Super Size Me

Starring:Morgan Spurlock
Directed by: Morgan Spurlock
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Documentary
2004

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Under medical supervision, filmmaking Morgan Spurlock eats nothing but McDonalds for three meals a day every day for a month. This is just one example of his commentary on the fast food industry and its contribution to America's obesity epidemic.

Review:

Tim: Morgan Spurlock is a genius. Eat nothing but McDonalds for a month? This sounds like an odessey I'd love to watch, but not actually partake in. The best part of this documentary is watching the effect of the food on Spurlock's body. He worked with a number of medical experts to track his health, and make sure he didn't kill himself. It is fascinating to watch his weight increase, his vital organs really suffer, and the medical experts' bewilderment at how rapidly his health deteriorated.

While this is fascinating, Spurlock needed much more to fill the length of a feature documentary, so he travels the country, investigating the fast food industry and its attempts to sell, sell, sell- without any real concern to how its food adversely effects those who consume it too often. While occasionally shedding light on some alarming practices, these moments of the film are slowest and least interesting. They serve mainly as a break point before we can get back to Spurlock and the ill effects of the McDonalds diet.

The highlights of the film are Spurlock's vomiting from McDonalds (trust me, it is interesting), his plan to punch his kids in the face when they drive past McDonalds, and finally, the catchy-as-hell "Super Size Me" song at the end credits.

Despite some flaws, I applaud Spurlock for sticking it out the 30 days, even when his physician strongly recommended he stop before he did some irreversable damage to himself. The documentary sheds light on how bad fast food is for us, and how people simply don't care and continue to slowly eat themselves into obesity and death (I'll admit while this doc opened my eyes, I still eat fast food far too often). I recommend taking a chance with this film, even if you don't enjoy documentaries. It is interesting, entertaining, and is mostly responsible for McDonalds getting rid of its "Super Size" option. Good job, Morgan.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 8.5



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