Freakonomics began life as a New York Times Magazine article and blossomed into a 2005 book you could gift to a Luddite relative without coming off as (too) condescending. In case you haven't read it, the book takes non-academic issues--like why girls given trashy names seem destined to dance naked--and filters them through an academic-yet-accessible lens. Five years later, the project has made the predictable transition to film. And with contributions from filmmakers like Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and Alex Gibney (Casino Jack and the United States of Money), it's clear the move was hoped to be a critically heralded--and profitable--leap for the franchise. And it is a leap--but a backward one. Freakonomics: The Movie! enlightens us more like Freakonomics: The Magazine Article than Freakonomics: The Book. (And the book was already a bit airy.) by Denis C. Theriault