In which the two men behind the 2005 bestseller Freakonomics, which explored "incentives-based thinking", get to grin smugly at each other.
Economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner have basically persuaded several legends from the world of indie documentaries (including Morgan Spurlock, Alex Gibney and Eugene Jarecki) to transfer some of the book’s most famous chapters to the screen. Many of the ideas are interesting (for example, that New York’s drop in crime in the Nineties was mainly due to the country’s legalisation of abortion in the Seventies, or that it’s possible to bribe kids into improving their grades), but all the segments lack rigour in some crucial way. The cutesy "links", meanwhile, are unbearable.
Withhold your money from these friendly time-wasters. You’ll save cash and provide them with an incentive to work harder.
Freakonomics
Cert: 12A
