You remember that old saying “you get what you pay for”. Well, it seems somewhat appropriate in this case.
Michael Moore decided to release his new movie “Slacker Uprising” online. The film documents Moore’s “get out and vote” 62-city tour during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. And if you sign up now at slackeruprising.com, you’ll be able to download the entire movie for FREE on September 23rd.
But, why free? According to Michael Moore:

“This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans. The only return any of us are hoping for is the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls in November.”

For those of us who have seen the movie, we have some other theories:

Review by Michael White
The best thing I can say about CAPTAIN MIKE is that it looked incredibly sharp on the digital projection system here at the Toronto International Film Festival. This film–also known by the better title SLACKER UPRISING–is something of a half-hearted sequel to Moore’s FAHRENHEIT 9/11, documenting Moore’s “Slacker Uprising” tour of 2004 in which the filmmaker attempted to lessen the number of “red states” on the political map of the U.S. by encouraging voter registration and turnout.
Unfortunately, seeing all of the folks in CAPTAIN MIKE serves as a reminder to just how close we came to dethroning our unelected president and how much this failure has hurt us in the years hence. It’s a bit like seeing interviews with the geeks in line for STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE who have no idea about the world of hurt they’re about to enter.
The myriad shots of Moore shambling onto various stages across the country keeps begging the question, “Just how many baseball caps does this guy have, anyway?” After a while, the film feels too sad to stand. There are times when the “Slacker Uprising” tour seems as though it should be called “Michael Moore’s Ego Trip Across America.” It seems that the less of Moore on screen the better. With that equation in mind, CAPTAIN MIKE has Moore on screen one way or another through approximately 95% of the film. You do the math.

With a review like that many could say that Slacker Uprising would have never made any return on a theater release. With a price tag of free, there is a lowered expectation on the quality of the content. Releasing it on the internet became a wise move on Moore’s part to save face and actually get his message across to a wide audience.
Alex Churchill