Super Size Me

source: Super Size Me

Super Size Me (2004) Review: Let me make this clear. This is a bad movie. Sure, a lot of people are overweight, but McDonald's is not the Root of all evil. There are many ways to destroy your body. McDonald's is good stuff to me. I eat all kinds of fat and calories, but I do something about it. I Exercise. That is what the problem here is that people do not have the motivation or will to get up off their ass and work out. If you have a let's say construction as a job, then eating McDonald's will not kill ya for you work off the fat and calories that you currently ate by working and exercise! If you do not, then take daily strolls, go to a health club, or another problem can be the cause.....alcohol. This movie is clearly trying to crucify McDonald's and get the attention of all the veggie-heads out there and say they are the cause of obesity in America. Wrong. Anyone will also know that if they are aware of a weight problem should blame themselves not McDonald's or this can lead to easy lawsuits. It's McDonald's, not freaking Weight Watchers! Having McDonald's once in a while is not bad and taste good too. Bad parenting, drugs, and alcohol can lead to this. Over-eating is just one of the problems. If you are gaining, then get some exercise and go to Subway if the problem does not stop. Leave McDonald's alone. They are not the problem. The Last Word: A wake up call? No. A sad attempt at slander to McDonald's. Exercise is the solution. Exercise!

This movie is a documentary for those who hate documentaries. Funny, relatively fast-moving, and a cautionary tale without being preachy. Spurlock is a funny guy and treats his subject with good humour, making us laugh and shake our collective heads over our own poor decision-making. There is no "Ronald is Satan" message here, and no "look how bad Americans are." It is simply a down-to-earth, well paced, insightful and humorous look at how insidiously entrenched The United Corporation of America has become in our institutions and minds, and the consequences therein. One of my favorite scenes was a peek into a school where the now-famous (and irritating) Jared Fogel (you know...fat guy becomes skinny guy !thanx! to Subway) does a "get fit" speech. Spurlock interviews a mom and her significantly overweight daughter, and the daughter actually laments that of course SHE cannot lose weight like Jared because...and this is priceless...SHE cannot afford to buy/eat two Subway sandwiches a day! So this girl walked away actually believing that the ONLY WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT would be to follow Jared's example, VERY SPECIFICALLY, and eat two Subway brand sandwiches each day. So for her, even the SOLUTION to her problem had a corporate logo! Amazingly, she could not even envision the general message of "eat right/exercise more."

It's been quite a few years since I've seen this. My freshman health class consisted of us seeing this for most of the year and the end of the year project for us was to write an essay on this. I didn't write one praising this like I'm sure most of my peers did, but the straight up truth about this self-declared "accurate documentary". Morgan Spurlock did what the description said. He would eat nothing but McDonalds for 30 days to see what would happen to him, highlighting the health consequences of over indulging in fast food--trying to explain the "obesity epidemic" that is taking place in the United States. But, what goes down has been proved to be incorrect and wrong. In a documentary responding to it, it shows that Spurlock couldn't have gained the amount of weight he did in that amount of time. And with his nutrition logs for that times never being disclosed, there's no way to prove anything. The documentary, by Spurlock, implies that people who eat fast food are lazy people who won't lift a finger if it doesn't mean picking up a hamburger. Spurlock's documentary also suggests that people who eat fast food are stupid and the fast food industry is holding a gun to our heads to get that value meal or "super size"; which isn't true. While having poor nutrition can lead to health problems, SSM undermines the intelligence of not only fast food eaters, but the viewer in general. This documentary contains very false information and paints Americans as moronic, lazy fools who have weak wills. If you want a documentary on fast food, go watch Fathead, which is what Super Size Me should have been. No lies. No filler. No bologna. Don't waste your time on this.

Warning May Contain Spoilers I don't think Super Size Me was intellectually honest. I think the "rules" that he used in the 'documentary' were used to exaggerate his results. Everyone knows that McDonalds is generally unhealthy and that if you were to eat every meal at McDonald's and Super Size them every time it was suggested you would gain weight and suffer from a variety ill effects. Super Size Me works from the presumption that people are incapable of choosing what to eat on their own and that, if given the chance to spend more and eat more that they always will - even if that means overeating to the point of vomiting. Super Size me tries to be to McDonalds what Silent Spring was to DDT only to less effect because it works from a false premise.

When I first heard about Morgan Spurlock's 2004 documentary "Super Size Me", I was pretty jaded, because common sense would dictate that if one eats fast food, they are going to have weight and health issues. Indeed, this is what happened to Spurlock, however the magnitude of the health deterioration was astounding. Presented in a sometimes humorous format, "Super Size Me" is an experiment conducted by Spurlock in which he would only eat McDonald's food, three times a day, with the caveats that he would have to eat everything off the menu at least once, and that he would limit his exercise to the amount of exercise the "average" American gets per day. Therefore, if he is nearing his walking limit for the day (measured by a pedometer he wears) he would have to grab a cab or find another way to get from A to B without walking. Predictably, he gains a lot of weight, (though the rapidness of the weight gain is alarming – at first, 10 pounds in one week) but it is his actual health tests that are the most frightening. By the end of the second week, his doctors, who originally approved his experiment (with some reservation, naturally) were practically begging him to stop. Other than the experiment itself, "Super Size Me" is peppered with facts about the fast food industry and various interviews with industry insiders. I definitely found the film enjoyable, and somewhat informative (though having read Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, a lot of the information was old news) but there was something missing that is hard to grasp; perhaps the film needed a little more substance and cold hard facts instead of watching him constantly eat. However, it is my understanding that the supplemental materials on the DVD are extremely informative and even include an interview with Schlosser, so perhaps more insight could be found there. Spurlock is a great presenter, however, because he is just a regular guy who has a great amount of charm and good camera presence. He was entertaining and likable enough to really illicit concern when his health was so obviously starting to become effected. Ironically, his girlfriend (and now wife) is a vegan chef, so it was mildly humorous to watch her preparing a detox menu for him using the most apropos vegetables to clean out his system. The aim for most documentaries is to present a thesis and then not only prove it, but provide supporting evidence. Though the thesis of "Super Size Me" was kind of a foregone conclusion, Spurlock manages to provide us with supporting evidence that doesn't make the entire film one big "Well, duh!" which is what I kind of expected, going into the film. If you have seen or plan to see this movie and are interested in the subject matter, I would highly recommend reading Schlosser's Fast Food Nation to gain even more insight on the business of fast food. It's a very interesting read and would make a good companion piece to this documentary. 6/10 --Shelly

"Help! Help! The mean old corporations are stuffing me full of food! Save me government! Save me from myself!" - That's the message of this movie so it's sure to be a big hit with the fascist proponents of socialism that run amok at events like Sundance. (No wonder it was such a hit) Will this flick be anything more than a joke to clear thinking individuals? Doubtful! The events of this movie seem highly suspicious. He claims to have gained 25 pounds in 30 days. To those who are not informed, the human body must have a surplus of 3500 calories to gain a pound of fat. This means he must have had a surplus of over 2900 calories per day. According to the McDonald's website a Big Mac - the universal yardstick of unhealthful food - contains 600 calories. To get that surplus you'd have to eat 4.8 extra Big Macs! Remember this is a SURPLUS, it means you have to eat that in addition to the normal amount of calories you'd have to eat in a day which would likely be somewhere between 2200-2500 for him! This means the guy's daily caloric intake would have to be over 5000 calories a day! The movie doesn't give the impression that his goal was to consume as much food as possible in 30 days. Instead, his goal is show how McDonald's used some sort of mind control to force him to eat what he did. When asked if he wanted it Supersized, he was a victim and had absolutely no power to say no. He wants to show how easily others can fall into this evil corporate trap! I hate to say it, but this seems to be a film on par with a Micheal Moore *ahem* documentary where inconvenient facts are ignored and convenient ones are fabricated on the fly. Gullible people who buy into his conclusion will not care about little details like facts, but anyone with an open mind will probably enjoy the ride like a B horror movie and feel smugly superior to those who actually bought it. I'll save you a few bucks and explain why Americans have a problem with obesity. Unlike other cultures we have quick access to great tasting cheap food (Kidney Pie? Not here!). The American economy is the most modern in the world meaning we've "outsourced" labor-intense tasks to machines. From cubicles to robotics in factories to remote controls our modern life has reduced the amount of physical work we need to do. Healthful (and far cheaper) foods are still plentiful, but millions do not have the willpower to forsake short term convenience for their long term health, so when combined with a lifestyle that requires less physical output we gain weight. Duh - not a difficult concept! Those who choose to be fit can still do so, and those who choose short term gratification will become a pile of lard. BTW, if society ever degenerates to the point where people can successfully sue food corporations for their own dumb choices, will that mean corporations in the fitness industry will be able to sue their customers for their successes? Think about it; if you acquire great health from Gold's Gym shouldn't Gold's have a *right* to some of the wealth you will accumulate because of your improved health? You'll live longer (meaning you can work longer) and you'll need less of that expensive health care! Surely if a corporation can be at fault for making you obese then a corporation can be at fault for making you healthy! If they are going to be financially responsible for obesity then they should gain from "giving" people health! Of course that will never happen because this obesity nonsense if rooted in the anti-capitalist movement. What a shame we have so many ignorant people in this country who only see one of those two situations as absurd.

Morgan Spurlock undoubtedly aspires to follow in the path of Errol Morris, Roger Moore, Joel Sucher and other leading documentarians. A young man with an adoring and beautiful girlfriend, he decided to unmask the evil of fast food and its impact on an increasingly obese America. That Americans eat too much fast food - too much of any kind of food - and eschew exercise is hardly news. But a full-scale documentary examining sloth by the bucket-full focusing on one major commercial phenomenon hasn't been done before. Spurlock decided to eat at McDonald's and only McDonald's for a full month. That's three meals a day with no other food source. Before launching on what actually was a death-defying trip (literally since for variety he consumed Mickey D's food in Texas, L.A. and a lot of other places) he had a full baseline workup with a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist and an internist who gets more screen time than his medical colleagues-he gravitates between being supportive and alarmist, the latter increasingly the right response to Spurlock's bizarre quest. Spurlock also has a nutritionist/dietician and a physical trainer to keep tabs on him. The only specialty missing, in retrospective one who might have been useful, was a psychiatrist. His girlfriend, a vegan chef no less, looks forward to the month with a mixture of humor and alarm. "Supersize Me" has lots of scientific information on the nature of fast food and its impact on an America that eats out more than it dines at home, a change from a past where mom or a wife faithfully prepared most meals. Nutritionists decry the change in our culture, educators point out the impact of fast food in school cafeterias on kids' health, a former Surgeon General gravely decries the menace and the usual person-on-the-street suspects shock viewers by their bumbling inability to define such terms as "calories." A food industry spokesman is blithely unaware that he is being set up to look like an ass. And, of course, there are multiple shots of Spurlock vainly connecting with polite drones at McDonald's HQ seeking an interview which never comes. Does this all sound familiar? Spurlock's month-long consumption of McDonald's products gets old fast although he and the director try to add some novelty like showing him vomiting after downing a supersized meal. Periodic visits to get his bloods and body checked reveal the insidious impact of a bizarre diet. His puzzled internist tells us several times he's never before seen a liver compromised by a high fat diet. The problem, though, is that Spurlock is like those laboratory rats who develop arcane tumors after consuming the equivalent of something that no human could ingest in ten lifetimes. His peregrination from one Mc D's to another becomes boring as his health is clearly threatened and he stubbornly refuses medical advice to give it up. The best part of "Supersize Me" is the well-presented information on schools and fast foods and how a few are resisting the commercial tide that aims junk at kids from kindergarten through high school. Even inmates, we're told, can be well fed at no greater cost than the fat-laden diets these essentially sedentary wards of the state have shoveled at them. Technically, this is a well-filmed documentary with creative use of multiple images and graphs. I hope Spurlock has more ideas for documentaries. He's had a lot of time to think about it-an epilogue informs us it took him almost a year to regain his former fitness and health thanks, partially, to his vegan lover's detoxification diet. Oh, and McDonald's is phasing out supersized meals, a minor withdrawal in a serious public health war. 7/10.

"Supersize Me" is an original, humorous, disgusting, shocking, and -- overall -- scary film. Spurlock takes us on a whirlwind tour of the downfall of American health through poor nutrition, padding a lot of information with anecdotal footage of his own foray into a McDonald's-only diet. What amuses me about the negative "reviews" for this film at IMDb is how the majority of the naysayers focus on exactly one thing: Spurlock's 30-day McDonalds binge. Heck, you could pick that much out of the trailer, and write a slanted review based solely on the imperfections of that particular plot device as an overall impact study and call it a day. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that's what's happening, either. Certainly, anyone who's watched the political BS pour in to commentary for Michael Moore's documentaries knows how it's done. However, if you actually take the time to watch the film, you'll see something quite different emerge: a pattern of childhood indoctrination, poor nutrition, inadequate exercise, and skyrocketing obesity rates, that's sweeping this nation like a plague. Spurlock's self-afflicted experiment is, as I've mentioned, a continuity device that unifies the broad range of the film within a single case study. In the total scope of what's addressed in this film, it's a relatively small part, and many decry it as unrealistic. But Spurlock never claimed it was entirely realistic! He says as much in the film: he ate as much McDonalds in a month as *nutritionists* recommend one eat in 8 years or more. However, the problem is, a lot of Americans are eating as much fast food in a year as he ate in a month. What is the net effect going to be after five years? After 10? Spurlock further restricts himself to an AVERAGE amount of walking exercise, typical for our national population. The problems he exhibits after 3 weeks on this diet are NOT unique, they are the ones that people around the country are exhibiting in spades: weight gain, fatty liver, depression, inactivity. It cannot be overemphasized that this condition is widespread. Those arguing "personal responsibility" have to answer the question of how it is that suddenly, over the last 30 years, so many people have "chosen" a life of sickness and self-destructive addiction over one of health and common sense. The effect of mass-media indoctrination is an obvious factor, and the film addresses it well. Spurlock also takes us behind the scenes at school lunchrooms and gymnasiums around the country, where we find out a little bit of what's been happening to the kids of America. Is the "french fry" truly the only vegetable we can afford to serve to school kids, aside from the dubious catsup? How children could be expected to show "personal responsibility" above and beyond that exhibited by their likely-obese parents in such an environment of brand franchising, 2nd-rate meal "programs", and cutbacks in PE/recess time is a matter that I invite all fast-food apologists at IMDb to explore. For pure entertainment value, I have to deduct points for an uneven pace (especially near the end) and insufficient exposition from some of the people in the film. Still, "Supersize Me" stands as an indictment of the prepackaged food industry, its marketing hype, and its congressional lobbyists. It also serves as a warning to Americans trapped in demanding low-activity jobs which leave little time for lunch or exercise: don't eat the fries! 8/10

Greetings again from the darkness. My daughter and I have been anxiously awaiting the release of this film since first reading about it months ago. Director (and lab rat) Morgan Spurlock takes on a fast food exclusive diet for 30 days and fills us in on the painful steps and sickening conclusion. Many have attacked Spurlock for picking on McDonalds or for not selecting the healthiest thing possible at every meal. These people are missing the point. He explains in the movie that McDonalds is the selection because they so dominate the fast food scene in the world and especially in Manhattan (where he lives). He also explains his meal selection by showing that most McDonalds orders include burgers and fries. Personally, I wondered more about his numerous milk shakes and parfaits. These seem to be the items that were a bit extreme. For the most part, Spurlock does an excellent job proving that we eat too much fast food, that it is very harmful to our bodies, and that there is evil at work conditioning kids that fast food is real food. The most frightening part of the story was the school cafeteria segment showing how kids eat when parents are not around and when school administrators pay no attention. This is the crux of our problems. The Georgetown professor compared it to the early candy cigarettes that condition kids that cigarettes create happiness. The same can be said for fast food and its happy meals and playgrounds. I did not agree too much with the doctor's comparison of Spurlock to Nic Cage in "Leaving Las Vegas". Cage's character was trying to commit suicide, while Spurlock was running an experiment and even considered quitting when the doctors were begging him to. Overall, a nice documentary without the total disregard for decency and the truth shown by Michael Moore in most of his films. I believe this should be required viewing for all junior high and high school students, as well as all expecting parents. This could be an educational tool to convince people to put a little more effort into their health.