Expelled-No Intelligence Allowed (Blu-ray) (2008)

"Comedian Ben Stein hit the nail right on the funny bone.  Dick Rolfe, Dove Foundation
"You will cheer!  Glenn Beck
"It puts a conservative twist on Michael Moore-ism, with campy stock footage, deadpan humor...  Kyle Smith, New York Post

Editor's Note Though Ben Stein is perhaps most famous for his sleep-inducing drone in FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF or for his eponymous game show, he is also a highly regarded New York Times columnist and was a speechwriter for both Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford during their presidencies. For EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED, he needs all his powers of persuasion as he calls attention to the plight of exiled scientists and professors. In this documentary, Stein travels the world and speaks to men and women who have lost their jobs and their standings in the scientific world because of their association with intelligent design. EXPELLED uses the Berlin Wall as a metaphor and asserts that these people have been unjustly ousted, merely for speaking their minds. It carefully explains the differences between creationism and intelligent design and demonstrates that the latter is a belief held by people of all deity-based faiths, not just Christianity. It also devotes time to the connections between Darwinism and Hitler's regime. The film's climax features Stein going head-to-head with Richard Dawkins, a renowned atheist and author of the bestseller THE GOD DELUSION. Obviously, neither man budges in his firmly held beliefs, but it's fascinating to watch a debate between two undeniably intelligent men, regardless of whose side you're on. EXPELLED doesn't spend most of its time debating intelligent design and evolution. Instead it focuses largely on how the debate itself and its proponents have been ignored or pushed out of classrooms and academia. Filmmaker Nathan Frankowski inserts both original animations and clips of famous films (including PLANET OF THE APES and THE WIZARD OF OZ) to further illustrate his point. Though critics may find fault with EXPELLED for its one-sidedness, it's no more biased than any of Michael Moore's critically lauded documentaries.

	Ben Stein
	Walt Ruloff - Screenwriter
	Logan Craft - Producer
	John Sullivan - Producer
	Nathan Frankowski - Director of Photography
	Kevin Miller - Screenwriter
	Robbie Bronnimann - Composer
	Walt Ruloff - Producer
	Richard Dawkins - Featured
	Andy Hunter - Composer
	Ben Stein - Screenwriter
	Nathan Frankowski - Director

Reel.com 6 of 10
Who would have thought that Ben Stein, the game show host and famously drab economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, would one day become the leading apologist for the theory of intelligent design? Not me. But that's life for you -- a surprise around every corner. Stein is the central figure in the new film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a fire-bomb documentary meant to burn down the house of "Big Science," whose members, according to the film, have silenced all dissent from the theory of evolution and are actively engaged in the persecution of anyone who doesn't toe the party line...Expelled works in much the same way as a Michael Moore documentary: a raft of provocation and very little persuasion. It starts out by serving up a few case histories of scientists who publicly declared their sympathy for intelligent design. In each case, five in all, reaction from the scientific establishment was swift. Tenure was denied, contracts weren't renewed, websites were taken down, etc. Expelled would have you believe that these cases represent instances of grave injustice and the contravention of academic freedom, but it's poorly argued and lacks evidence. Tenure is often denied. Contracts frequently aren't renewed. That's life, especially in academia. More evidence is required to build a compelling case, and the makers of Expelled don't want to get bogged down in chronicling academic intrigues...Expelled isn't a thoughtfully rendered documentary about the freedom of inquiry; it's a shot across the bow of the scientific establishment. And it just doesn't work. - Matt McKillop

The Onion A.V. Club 5 of 10
What, exactly, is intelligent design theory? How is it different than creationism? Why should scientists take it as seriously as evolution theory? It's reasonable to expect Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, an intelligent-design documentary starring and co-written by former Nixon speechwriter, game-show host, and "Bueller, Bueller" guy Ben Stein, to address these basic questions with at least a modicum of depth. No such luck. Instead, Expelled is a classic bait-and-switch, presenting itself as a plea for freedom in the scientific marketplace of ideas, while actually delivering a grossly unfair, contradictory, and ultimately repugnant attack on Darwinists...Expelled stacks the deck in favor of intelligent design, interviewing the most rational-seeming and articulate proponents, and the crustiest, most arrogant critics, but that's to be expected from a hot-button documentary in the post-Moore era. But when Stein--whose disingenuous babe-in-the-woods routine grows more grating with every wronged talking head he pretends to be shocked over--walks through Dachau's Nazi death camp and wonders whether "survival of the fittest" thinking could lead to future atrocities at the hands of sociopathic Darwinists, he strides proudly over the last line of decency in contemporary documentary filmmaking...Perhaps what Bruce Chapman of ID advocacy group The Discovery Institute says about Darwinists applies best to Expelled: "People who don't have an argument are reduced to throwing sand in your eyes." If only this movie could be washed away as easily. - Steven Hyden