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12 Rounds Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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What Would Jesus Buy?
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MPAA RATING: PG for mild language
Starring Bill Talen, and Savitri D
From producer Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me") and director Rob VanAlkemade comes a serious docu-comedy about the commercialization of Christmas. Bill Talen was a lost idealist who hitchhiked to New York City only to find that Times Square was becoming a mall. Spurred on by the loss of his neighborhood and inspired by the sidewalk preachers around him, Bill bought a collar to match his white caterer's jacket, bleached his hair and became the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. Since 1999, Reverend Billy has gone from being a lone preacher with a portable pulpit preaching on subways, to the leader of a congregation and a movement whose numbers are well into the thousands. 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. (Palisades Pictures)
| GENRE(S): | Documentary |
| DIRECTED BY: | Rob VanAlkemade |
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: May 27, 2008 Theatrical: November 16, 2007 |
| RUNNING TIME: | 90 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: | USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Frank C gave it a3:
Starts off with a strong message about debt and consumerism, but quickly goes wildly off tangent. Wal-Mart and Starbucks, much maligned by neo-Liberals, are not the root of the consumption problem. Our government and the quasi-governmental Federal Reserve deserve most of the blame for their continued manipulation of credit to encourage consumption over saving. Rev Billy has no respect for private property and needs to stop harassing people engaged in voluntary transactions.
E B gave it a10:
Believe it or not, I saw Rev Billy on C-Span first. It took a minute to know what the hell was going on and I started to lose it - Changealluhah! Director Spurlock is one of the few public Americans I'm truly proud of - great interview with him by Mike Papintonio you can see on AirAmerica or GoLeftTV.
Matthew R. gave it a10:
I loved this film and pray that it gets out to a lot of audiences. Very important for our consumer culture to hear this message, especially when the messenger is so funny! Changelujah!

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