Slick, sly, often sharply funny documentary.
Czech Dream (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:18
Rotten:4
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Czech Dream induces laughs, cheers, and squirms as these pranksters slyly attempt to pull a fast one on media corporations.
Runtime: 90 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: The documentary CZECH DREAM follows the psychological experiment of two filmmaking students who commission a massive advertising campaign for the opening of a new supermarket. The supermarket,... The documentary CZECH DREAM follows the psychological experiment of two filmmaking students who commission a massive advertising campaign for the opening of a new supermarket. The supermarket, however, is not only imaginary, it's also part of the students' project to estimate how much consumers rely on the mass media. [More]
Producer: Morgan Spurlock
Reviews for Czech Dream
There's some insight, but no salient point is made: of course people are going to turn up to the opening of a heavily advertised store. Big deal.
Plays like Jackass directed by Lars Von Trier. We're talking pranksterism with a political purpose, as the filmmakers use their ruse to take a timely dig at mass manipulation.
an over-intellectual meditation on capitalism run amok, with cynicism the side note
Let's encourage people to make fools of themselves -- then mock them when they act foolishly!
Somewhere in the realm between performance art, political theater and cinematic prank lies this documentary about the branding and marketing of a non-existent hypermarket...
... the filmmakers' fraud seems so basically mean-spirited that the only satisfying ending would have been the mob tearing them limb from limb.
It's obviously more fun to watch Czech Dream than it was to experience the deception firsthand.
The film wavers between nervous dread for the unsuspecting public and sheer gall at the number of consultants who agreed to help sell something nonexistent (for money, of course).
Unlike their American equivalents, such as The Yes Men, or even Michael Moore, the Czech pranksters display an admirable awareness that their story is much bigger than themselves.
In the post–Morgan Spurlock era of stunt docs, the open-endedness is welcome.
How easy [the capitalist] appetite is to stimulate is demonstrated in the cheeky documentary Czech Dream.
It's a fascinating account, formulated and filmed by a pair of young Czech media students, of the way advertising and consumer manipulation can create a market for anything at all, even something that doesn't even exist.
The filmmakers sometimes come off as smug jerks, but that doesn't mean they're wrong about the insidious impact of chain colonization, or the infernal effectiveness of something-for-nothing come-ons even in political pitches.
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June 14, 2007:
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