The Big One.

• Author: ROTHENBERG, ROBERT S.
• Position: Review

The Big One

Miramax Home Entertainment/ 90 minutes / $19.95

Following up his scathing documentary, "Roger and Me," which took on General Motors and its closing of the company's Flint, Mich., automobile production plant, gadfly Michael Moore once again is on the trail of corporate hypocrisy. Touring the country on a publicity tour for his book, Downsize This!: Random Threats from an Unarmed America, Moore and his film crew veer off from the junket to bring discomfort to squirming spokespeople from various corporate giants over their obscene profits and callow disregard for American workers. The result is amusing and entertaining, layered over viewers' realization of the tragic effect downsizing has had on long-time loyal employees.

Moore puts an assortment of midlevel functionaries' feet to the fire in Centralia, Ill., over the closing of Leaf's candy factory, where, ironically, the Pay Day bar was made; Minneapolis, where Johnson Controls was packing up its auto parts operation and moving it to Mexico; Cincinnati, where Procter & Gamble was closing down plants despite record profits; and Chicago, where he continues his verbal...