Good concept, poorly executed.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Thorough and scathing look into the social, environmental and economic destruction the current corporate system is sowing. Not entirely optimistic, it shows many viewpoints from Capitalist chiefs, Greening CEOs and the usual swag of the likes of Chomsky, Moore and Klein. It covers a lot and is quite in-depth. I never knew Basmati rice had been saved from corporate ownership. There is much to glean from this, even if you are already aware of the current economic imbalances we face. A must watch.

"The Corporation" is a straight-forwarded documentary critique of what is arguably modern society's most powerful institutions -- incorporated business enterprises. What about governments? Well, yes, in some countries, notably Russia, corporations do as directed (just ask a Russian oil billionaire if the warden allows). However, the movie argues, the fairly self-evident point, that elected officials have little recourse but to swing their influence in the direction very large, very wealthy and very well connected people (corporations are legally persons) point. The movie recounts the mechanisms of this influence including congressional votes lobbied, tax codes rewritten and resistors silenced. At its most interesting the film covers the excesses of this power. According to the film, Mosanto, which makes an appearance in most material of this nature, boosts profits by selling seeds that produce non-reproducing plants so that another purchase needs to be made the following year and sues farmers who disagree with their practices. Another corporation buys all of the water rights in part of a South American country so that collecting rainwater becomes a form of stealing which the government enforces on the company's behalf. The examples in the film are many, frankly too many given this is a cinematic release rather than the PBS special it much more assuredly feels like with its multitude of title cards and talking heads most notably Noam Chomsky. Much like a PBS special, the tone is even-handed and civil and makes you understand why Michael Moore earns far more on his screaming, one-sided docs ("Fahrenheit 911") than he does on his more harmonious, balanced offerings ("Sicko"). In short, the movie lacks enough thematic elements to make for a particularly interesting film and the central premise that corporations are very powerful and are profit-driven will shock only the most naïve. As CNBC's Jim Cramer says: "it is government for the corporations, by the corporations and from an investor's standpoint, that is a good thing."

This excellent documentary accurately depicts, through factual reportage, the nature of a corporation, often a destructive force when it comes to the human consciousness, that is, when in contact with human consciousness, often toxic, when placed under considered scrutiny and in historical perspective.In my view, a corporation is not an "entity," nor a "person," despite judges in courts who have ruled it that, judges, perhaps bought and paid for by corporations reaching for control of and over civilization in the United States. A person has consciousness, compassion, and morality. A corporation does not. What it does have: "strategy." What the corporation is: a system, often with a singular objective, to make profits. It is the embodiment of greed.It is a strange phenomenon projected by human behavior. It was isolated, analyzed and described in Truman Capote's 1966 seminal work, In Cold Blood, a "non-fiction novel" first serialized in The New Yorker in 1965. This behavioral revelation is about the formation of an overriding singular force that is either tyrannically destructive or in a few cases, constructive, when two or more humans are present in a scenario. In Capote's book, two petty thieves create a singular, malevolent force that destroys an innocent family. By themselves, neither of the two thieves could or would have been capable of the murder.The positive or negative nature of the corporate force is created from the combination of top management, sometimes boards, if the board is in close control of the corporation. In most cases, since the objective of most corporations is profitability, the bottom line becomes the most powerful arbiter of the corporate behavioral history. In too many cases, the results are destructive to human health and welfare.Top management typically walks in a chain-lock-step, especially when members receive the obscene amount of compensation published in today's business journals. As a result, whistle blowers who report malfeasance, crime or destructively bad management are disposed of, and in the case of existing within a modest municipality controlled by the corporation, also black-listed.Malefactors are usually promoted and rewarded, often in spite of the corporation itself, as it begins to decline and eventually go out of business and close its doors, moving hundreds or thousands of employees and subcontractors who had grown dependent, out into the street to search of new employment.The greatest danger today (at this writing) is the takeover of governments by corporations who buy entire political parties, government institutions and more or less cause great human suffering and destruction of human well being and in too many cases, life itself. Untrammeled, the corporate system or force, has the potential to destroy all human life on Earth. This documentary clearly shows this possibility. It is the most insidious specter today, soon to come out of China in vast dimensions, presently inconceivable.

This movie is ridiculous and can't be named a 'documentary'. Almost every problem which occurs in the world is blamed on the corporations.Pollution? It's the corporations. Cancer? It's the corporations. Did you just get fired? It's raining? It's the corporations. Man, it's not that you're not functioning, of course: it's the corporations! Hey, you're company is actually successful? YOU'RE EVIL!It's a one sided piece of junk which basically says: " we don't have any responsibility ourselves, so we blame everything on the corporations! " Can't believe why this is rated so high in on IMDb. I guess 3.437 unemployed tree hugging people voted this junk a 10.