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Super Size Me (PG-13 Theatrical Version)Rating:
Release Date: 28 September, 2004 Retail Price: $19.99 OUR Price: $13.99 You SAVE: $6.00! Cast: |
Super Size Me (PG-13 Theatrical Version) Reviews
Effective documentary on the obesity-fast food epidemic
Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me follows in the tradition of Michael Moore (in fact, there are, at times, uncanny echoes of Moore's style) as a muckraker who knows how to fuse serious ranting with nice dollops of humor to drive home his point(s).
In this film he targets the fast food industry--in particular, McDonald's--to show how the "McDiet" eaten on a regular basis can lead to horrifying health problems. He does this by committing himself to a 30-day nothing-but-McDonald's-food diet, three meals a day, and while prior to the onset of the diet his blood chemistry is clearly healthy, at the end of the 30-day "binge", things have taken an extremely alarming turn for the worse. The doctors who monitor him are shocked by the startling change and advise him to stop the diet immediately.
Along the way the viewer is treated to a sizeable number of interviews including, among others, of lawyers with clients suing the fast food industry, health officials, school officials, average Joes who eat the stuff regularly, and one obese man who undergoes extreme surgery--gastic bypass--to relieve him of his terrible symptoms.
At times the film dives into disturbingly unpleasant images. For example, the man undergoing gastric bypass surgery is interviewed prior to the surgery, and then the film actually shows details of the surgery itself, specifically focusing on the massive amount of fat that is extruded from the patient. In another scene, Mr. Spurlock is sitting in his car eating a McDonald's lunch and after 20 minutes of ingestion, he suddenly regurgitates what he ate--also shown in detail.
These are probably unnecessary, but the filmmaker is obviously making a point. Luckily there is abundant humor here as well, of the Moore-ian ironic type, interspersed with the serious material so well that the viewer is almost constantly entertained.
Much better than one might think, this is an excellent addition to the documentaries that pave the way for change. In fact, a mere six weeks after the film was initially screened, McDonald's discontinued its Super Size policy.
Definitely recommended.
Entertaining and scary
In "Super Size Me," Morgan Spurlock takes on the fast-food industry by combining Sixty Minutes-style reportage with reality television. The backbone of the film is Spurlock's experimentation on himself by eating nothing but fast food for a month. His progress from slim vegan to depressed, bloated meat-eater with elevated cholesterol and seriously impaired liver function is intercut with interviews, jokey animations and other flashy filmmaking devices that do nothing to contradict his underlying, serious point: many Americans are literally eating themselves to death.
That this film is worth noticing is proven by the number of critics, mostly on the right wing, who have lined up to take potshots against it. So Spurlock might have exaggerated, even cheated to make his point about how fast-food chains are contributing to America's obesity epidemic. Any fool can see that there's an agenda behind this film. The facts are incontrovertible, however: sixty percent of American adults are overweight. Obesity is now the second leading cause of preventable death. Major food manufacturers spend billions of dollars a year promoting their largely unhealthy products to the most vulnerable American consumer: children. This documentary should be mandatory viewing in all schools.
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