Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997)

What do an elderly topiary gardener, a retired lion tamer, a man fascinated by mole rats, and a cutting-edge robotics designer have in common? Both nothing and everything in this unconventional documentary directed by Erroll Morris. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Errol Morris
Starring: Rodney Brooks, Dave Hoover, George Mendonça, Ray Mendez
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
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Fast, Cheap & Out of Control belongs to 26 collections
1. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (collaborative: moderated by kozan26 - 234 stars)
2. Features under 91 minutes (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 56 stars)
3. Jonathan Rosenbaum's Top 1000 Movies (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 38 stars)
4. New York Times' The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made (collaborative: moderated by theficionado - 32 stars)
5. Onion AV Club: The New Cult Canon (collaborative: moderated by theficionado - 28 stars)
6. Criticker: Neglected Gems (collaborative: moderated by theficionado - 24 stars)
7. Humanity and the Natural World (collaborative: moderated by paulofilmo - 18 stars)
8. Doubling The Canon (collaborative - 13 stars)
9. Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen (collaborative: moderated by katsuben - 12 stars)
10. The AV Club 50 Best Films of the '90s (public: TychoCelchuu - 8 stars)
11. Skandies (collaborative: moderated by toro913 - 7 stars)
12. Best by different standards (public: sesito71 - 6 stars)
13. Doubling The Canon (2010 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 5 stars)
14. Capsules, guest reviews, list candidates... (366weirdmovies) (collaborative: moderated by sesito71 - 4 stars)
15. BFI 100 key Documentary films (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 3 stars)
16. Essential Cinema (Jonathan Rosenbaum) (public: snallygaster - 2 stars)
17. Doubling the Canon (2011 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 1 star)
18. Doubling the Canon (2012 update) (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 1 star)
19. Coheed's Celluloid Pit (public: Coheed - 1 star)
20. Antagony & Ecstacy: The Best Films of All Time (public: Nroo - 1 star)
21. Filmed on 8mm (collaborative)
22. The Canon podcast (all films) (collaborative: moderated by psim)
23. The Canon podcast (only the Canon) (collaborative: moderated by psim)
24. Photographed by Robert Richardson (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed)
25. 1997: Year in Review (public: polanski28)
26. AV Club 20 Best Films of 1997 (public: TychoCelchuu)
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Stars | User | Rating | |
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Moribunny | 63 60th |
The robotics engineer was fascinating (I wanted to see more of those robots!), the mole rat specialist was also really interesting, the bits with the topiary gardener would have been boring if they didn't seem so ridiculously lame, detached and unrelated (inducing some laughs even), and the animal tamer I just wished would get eaten alive for his distasteful practice and the miserable condition the lions were in. I think Morris hoped everything would get pulled together by analogy.
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Ytadel | 4 43rd |
A study in how powerful editing is. Creates a lot out of a little.
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Astfgl | 80 87th |
One of the few documentaries that has managed to hold my attention. The four men initially seem completely unconnected to each other, but through some brilliant editing a much deeper, much subtler picture emerges. A must-watch.
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Actionberg | 60 28th |
While the topics tend to cross paths thanks to some fancy editing, the film ultimately feels uncomfortably disjointed. Robert Richardson shoots some memorable imagery, at least.
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Derekstar | 70 50th |
I LIKED IT WHEN KITTY PUT ITS PAW IN THE WATER AND THEN LICKED IT.
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JooJoo | 4 55th |
Almost comes together well enough, just almost. It should have been exclusively on the robotics and mammal man, with the horrid animal trainer cut right out, despite the synchronicity of it all. And I kept forgetting the gardener was even in this until another of his small segments regrettably resurfaces. The flow is just not right; a good 5-10 minutes must have been used on the superfluous circus stunt shots.
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Average Percentile 61.41% from 259 Ratings | ![]() |