Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This early Hepworth film is fairly humorous but it carries on for far too long and drags in the middle because of the repetitious nature of its scenes. An old man plays a trick on a youngster with pepper causing the boy to sneeze uncontrollably. The boy, who, it has to be said, appears ever so slightly effeminate (and might have been played by a girl), gets his own back by peppering the old man's hairbrush, handkerchief, hat, etc while he sleeps. In the morning the old man's sneezes are so powerful that things in their path collapse and fall apart or fall off walls, etc. The sneezes keep on building until they create an earthquake and then cause the old boy to explode.The last minute or so of the film is probably the most effective. Where a filmmaker today would use a shaking motion of the camera to transmit an earthquake, the cameraman here rocks the camera back and forth, eventually slowing down to signify the passing of the quake while the old boy hangs on to a lamppost. It's still quite an effective little trick. Overall though, the film went on far too long for what is essentially a one-shot joke.

Aside from LE VOYAGE DANS LE LUNE and a few other films by Georges Méliès, this is about the most entertaining and funny films I have seen from the very early days of cinema. In fact, I think it's a lot funnier than most of Chaplin's early shorts--it's that good.A jerk pours sneezing powder all over an unsuspecting old guys things while he's sleeping. The old guy later wakes up and pretty soon he starts to sneeze uncontrollably. The sight gags, for 1907, are great--as beds and walls and EVERYTHING get blown about by his sneezes. He even later causes earthquakes with the sneezes. This builds and builds until ultimately he just explodes!!! This is such a cool movie--one kids should especially enjoy!

This is an interesting combination of some very good camera effects and a very silly story. Overall, it's still worth seeing, even as long ago as it was filmed. The premise is no flimsier than those used for a lot of full-length features in more recent times, and the camera work holds up quite well.The simple story starts with an older man and a youth (apparently relatives of some kind) playing practical jokes on each other with pepper, and soon things get out of hand, with some outlandish results. It's thoroughly goofy, but because the camera effects are done well, it works well enough to be entertaining much of the time. It does go on a bit too long, and would probably have been better if they had not drawn it out quite so long before wrapping things up.

Granted, this is not profound, earth-shattering filmmaking of the sort to change lives and open minds. It's still fun, imaginative in a way that--so early in film history--had the flavor of unknown possibilities. Now that we know we can do anything via computer graphics, there's so little joy in trick photography and special effects via rigged props. Its strength is its rough edges; this is film in evolution. And the way they chose to end this film is nothing short of priceless.