The citizens of New Orleans deserve a defense that is more fired up, angrier and more gripping than this somewhat flaccid documentary.

| Original Score: 2.9/5 | Nov 9, 2019

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 22, 2011

Behaves like a straight-ahead investigative news piece. Its target is the US Army Corps of Engineers.

| Jul 21, 2011

By the end of "The Big Uneasy" the viewer is convinced that we weren't told the whole story back in 2005, and appalled by the retaliation faced by some who spoke out.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 7, 2011

"The Big Uneasy" lacks the dramatic impact and artistic imagination of many recent docs about environmental issues.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 9, 2011

The film confirms that the real scandal behind Katrina is too deep, too knotty, and too technical to permeate our cultural understanding of the event and incite the rage it deserves.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 3, 2011

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 30, 2011

A comedian's well-meaning but muddled documentary about the Army Corps of Engineers' pre-Katrina failings in New Orleans is a narrative mess of 20/20 hindsight.

| May 20, 2011

While at times a bit pedantic, Shearer's persuasive film nonetheless stands as an important correlative primary historical document.

| Original Score: B+ | May 20, 2011

"The Big Uneasy" is scary stuff indeed.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 20, 2011

While Shearer's affection for his part-time home is palpable, the film's dry, academic treatment of its subject does the city a profound disservice.

| Original Score: C | May 19, 2011

This powerful documentary debunks the "natural disaster" version of New Orleans flooding shared by George W. Bush and Barack Obama alike. Highly, highly recommended.

| May 19, 2011

Whistle-blowing works best without gratuitous pop-doc debris, but there are only so many dry, fact-heavy testimonies from engineers you can take before a certain dullness uneasily settles in.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 18, 2011

Shearer builds an airtight case to prove his thesis, and one of his most chilling arguments is a roll call of brave souls whose lives and careers have been systematically wrecked in pursuit of the truth.

| May 17, 2011

Every American politician and citizen should see this engaging documentary.

| Original Score: A | May 13, 2011

The Big Uneasy, a damning new look at the onset and effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is agitating by design.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 29, 2011

Rather than making us feel 'uneasy,' this film should flood us with rage. What Shearer's worthy film cries out for ... is the bite from the filmmaker/satirist himself.

| Original Score: 7.5/10 | Apr 15, 2011

"The Big Uneasy" is at once breezy and substantial, but it could have been more powerful if it were, paradoxically, sharper and blunter.

| Original Score: B | Apr 7, 2011

Previous documentaries about Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans have gone for the heart. For The Big Uneasy, though, writer-director-producer-narrator Harry Shearer takes aim at the brain.

| Original Score: A- | Mar 10, 2011

Well-intended and informative, but also unfocused, unwieldy and a little smug.

| Oct 1, 2010