Two questions should be answered before the film EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED goes into full gear.  One is what intelligent design is and the second is the reason protagonist Ben Stein is so upset in the movie.

Unfortunately, the term intelligent design is never explained till the end of the film and the concept never argued so to satisfactory detail.  For the record, it is the effort to empirically detect whether creation is genuine design, the product of an intelligent cause, or simply the product if an undirected random process.  Sounds confusing?  Yes, it is.  The reason Ben Stein is so upset is that scientific freedom is being compromised.

The film begins lauding America and its freedom of speech.  Stein goes to show how the proponents of intelligent design in universities have had their tenure removed or jobs taken away.  He goes on to interview both parties (the fired and the administration) while putting forth the argument whether we are still free to disagree on the meaning of life.

All this is rather interesting for a while, but the topic should not render more than a half hour of film.  Even the film excerpts (PLANET OF THE APES, INHERIT THE WIND) serve little purpose but a time filler.  EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED plays like Ben Stein as a spoilt kid going around griping about pet peeve.  His film lauds his disgust without arguing both sides of the coin.  The result is a personal rather distant film, unless one feels the same way he does.  EXPELLED recently received some publicity hype when John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono tried unsuccessfully to remove the use of her late husband’s song IMAGINE in the film.  She has nothing to worry about as Ben Stein’s film will soon be forgotten without a trace.