Super Size Me Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)May 11th, 2004
SUPER SIZE ME
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
In his widely publicized "experiment," documentarian Morgan Spurlock stops exercising and more than doubles his daily caloric intake of food for thirty days. This non-stop overeating causes him to gain weight and feel terrible. Shocking! Oh yes, and he ate all of his meals at McDonalds, which then, by implication, must be the real culprit and the cause of his woes.
Originally trim and healthy, Spurlock forces himself in SUPER SIZE ME to eat everything he orders -- and to super size the meal whenever asked, which is about one meal out of every six. Early on, he films himself gorging and then puking outside of his car window. Another, although less catchy title might have been BINGE EATING. Spurlock tends to go for the most fattening things on the menu and then proceeds to eat it all. He throws lots of meaningless statistics at us in order to bolster his case against the Golden Arches, but much of his data is quite suspect if we take the time think about it.
Spurlock, for example, claims that the reason he is trim is because he never ate out as a kid, since his mother cooked every meal. But another documentary titled MOM'S COOKING in which he ate the same calories as he did in SUPER SIZE ME would probably have produced the same weight gain.
Along the way we meet a trial lawyer who is itching to get rich by suing the fast food industry just like he did the tobacco industry. The attorney talks about the American public as though he is just looking out for their best interests and his potentially lucrative fees have nothing to do with his interest.
Spurlock is an obsessive voyeur when it comes to very obese people, with hundreds of shots of big butts waddling down the street. Perhaps the most interesting character he comes across is a guy who, like Spurlock, lives by an almost exclusive McDonald's diet. This guy, who has been doing it most of his adult life and not just for thirty days, has eaten over 19,000 Big Macs. What does he look like? Really enormous, right? Wrong! He has a very average physique, actually a little on the lanky side, and with a cholesterol count that most of us would kill for -- 140!
As his thirty-day clock counts down, Spurlock gains more and more weight -- 25 pounds in all -- and complains constantly about everything from pains in his chest to his waning sex life.
As someone who was fat until age twenty-two and who lost a hundred pounds in a year at age 23 and kept it off and who eats regularly at fast food restaurants, including McDonalds, I have a challenge. I'll be happy to eat nothing but McDonalds for thirty days without gaining a pound. It isn't that hard. You don't have to eat everything, and you can make good choices. I'll call my documentary SENSIBLE SIZE ME. All I need is a sponsor. And, for the record, I went to McDonald's to write this review, having a McChicken, a Value Fries and a small Diet Coke for just three dollars plus tax. A real bargain. And it would be 550 calories if I had eaten every bite possible, which I don't usually do.
SUPER SIZE ME runs 1:38. It is not rated but would be an R for language and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the Camera Cinemas.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: [email protected]
***********************************************************************
Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email? Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
