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The first bootlegged review of Expelled is in, and it comes courtesy of Roger Moore writing at The Orlando Sentinel. In true James Bond fashion, he went undercover to infiltrate a private screening of Ben Stein's film...

Well, not exactly, if you believe Moore's version of events. He received an invitation to attend the screening... and then a retraction of the invitation when the publicist discovered that invites had been sent to the wrong list of influence-makers.

The screening in question was designed for pastors and church leaders, much along the lines of advance screenings that have been set up for films like The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. At such screenings, publicists make it very clear that these are not industry screenings, and sometimes go so far (as at the screening of Expelled) as to ask attendees to sign non-disclosure agreements.

Now, there are unwritten "rules" that guide the behavior of journalists with regard to such events... And those rules are really just silent quid quo pro agreements that go something like, "If journalists piss off publicists, they're off the invite lists... unless they're really powerful and influential."

So Moore's instincts were right. He smelled an opportunity, and he took it. He declined to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and he decided to bite the hand that fed him. No big deal for a bigwig. Happens all the time.

So what did Moore have to say about the film? A good deal. Here's a snippet:

[Stein] uses "straw man" tactics to attack, mainly The Origin of the Species, as Darwin wrote it in 1859. That's like a music critic reviewing "the latest" by only referring to Edison's wax cylinders. He sets up false theses that "the other side" must hold (classic Limbaugh, putting lies in the other fellow's mouth, then calling him a liar) and knocks those straw men down. Citing scientific research as recent as 1953, he can't understand why no peer-reviewed scientist thinks his "fairytale" version of the emergence of life is worth his or her time. No, not having a definitive answer about the moment life began...YET...is damning enough for Ben.

Most despicably, Stein, a Jew, invokes the Holocaust, making the Hitler-was-a-Darwinist argument, this AFTER he's used the Holocaust denier's favorite trick, probabilities, "math," to show how remote the chances are that life was created by natural, not supernatural processes. There were plenty of reasons eugenics caught on as an idea among certain nationalist-conservative and even scientific circles in the early 20th century, and most of them have nothing to do with Darwin. It reminded me of the phony slump Michael Moore showed walking away from ambushing crusty old Charlton Heston in Bowling for Columbine.

Well, hooray, at least, for a critic willing to cite Michael Moore's phoniness. Not having yet seen Expelled, I can't contradict the opinion of the film here cited; but I'm inclined to think that Roger Moore rather overstates his case. (And I will also point out that Moore badly needs a competent editor. But that's beside the point.)

And hooray for the producers of Expelled "fighting back." After providing us with a link to Moore's full review (!!!), their press release also included the following juicy tidbits:

Moore compared Stein, who is Jewish, to Holocaust Deniers and charge that Stein's linking of Darwinism to the Holocaust was "despicable." Stein states, "The only thing I find despicable is when reporters sneak into screenings by pretending to be ministers. This is a new low even for liberal reporters."

Comparing Stein's quiet campaign to show the film to leaders across the country to the one organized around Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ, Moore called it "a stealth campaign, out of the public eye, preaching to the choir to get the word out about the movie without anyone who isn't a true believer passing a discouraging judgment on it."

Not so, says producer John Sullivan. "I can assure Mr. Moore that there will indeed be press screenings since we're proud of our film. But he really should stop pretending to be a preacher and wait his turn."

Ahhhh.... Such good press fodder. It's almost starting to feel like Passion time again.

Makes me wonder: how "accidental" was that initial invitation sent to Mr. Moore?

Read more of HJ's extended pre-release coverage of Expelled.