf photographer with a load of personal issues including hyper anxiety, to scientists and scholars explaining there theories on quantum physics, religion, reality perception, cell structure, etc.

While the movie is unique in it's technique of documenting it's hypothesis and seems compelling at times I found most of it's ideas as a bit of a stretch. I'm no expert in any of the fields the learned academics purport to be, but I still couldn't make the connection between the idea that quantum mechanics can accurately explain in detail why someone should feel spiritually connected to any and all of life's creatures especially when considered how our reality can be somehow controlled by our own positive thinking. I get that perception is reality, but that won't make me believe that by thinking optimistically will make me even more sexy than I already am nor will it make my encounters at the gym any less bizarre.

By the end of the movie I found it to be nothing more than suedo science. It's the same kind of thinking Dr Hugh Ross and his followers push upon the public. Plus the film uses JZ Night a lot as an expert on the topic who's no more an academic in any field other than blatant fraud. The film in my most humble opinion can be dangerous as well as it implies to it's viewers to abandon methods of traditional medicine in regards to mental disorders such as addictions, which is just insane.

For more information about the freak that is Miss Night, read Mattbear's little diddy on BOSTC, which was the inspiration for this post.

Many of my friends love this film and stand by the theories in it, even though all will admit they did no other research on the topics and/or the film outside of viewing it. Upon the film's DVD release it became a massive hit and a sequel has been produced. Still I enjoyed the film and it's art, but to regard it as a mind blowing experience with information that should be taken as gospel is naive at best. I recommend you see it, but take the values shown in this film with a grain of salt and by all means listen to other points of view on the matter.

"Quantum Bull-Bleep would be a more apt title for the conclusions that the movie draws." - Jack Matthews