Upon seeing Chris Smith's name attached to the new documentary The Yes Men, I didn't even need to read what it was about. I was sold on the Smith name alone. This guy has made a career out of making incredibly entertaining
documentaries about odd, eccentric people (see American Movie and Home Movie).

The film takes it's title from an anarchistic underground organization of the same name, a zany group of do-gooders who travel around passing themselves off as World Trade Organization members.

Actually, their adventures begin when they find themselves invited to various seminars to speak, after their mock web site (which looks very
similar to the actual W.T.O. site) is mistaken for the real thing. Rather than sitting back and doing nothing, they attend these seminars and present
hilariously fake speeches that, for whatever reason, are often met with resounding approval. And rather than being stopped, The Yes Men continue to be invited to these seminars where their speeches and presentations become more and more outlandish, none crazier then the one in which one of the Yes Men dresses in a bizarre, space man suit complete with an inflatable penile employment monitor that they suggest will create greater profitability in the Third World.

Sounds really funny doesn't it? Well it is to a certain extent. When The Yes Men are out there doing their thing, this movie is drop dead hilarious. Sadly, when The Yes Men are prepping to wreak havoc on unsuspecting crowds, the film stops dead in it's tracks. Why? Well for starters, the men who form this underground aren't very interesting. In fact, they're quite boring and the movie suffers as a result of this. It's obvious that The Yes Men are
very smart. They clearly have intelligence, and a lot of what they have to say is extremely funny, but their hilarity ends once they're out of the
spotlight. Once we see them going about their everyday lives, I became increasingly bored.

As I stated, Chris Smith has the ability to find strength and character in the oddest of people, but here, he sort of misfires. The Yes Men are the opposite. They're only interesting half of the time.

I don't want to give the impression that I hated this movie. I was laughing throughout much of it. I just could have done without all the personal
insight into the Yes Men. Quite surprisingly, what they were doing was much more funny and enlightening than who they are.