The Plot:
In the simplest terms, the scholars, charlatans and free range thinkers present and accounted for in What the 'Bleep'!?: Down the Rabbit Hole, all believe in one undeniable fact. Once you move beyond the basics of physics, down to the very sub-sub atomic levels of life, you're faced with some incredibly confusing scientific quandaries. Rules devised to explain the function of atoms, electrons, proteins and cells break down. They no longer follow the maxims devised by scientists and mathematicians. Even more curiously, they appear to respond to human consciousness. Several thinkers believe that this "reaction to recognition" establishes an undeniable link between what's real and what's relative – in essence, that we control our environment, both internally and cosmically, by how we view it, and respond to it.

As if to illustrate this point, the talking head material that makes up the majority of the film is supplemented by dramatic scenes illustrating the points. We follow an unhappy photographer named Amanda whose jaundiced view of the world seems to destine her toward endless dissatisfaction and unhappiness. Popping pills to curb her anxiety and plagued by feelings of insecurity and self-loathing, she's a major emotional mess. But as she learns the lessons of the narrative, as she stops hating herself and connects with how her emotions mold everything around her, Amanda awakens to one of the great celestial mysteries deciphered. Everything is under her/our control. She/We just have to believe that it is.

The DVD:
Before getting down to the mind blowing brass tacks of this incredibly dense DVD package, a few words about the film itself. Originally clocking in at 109 minutes, the 2006 revamp of What the 'Bleep'!? (known as the new theatrical cut) has been expanded to an elephantine 156. Interviews from the original have been supplemented with updated information. Familiar faces reappearing to append their comments from before. There is really nothing new presented in the way of fact or fiction. No, What the 'Bleep'!?: Down the Rabbit Hole – Quantum Edition is still like the overreaching explanation to a joke that almost worked the first time around. It definitely takes a lot of intellectual faith to believe in theories that argue for notions not in lockstep with our current high tech outlook on the world. Indeed, one of the films many envelope-pushing pronouncements is that the power to effect change is not in some diode or silicon chip. Instead, it lies inside the biggest computer ever compiled and created– nature's own microprocessor, the human brain. But not in the way we typically think. Manipulation of our environment and the events that occur within it will not come from speeches or well thought out philosophies. No, by the simple act of applying consciousness to the issues and ideas surrounding us, we control these elements at their biological and sub atomic levels.

Or, at the very least, that is what this critic got out of the film. All college and graduate school degrees aside, What the 'Bleep'!? is a rationally contentious piece. Logic leaps and internal lapses abound, with people providing assertions instead of proof. This doesn't mean that it's less effective as a film, but there are definitely times when one's bullshit meter starts to shimmy. One of those instances occurs at what could be called the crux of the What the 'Bleep'!? argument. A Japanese scientist wanted to check the effect of emotions on water. He placed similar samples in identical test tubes, wrapped each one in a piece of paper containing a differing emotion (love, hate, etc.) and then set them aside for 24 hours. Once frozen, the water formed crystals that appeared to mimic the sentiment it was enveloped in. The love formation was beautiful and symmetrical while the hate pattern was chaotic and fractured. The conclusion – human emotions modify liquid at its subatomic level. And since almost everything in the world contains water as part of its make-up, this means that people can perceive change (visualize world peace, for example) and if they're in tune enough with their abilities, said modification will occur. In fact, the most radical alteration starts in the human beings themselves, as we ourselves are 75% fluid.

Huh? Granted, this is a radical approach to considering the cosmos. But where's the proof that the Japanese symbols surrounding the test tube actually affected the outcome of the crystals? Such solid verification is not present in What the 'Bleep'!? – not even in this revised revamp. Instead, it's just accepted as fact and the narrative moves on. Now, before the faithful shout down this comment as the callous, cynical musings of a self-important stooge, there is a reason for such an evidentiary push. Without it, someone else could come along and argue that, no, it wasn't the words that caused the weird water effect – it was tiny crystal elves who live in little atom condos. The fascinating shapes they create with their little elfish tools just happened to coincide with the sentiments carried on each test tube. Like the old practical joke involving a tiger rock, What the 'Bleep'!? frequently offers up information without exclusionary support. Another example revolves around the human minds ability to affect random number generators. We are told of an experiment where left and right tones where arbitrarily produced. Subjects were given a tape of the sounds and told to consciously "create" more left than right notes.

Now, anyone understanding probability knows that there are only three potential outcomes on the tape – more left, more right, and a relatively equal amount. Sure, there is also a fourth – no tones – but we've been informed that sound was actually recorded on the cassette. Well, an individual took the recording home, listened to it and 'mentally manipulated' the subatomic level of the tape to produce more left sounds. Amazing, right? Well, with a one out of three chance of experiment and outcome matching up, coincidence probably played a bigger part in the results than consciousness. Besides, we don't SEE the challenge, we are simply told about it. Apparently, we are supposed to have faith in the veracity of our featured scholar's words, and never actually witness for ourselves the experiment succeeding. It's the tiger rock all over again, and such a shaky supposition - or in this case, a foundationless blunt assertion – fails to fulfill its intent. Granted, any movie that carts out J. Z Knight, that slightly askew '70s icon who believed she was channeling the 35,000 year old spirit of Ramtha, a scholar from the lost city of Atlantis, as a third act theorist is asking for trouble. What the 'Bleep'!? might as well bring on Yuri Gellar and get him to bend a few spoons with his mind.

In the end, there is still a great deal of value in the material What the 'Bleep'!? is covering. Few of us ever stop and think about the big picture outside of religious doctrine or occasional bouts of personal philosophizing. Considering the connections between all things – human, atomic, metaphysical – can make for a promising and profound intellectual experience. When applied to the scientifically provable and theoretically sound, the ideas here are enlightening, empowering and entertaining. But there are also lots of flaws, concepts and rationalizations that just don't flow as well as others. They don't completely destroy the What the 'Bleep'!? experience, but they do throw their own mental wrenches into what the filmmaker's feel is a flawless presentation of some earth-shattering principles. If you take it all with a large grain of skeptic's salt, you will thoroughly enjoy the ride. But if you want to use this material as the foundation for your life, be forewarned. At least to one amateur intellectual, a few of the notions here fail to fulfill their logical and logistic goals.

The Video:
Bright, clear and incredibly luminescent, the presentation of What the 'Bleep'!?: Down the Rabbit Hole, looks absolutely incredible. Fox obviously has a great deal of faith in this title, as it offers up a practically faultless 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen image. The transfer here is terrific, with colors radiating off the screen and details dense and easily defined. While the new material is usually easy to spot (the people have changed a little since their first appearance in the film) the overall effect is visually satisfying. This is a great looking DVD, made all the more impressive by the use of various graphical elements to enhance the picture.

The Audio:
With two different versions of the film come two different audio mixes. On the new theatrical version of What the 'Bleep'!?, we are treated to a terrifically atmospheric Dolby Digital Stereo 5.1 Surround presentation. Utilizing both spatial ambience and a healthy dose of directional elements, its an intriguing aural experience. As for the two disc Quantum Edition, one has to settle for a simple stereo 2.0 presentation. While evocative, it's just not as effective as the multi-channel edition.

The Extras:
All skepticism and criticism aside, this is the section of the review most DVD fans are interested in. Fascinatingly enough, it's also the part of the discussion that's the hardest to explain outright. Basically, what Fox and the filmmakers behind What the 'Bleep'!? have done is create an infinite director's cut of the movie, spread it out over two additional discs, and loaded the flipside with all the supplementary content created. The first disc features the new, extended theatrical edition of the original What the 'Bleep' Do We Know!? (renamed What the 'Bleep'!?: Down the Rabbit Hole). Disc 2 and 3 contain the Quantum Edition of the movie, which purports to offer a myriad of way to watch the film. Using a menu-style set up, a viewer can modify the overall presentation, creating incredibly short (25 minutes or so) or incredibly long (upwards of SIX hours) versions. The first choice allows you to turn off all the dramatic material. This means that the scenes featuring Marlee Matlin as angry photographer Amanda can be removed from the playback. Secondly, you can choose to completely randomize the interviews. Since the new DVD contains more information than all previous presentations of the title, this allows you the opportunity to have a different scholarly experience ever single time. In essence, the talking heads highlighting a specific section will be randomly revealed and given a chance to speak.

Next up is something called "Rabbit Hole Quantum Randomness". Like the concept behind the Q&As, the illustrative material used to explain the theories is also given the capability of randomized display. This means that different CGI, animated and graphical representations of the ideas and data discussed with be arbitrarily generated over the course of the film. Finally, the last control one can implement is something called "Rabbit Hole Depth". On a scale from 0 to 9, the viewer can pick the number of interviews a certain subject section will contain. Let's say that, during the 'water experiment' portion, three people typically speak. Here, you can reduce that number down to 0, or raise it up to 9. As a result, when that section arrives, instead of a trio of scholars supporting the conclusions, the chosen number will be on hand to add their insights. Since each one of these options can be engaged/disengaged at will, and result in seemingly infinite permutations, the What the 'Bleep'!?: Down the Rabbit Hole – Quantum Edition becomes an incredible DVD package for fervent fans of the original film. After all, if you loved Terminator 2, or Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, wouldn't you want a digital presentation that allowed you seemingly unlimited viewing versions of the title?

Granted, at a certain point one would eventually see everything the three discs have to offer, and depending on the age and complexity of your DVD player, you will experience some very minor skips, freeze-ups and pauses. As for the rest of the extras, the flipsides of each disc contain the new interview material without the cinematic surroundings, with the only other added content being a trailer (on Disc 2, Side B) and a Q&A with the filmmakers (Disc 3, Side B). Add in the tutorial on Disc 2, Side A which explains the Quantum Edition features and that's everything contained herein. While impressive, this DVD is missing one thing to make the entire What the 'Bleep'!? experience complete – and that's context. Perhaps the next multi-disc double dip will include some critics and skeptics, individuals who will carefully and calmly discuss the flaws and foibles in the film. It's actually something that the individuals behind this production should embrace. After all, the best way to cement your position is to have it challenged, and confirmed. Of course, you do run the risk of having it disproved as well. If the makers of What the 'Bleep'!? are really interesting in dialogue and education, not maintaining the purity of their viewpoint, they will welcome the opportunity for opposition.

Final Thoughts:
As with most scoring determinations, the call between Highly Recommended and DVD Talk Collector's Edition is a tough one. Even with this critic's own personal problems with the title, it's impossible to deny its effectiveness – both as a film and as kind of a mild form of metaphysical propaganda. Whether you believe in everything being discussed and disclosed, or turned off the movie midway through because your BS meter was sending shockwaves of seismic proportions out in the cosmos, What the 'Bleep' Do We Know!?, in any one of its three current permutations, definitely deserves to be taken at least somewhat semi-seriously. Somehow, in our never-ending need for meaning in our vacant and shallow lives, a movie like this could inspire an entire sub sect of science-spiked spirituality. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, it might not be the most prudent move. There is a lot to be learned from a title like What the 'Bleep'!?: Down the Rabbit Hole. There is a lot to be avoided as well.

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