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Universal acclaim - based on 37 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 35 Ratings

  • Summary: This documentary is the inside story of one of history's greatest business scandals, in which top executives of America's 7th largest company walked away with over one billion dollars while investors and employees lost everything. (Magnolia Pictures)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 37
  2. Negative: 0 out of 37
  1. With no-nonsense narration by Peter Coyote and a soundtrack that's at once apt, ironic and really, really good, The Smartest Guys in the Room is anything but a dry dissection of a major Wall Street debacle.
  2. Reviewed by: Peter Hanson
    80
    It’s only by understanding what went wrong that we can hope to recognize the warning signs next time.
  3. 50
    Amid the infoglut that surrounds us, Gibney's film feels too much like more noise. Is it telling the most important business story of our lifetimes, or is it just another fantastical yarn, crammed into the schedule after Scott and Laci Peterson, but before Charlemagne and the ancient Peruvian astronauts?

See all 37 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 21
  2. Negative: 2 out of 21
  1. BillS.
    10
    A reflection of how many CEO's have forgotton their real role...to protect their organization, their employees and stockholders...not to fill their pockets and egos. Expand
  2. hollyc
    9
    Wow---well made documentary. Easily one of the better movies I've seen recently. I think all Americans---should see the documentary. It is simply an outstanding "crime story" mostly, but illustrates the lone problem in all corporations: stripping individuals of responsibility--and the culture that arrises. It's easy to rape California if that's your job and you're ordered to do so by an authority you've deemed qualified. Heck, this is basically a film ready-made for corporate ethics classes now required at most business schools. I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't used in those classes already! Well done--and I'm certainly now interested in reading the book it was based on. Expand
  3. JoeP
    8
    Excellent movie, shows how greed affected the entire country and almost brought the country to its knees in the biggest corporate scandal in US history. Expand
  4. Taylor
    2
    Interesting scandal. Horrible movie! So poorly put together.

See all 21 User Reviews