Gore warns of global trouble in 'An Inconvenient Truth'

It would not exactly be lying to say that An Inconvenient Truth is about an action hero out to save Planet Earth, although the most overt action our hero takes is a ride on a hydraulic lift to emphasize one of his graphs.

Paramount Classics 'An Inconvenient Truth' B+ The verdict: An illustrated lecture on the ills of global warming, delivered by an alternately affable and sober Gore. Director: Davis Guggenheim Starring: Al Gore Run time: 100 minutes Release date: May 24, 2006 Rating: PG for mild thematic elements. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'An Inconvenient Truth'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

It would be more accurate to say that this is an impassioned, if academic, lecture on the ills of global warming, but then you'd be a lot less interested in seeing it, right?

The lecture is given by former Vice President Al Gore, or as he likes to put it with well-timed, self-effacing humor, the man who "used to be the next president of the United States." It is a talk he has given perhaps a thousand times, he says, over the past six years, and if that is how long it takes the perennially stiff politician to look spontaneous, so be it.

But he has some disturbing facts to impart about the causes and effects of climate changes that threaten us all. These are facts that he notes are not in dispute by the scientific community, even if the energy industry would prefer to think of them as up for debate, just like the tobacco lobby questioned its crop's harmful effects.

With the help of director Davis Guggenheim's zippy visuals, occasional animation and computerized charts, Gore lays out his case for communal responsibility to turn around this planetary disaster-in-the-making. And if you wonder why you should care, just watch the simulated effect of the melting of the polar ice cap as the map of Florida becomes flooded by the color blue.

For some, the fact that Gore is the messenger will get in the way of the message. But he has long been committed to this cause, long before he sought national office, though An Inconvenient Truth does make an effective launching pad for another political run.

Surely this film is destined for its more natural fit on a cable science network or maybe in a school's audio-visual library. Until then, it just might draw a sufficiently curious multiplex audience tired of leaving their problems to X-Men and Mission: Impossible forces.

And if this Truth does catch on with moviegoers — as it has in cities where it has already opened — just wait for the documentary John Kerry will release.