What Would Jesus Buy?

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Starring: Reverend Billy
Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Rob VanAlkemade
Studio: Arts Alliance America
Release Date: 2008-05-27
Through retail interventions, corporate exorcisms, and some good old-fashioned preaching, Reverend Billy reminds us that we have lost the true meaning of Christmas. What Would Jesus Buy? is a journey into the heart of America from exorcising the demons at the Wal-Mart headquarters to taking over the center stage at the Mall of America and then ultimately heading to the Promised Land ... Disneyland. Bonus Features: Deleted Scenes, Original Theatrical Trailer, Public Access Show featuring Reverend Billy and Morgan Spurlock

WWJB - quality of the medium
I enjoyed this, but the first copy didn't have the audio in synch with the video. So don't let it sit around without checking that first!

It wasn't quite what I thought. It's an "on-the-road" documentary in the style of Michael Moore. It's more ironic than laugh out loud funny.

Changeluia!!
This movie helped me stop my shopping, well sort of. It damn sure woke me up to the horrors of overt consumerism. The choir is great to watch and listen to. The stories of the people really freaked me out, especially the woman who bought all that stuff for her dog.

Fun but so informative!!!
I wasn't sure what to expect when I got this, but I trusted Morgan Spurlock to be entertaining and insightful. I want everyone to watch this movie!!

At Once -- Funny and Horrifying Views of Shopaholism
True confession: I fully expected to not like this movie, as I thought Morgan Spurlock was a dumb prick for the ridiculous stunt he pulled in "Supersize Me."

I liked this movie, though.

It offers a humorous and yet terrifying perspective on American consumerism, especially as it relates to Christmas. The hollowness of materialism rings like a gong throughout the film, as it follows "Reverend Billy" and his Stop Shop[ping crew around the country. (The cost to send the troupe around the USA was not cheap, and someone laid out lots of dough for this.)

The movie does meander a bit in anti Wal*Mart and anti-Disney diatribes in particular.

"What Would Jesus Buy?" (WWJB) is a rhetorical question to spur us to reconsider the true meaning of Christmas and - beyond that - the sickness of materialism that grips our lives.

It is easier to tell what the movie and Rev. Billy are against than what they are for. Is Rev. Billy really a Christian? Aside from closeness with family, what is the true meaning of Christmas? Does he find it in Gospels? Does it involve mission, outreach or evangelizing? We are left to wonder.

WWJB is better at excoriating materialism but it isn't clear - at least to this reviewer - as to its true spiritual leanings, roots and beliefs.

Withal, though, WWJB is at once a funny and horrifying expose oo the gripping and sickening role of shopaholism during the yuletide season, with broader troubling implications on our modern spiritual wasteland.

shopocalypse now
Join Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they exorcise the spiritual powers of compulsive consumption. Bill Talen left San Francisco where he was a talented actor and found his true calling when he landed in New York City's Time Square. There he began his warnings about the "shopocalypse" that pedals endless credit and lands us in eternal debt. Reverend Billy dons a white tux and a faux clerical collar for his street theater -- preaching in Starbucks or prophesying against billion dollar corporate profits built on the backs of Bangladeshi children who sew our clothes for seven cents an hour. Most of this documentary follows the Reverend and his choir as they tour America in two junker buses the month before Christmas 2005. You can imagine the sacred shrines they visit on this anti-pilgrimage, including the Mall of America, the headquarters of Wal-Mart, the Las Vegas strip, and the ultimate virtual reality on Christmas Day -- Disneyland, home of the antichrist, Mickey Mouse. The film interviews shopoholics and cultural critics alike (Jim Wallis, Bill McKibben, Andrew Young). Produced by Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), this creative social satire would be great for family viewing.