Military.com Movie Review

“The film causing the current uproar in the Middle East can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=ntgzoE7rU9A -- It is an absolute piece of shit. The acting is bad, the dialogue is bad, and the green-screen effects are almost mind-boggling in their awfulness.

The actors and crew involved have released a statement saying they were duped by the film-maker; a man going by the pseudonym 'Sam Bacile.' They were originally hired to make a film called 'Egypt: Desert Warrior' which was supposed to be about a random ancient Egyptian.

You can tell by watching that all of the lines insulting Islam were dubbed in after the film was shot. The man who is supposed to be Sam Bacile has given a phone interview saying he is an Israeli Jew and that the film was financed by Israeli donors to the tune of $5 million. There is no conceivable way the film cost $5 million. The real budget is probably around $500. The actors in the film also say the man they knew as Sam Bacile looked Egyptian and spoke Arabic.

This whole thing appears to be a ploy to whip up violence in the Middle East; a task which it has succeeded at admirably."

This reads like a lousy knock-off of a James Bond plot.  But I worry about what this suggests about how easily the news cycle can be manipulated by those with the resources to saturate communication channels.