The Freakonomics Trailer; Or, How Many Documentarians Does It Take to Make a Movie?

The key tenet to Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's best-selling book series Freakonomics is that incentive makes the world go 'round. So what are the incentives for you to see a documentary based their writings? Well, there are six actually: Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight), Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side), Seth Gordon (King of Kong), and Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp).

Those acclaimed and awarded documentarians all have segments in the film -- though Gordon's work is relegated to the talking head interstitials between Levitt and Dubner and the introduction -- which presents multiple scenarios where Freakonomics can been seen in action.

Buoyed by a True Romance-like score and some happily generic rawk, the trailer for Freakonomics is made to look like a good-time affair. Having seen it at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, I can report it is... kinda. The trailer does a good job at not showing the more serious segments -- particularly Jarecki's -- instead focusing mostly on Spurlock's comedic kick-off on the difference between the way white people and black people name their children. Anyway, it's good -- and since it's an omnibus, if you don't like one of the segments you can zone out until the next one. Interesting note: Freakonomics will be available via iTunes starting on Sept. 3; it will hit theaters on Oct. 1.

VERDICT: Do I get a free soda for attending?