The Pez Outlaw

source: The Pez Outlaw

source: The Pez Outlaw

On the surface, the story of the Pez Outlaw is interesting at the very least but by no means life changing to the average viewer. The impressive thing to me, however, is that the documentarians took this story and absolutely turned it into a masterclass of creating an engaging documentary. The whole time I was completely engaged with the story by the sheer quality of storytelling that was taking place. Although the stakes were not high at all, I was worried about what would happen next to the protagonist Steve Glew. I laughed out loud multiple times and was mesmerized by the cinematography and stock footage.

source: The Pez Outlaw

There did not appear to be any effort put into confirming anything the main character said. They brought in some justice dept people to lend credibility at the beginning, but otherwise it was just the Glew family, Pez collectors and some former Pez employees giving thier viewpoints. The demonization of the Pez employee not featured in the film was cartoonish and mean sprited. There was a disconnect between how the film makers overlooked the artificially overpricing of these plastic novalties, but then expressed outrage that Pez could mass produce the novalties to bring the proce down to zero. I did not view the main character as a hero at all. Near the end it is revealed that this whole story started life as part of a blog. Seems likely that a self professed crazy man outlaw would emblellish a blog entry. Since the film makers didnt seem to care if the story was true I decided I didnt care either and generally enjoyed the show. The reenactments had the proper amount of humor involved. The look into the wierd world of collecters was interesting. 5 Stars for a mostly interesting and well filmed story. 0 Stars as a documentary.

Well made! Creative non-fiction Heaven! Outstanding true story you will enjoy. This story is so well told that if there is not a award category for it to win something, they need to make one. Outstanding entertainment. I found myself rooting for this couple the minute I met them. Extraordinary true story where you will cheer, laugh and feel sad for a bit but remember, in the end they sold their story to Netflix and deserve every penny! We all love a rags to riches stories. This is well made with a very happy ending to a good guy who started from nothing. I need 15 more letters so Enjoy, Enjoy Enjoy !!

Though some parts of the documentary seem to be embellished to make it more appealing to the viewers, it is still a great and fascinating documentary, highly recommended... I also never realized that Pez Candy where ever that big of a deal. Netflix keeps surprising us with these "weird" and out of nowhere documentaries lol. Also I just wanna point out that Croatia (Zagreb) uses Kilometers, not Miles so I'm questioning the legitimacy of the part where he says they got caught at the border of Croatia and the sign at the border was exactly saying "Zagreb, X Miles" It could also have been a 45 minutes documentary.

The guy who smuggled Pez dispensers in from Hungary and made loads of cash in the 90's before being ruined tells his story. The oddball kook who did the deed is a real character but the re-enactments are a little too much. I get that they're there to pad the run time but I'm not sure they were necessary. It's okay sometimes to have a 60 minutes documentary when that's all the material you have. You'll learn a lot about the kooks that are into Pez and see a person exposed in all his faults and humanity so this is definitely a worthwhile watch if you have Prime and need something new to check out.

I came across this film by scanning the ones available on Netflix. Who wouldn't be intrigued by a title like "The Pez Outlaw"? I had to give it a look. It's a story about a compulsive obsessive individual named Steve Glew leading a hard scrabble, boring existence as a factory worker who suddenly found himself involved in the fascinating niche world of Pez collectors. You know, those small plastic dispensers in various shapes and colors that you load with the tiny candy that became a big hit in the Fifties and Sixties. Who hasn't had one of those growing up? But talk about taking it to the next level! When Glew learned that the 'Pezident' of Pez U. S. A. Nixed a whole variety of dispensers from the world headquarters manufacturing facility in Austria, he got the bright idea of traveling to Europe to bring home satchels full of the things to sell to a fan base willing to shell out big bucks for the rarities. Eventually becoming a big name among the Pez collecting community, Glew drew the attention of Scott McWhinnie, President of Pez U. S. A., who made it a personal vendetta to put an end to Glew's quasi-illegal operation. You really have to watch the entire story to get a sense of how Glew pulled this off with the help of his son Joshua. There is a point where the normally introverted Glew offers an outsized opinion of himself by stating he was responsible for two European factories closing down, but that had more to do with legitimate business reasons. What's interesting is that by the time the story's over, Glew takes the title of the picture and reassigns it to 'Pezident' Scott McWhinnie, who he considers the real outlaw of the piece. You could agree or disagree, but it's a fun watch in any case.

Steve Clew fought to save his family and home by being resourceful and not giving up. Intrepid spirit. No PEZ will go unknown. A game changer in what was a PEZ "illegal" monopoly exposed by Clew that in turn set out to destroy Clew, who honestly out smarted The US Pezident just by the fact he was filling a collectors niche initially by accident. The PEZ monopoly in America was created in 1955, amounting to just pure corporate greed and an anti-trust violation hands down. This is the underlying truth, though not articulated forthright. Some may see that bringing PEZ into the country was illegal, but miss that the USA firm didn't register their patent with Customs. Their bad. Not Clews. But again it's the most vulnerable, like Clew, who The US Pezident capitalized on copying Clews' own design as the Misfits, solely to destroy his livelihood by undermining his price point. No remorse. Shameful hypocrisy. Lawlessness unaccounted for. Glad this story was told. Hard to believe that a child's candy dispenser was fought over in the "free market." I hope for Steve and his family that they are shown empathy and provided sustaining finances to grace their Golden Years' future; given the hardships and challenges they've had to face and conquer. Outlaw? Outlier is more accurate... a Misfit PEZ game changer! The PEZident and his ilk played the evil corporate raider role. Time for an honorary PEZ head dispenser of Steve Clew, with bunny slipper feet.