Movie Review: Super Size Me

Stars (Out of 10): 9/10

One Word Summary: McBoycott

Movie Details: Super Size Me Documentary MPAA RATING Not Rated 96 minutes | Color USA DIRECTED BY Morgan Spurlock THEATRICAL RELEASE May 7, 2004 Director's Award (Documentary), 2004 Sundance Film Festival   Relevant Sites: IMDB Official Movie Website Watch The Movie Trailers Shopping: Shop Amazon for items related to this movie. Shop for movie posters at AllPosters

"Super Size Me" Review:

          Morgan Spurlock is crazy.

After hearing of a lawsuit blaming McDonald's for the obesity of two teenage girls, Spurlock decided to test the dangers of fast food first hand. Under the watch of three doctors, a nutritionist, and a fitness expert, Spurlock embarked on a mission that forced him to eat only fast food for an entire month. There were a couple of ground rules: number 1, if asked if he wants to Super Size his combo, he must say yes; number 2, he can only eat things served over the counter at McDonalds (if they don't sell it, he can't eat it); number 3, he has to eat everything on the menu at least once before the month is over; and number 4, he has to eat three meals a day (and finish all of them). Plus, Spurlock limited his exercise to the average number of walking steps an American takes a day, and ordered only combos because most Americans splurge for the fries and drink to wash down their meal.

Why would anybody inflict this anti-diet on himself? Spurlock, the former host of an MTV stunt-show, and a self-professed fan of fast food, seems to do it simply out of curiosity. I've never really seen a documentary before. Anything by Michael Moore is so blanketed in bias and diluted by politics that it's about as objective as Hitler's Mein Kamph, and most other documentaries are just boring. Whereas Moore would probably storm McDonald's corporate headquarters demanding an interview, Spurlock documents his sixteen-plus unreturned phone calls to various McDonald's spokespeople with humor and class.

Spurlock presents a topic that's been prominent on every news network the last couple of years, and turns what was a boring story of numbers into a hilarious and shocking film that could scare the fat out of anyone. He uses pictures to show that Ronald McDonald and Wendy are more recognizable to first grade students than George Washington or Jesus Christ. He introduces a family that can't recite the pledge of allegiance for the life of them, but know the Big Mac jingle by heart. We see his health deteriorating through the month faster than any of his doctors could have imagined.

What were some of the side effects? Spurlock gains twenty-five pounds, his cholesterol skyrockets, his liver becomes so damaged that his doctors fear he could die before the month is over, he gets depressed when he isn't eating, and his and his girlfriend's 'personal' life disappears.

The idea behind the film isn't airtight, no one eats this much fast food a day (right?), but the results are clear.

Spurlock presents the facts in a way that grabbed my attention more than any Surgeon General's warning or public service announcement ever could. He informs, but doesn't preach. He uses cartoon graphics to show the difference between what McDonald's spends on advertising versus what's spent on '5 A Day' PSAs. He uses statistics to show how dependent we've become on fast food. One in four Americans eat at a fast food restaurant every day, McDonald's alone serves forty-six million people a day worldwide, which, he points out, is more than the entire population of Spain. McDonald's calls frequent visitors to their restaurants (who account for over seventy percent of their business) 'Heavy Users.' As for targeting kids, McDonald's distributes more toys in a year than Toys-R-Us.

Spurlock interviews a man who's eaten two Big Macs a day for the last thirty years, examines what schools are serving their students, films a man's gastric bypass surgery who used to drink gallons of soda a day, and jokes about how french fries are America's most consumed vegetables. Plus he points out the ironic health problems of the founders of Baskin-Robbins and Ben & Jerry's. Throughout the film, Spurlock tries to contact the CEO of McDonald's, Jim Cantalupo, but now he'll never get the chance because Cantalupo died of a heart attack at the age of sixty.

The Bottom Line is that this is a movie you have to see. Spurlock interviews people who say that kids need more P.E. at school, but I say just show them this movie because it took care of my appetite quicker than a Quarter Pounder with Cheese ever has! Super Size Me is an interesting, humorous, and honest look at a problem that's becoming more and more important. This is a McMustSee!