Capitalism is slapdash, unfocused, and not particularly funny. Vast portions are as forgettable as a Jessica Simpson record. For every bull's eye he hits, Michael Moore has two near misses and four arrows in the ground.

One confusing section tells us that major corporations buy life insurance on employees without their knowledge. He tells us about a Wal-Mart associate who died, leaving her husband and family distraught but earning Wal-Mart over a hundred thousand dollars. Instead of corporations wanting you to work hard and live long, these days they want you to die, he says.

First, I doubt the corporations see it that way. Second, is he trying to tell us that investing in life insurance can be profitable? If so, doesn't that mean life insurance companies should simply raise their rates?

He also wants us to sympathize with people who lose their homes to foreclosure. He shows us an old Countrywide Funding commercial that told homeowners to treat their homes like banks, withdrawing the equity to spend. People followed these instructions, then found themselves losing their homes.

Two problems with this. One, these people made tens of thousands of dollars on escalating property values, and they took a chunk of this cash from a bank with refinancing. Did they think the banks were just giving money away? And two, is Mr. Moore really complaining that -- gasp! -- TV commercials don't always advise what's best for us?

Much of this movie will be familiar. I knew the America our parents lived in was dead. I knew about the myth of upward mobility. I knew our country's current reputation is based less on fact than propaganda. I didn't know that FDR proposed a "second Bill of Rights" that guaranteed all Americans a good job, an affordable home, health care and a pension. I didn't know that Europe and Japan have this Bill of Rights. I didn't know Jonas Salk gave the world his polio vaccine free of charge, in stark contrast to health care discoveries today. I didn't know about the leaked Citibank memo that describes America as a "plutonomy," controlled by the rich and threatened by the anarchic, unruly poor. I didn't know our Treasury Department was pretty much run by Goldman Sachs.

If Mr. Moore could organize his thoughts, delve deeper into problems, or find and implicate harder targets with more evidence, he could make a great movie again. Still, Capitalism provides food for thought, evidence for prosecution, and unites us unruly poor with a mandate to either fix the system or tear it down. That's far more of a return on your investment than you'll get from 99% of the movies today.