CAST: Michael Moore SCR: Michael Moore DIR: Michael Moore STUDIO: Lionsgate/The Weinstein Company MPAA: PG-13 for Brief Strong Language. RUNNING TIME: 122 min. OFFICIAL SITE: www.michaelmoore.com You would be hard pressed to find a more notorious figure in the entertainment world than Michael Moore. From his mid 90's books and underrated doc The Big One to a surprise mainstream breakthrough (and Oscar) for his blistering Bowling For Columbine. Moore refined his everyman schtick, turning up the volume on his disdain for the Bush administration in print and television appearances. It was his Fahrenheit 9/11 that presented us with a Michael Moore so far out at the edge, you could only marvel at the intensity - and insanity - of what he was trying to sell to the American public. F911 became the biggest non-fiction film of all time. It gave Moore's supporters a big drum to bang and his detractors a lot to work with. Please don't get me wrong. I have often said that this world needs a Michael Moore just as we needed a Ralph Nader. It takes outsiders with big personalities and bigger voices to kick over the first dominos of change. And there is a lot about this great land of ours that could benefit from a little evolution. Moore is a slick filmmaker and his polemics are very entertaining. He has perfected a way of dropping in a music cue here, a quick visual there to tell his story. But so many of his visual tricks have been debunked, so many of those music cues deemed cheap shots. Fahrenheit 9/11 gave us stunning information to chew on but one had to sift through the abundance of Moore-isms to discover it all. If only Moore had ever given us both sides of the story. I would likely land on his, but I resent having to figure out the other side on my own. Sicko is different. Sure, there are a few sections that certainly skew things in favor of making a point, but what a point! The more mature, dare-I-suggest “refined” Michael Moore presents his most important argument - that while much of the world benefits from universal heath care, we in America are beholden to the large pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies who make denying us care their goal. After all, any money saved is money earned, which is why companies like Aetna report huge profits year after year - and people have horrible stories about loved ones having died because they were denied care, or situations so absurd, they defy description: like the guy who accidentally cut off the tips of his middle and ring fingers and was presented with a choice: reattach the middle finger for $60,000 or the ring finger for $12,000. These are facts, and no amount of cute editing is needed when someone is telling a heart-wrenching story about how the system left them hanging. In fact, Moore doesn't even appear for the first forty minutes, but when he does, he never confronts anybody. He only interviews people - patients, doctors, insurance company employees -- and visits hospitals in foreign countries (albeit shooting his film through a rose-colored lens). Granted, he omits a few things about foreign health care systems, choosing to paint them as futuristic utopias where care is administered free, and with a smile, thank you. But even considering these skewed visions, his point is very clear. In a rather pointed - and poignant - segment that concerns the arbitrary disposal of a disoriented patient whose heath care had run out, he asks “Who are we?” Moore argues that we are a product of a system run by big companies, which has been the theme of all of his films. But while it's possible to keep an arm's length from the evils of big corporations regarding our shoes, cars or even the president's Saudi friends, Sicko brings it home. Now the evils of big corporations could be responsible for your demise. Moore's most notorious conceit in Sicko is when he takes volunteer workers from ground zero who have been denied by the system to the one place on American soil that does have universal health care - Guantanamo Bay - but does not get in. So he finds a hospital in Cuba to provide for America's forgotten heroes. Sure, it's manipulative and I'm sure more than just a little bit of it was pre-arranged. But it's sobering and rousing as well. One amusing observation: he shows us that America ranks only 37th in the world when it comes to heath care, “just slighty ahead of Slovenia.” The moment is funny, but check out what country comes in at number 39: Cuba! Detractors will line up and pour over every frame looking to rip Sicko apart. But there is a difference between a polemic that challenges a sitting president half the country voted for and the critique of a system that affects young and old, rich and poor. Critics of Fahrenheit 9/11 were defending their president. But what is there to defend here? The system is broken, and unless you happen to be one of the people getting rich from it, the fact that this is being brought to our attention is a good thing. This isn't about democrats or republicans - in fact, Hilary Clinton probably gets it the worst here. It is about responsibility and doing the right thing. It is impossible to watch Sicko and not be entertained, moved, angered, enlightened and finally disgusted. I don't care if the messenger is the most polarizing figure in entertainment. He has a point, and rather than argue about the merits of his editing techniques, maybe for once, we should see the big picture. --reviewed by DENNIS WILLIS