This is a very, very, very strange film--so strange that it clearly is an acquired taste and a film that won't appeal to most viewers. My feeling is that I liked a lot of the strange things that Steven Soderbergh did in this film but after a while it just became too much of a chore to watch. To me, it's a film with some wonderful ideas...too many.

When the film begins, Soderbergh addresses the audience in a VERY funny intro. He insists that EVERY SINGLE person on the planet MUST see the movie and if they don't understand it, they must go back to the theaters and pay full price to see it again and again until they do! I was excited by this clever start.

As for the rest of the film, it's a mixed bag of weirdness--all cloaked in a strange and enigmatic plot involving 'Eventualism'. This is a weird Scientology-like cult that describes itself as neither a religion nor philosophy but a 'state of mind'! But the film isn't just a take off on Scientology (I would have loved that) but is just filled with weirdness just for the sake of weirdness. Bland conversations between the main character and his wife consist of phrases like 'generic greeting' when the husband enters the house and 'imminent sustenance' when he smells dinner. Some other times, folks burst through the fourth wall and say things to either the filmmakers or audience. None of it is consistent...just weird and disjoint.

Overall, a film with some funny and inventive moments which don't add up to an enjoyable whole. Too bad. I really think had Soderbergh used SOME of these weird gimmicks the film would have worked better than using them all. Or, if he'd simply parodied Scientology (such as in "Bowfinger") it would have worked. Instead, it's an odd and frustrating film.

By the way, if you do decide to watch, expect to be offended here and there with characters (non-graphically) masturbating, using colorful language and the like.

Fletcher Munson, the lethargic employee of a pseudo-religious self help company, and his doppelganger, the friendly but dull dentist Dr. Jeffrey Korchek (both played by Steven Soderbergh).

The film comparable in some ways to the earlier work of Richard Linklater (notably "Slacker"),mixed in with the visual sensibility of a Devo music video. I am not sure if this is experimental, or art house, or how you categorize something that has no real plot, and sometimes no real logic. There is a certain genius to it, though.

I am not overly familiar with Soderbergh, probably having seen less than half of his feature films... but this one will definitely leave you with the impression that he is a genius, an eccentric and an artist. Whether or not this is true, I have no idea... but he wants us to think so.

The reason is it is absolutely brilliant. In need of artistic renewal, Steven Soderbergh threw everything he could think of into this self-financed feature and the results are scattershot, inscrutable, unfathomable and -- above all else -- hilarious. Veering from biting social commentary to clever wordplay to a withering parody of Scientology, this film isn't the sort of thing one should rent unless you want to give your brain a workout.

Soderbergh has said that this was his attempt to pay homage to the "freewheeling" style of Richard Lester. Whether he achieves that or not is open to debate, but he certainly managed to create a one-of-a-kind film experience. Too bad few people ever got the chance to see it on the big screen.

In the immortal words of Elmo Oxygen: "I believe -- so strongly -- in mayonnaise." Words to live by. I know I do.