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King Corn
Balcony Releasing

King Corn reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 70 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.6 out of 10
based on 15 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Ian Cheney, and Curt Ellis

America’s fast-food empire is fueled by a secret ingredient: corn. High fructose corn syrup makes the sodas sweet, corn-fed beef makes the burgers fat, and corn oil crisps the fries. As college buddies Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis find out, their junk food generation has grown up eating so much corn that if you test their hair– it’s actually made of the stuff. King Corn follows Ian and Curt to a tiny town in the middle of Iowa, where they plant and grow an acre of America’s most powerful crop, and attempt to follow its fate as food. What they find is alternately hilarious and horrifying: genetically modified seeds and home- brewed corn syrup, a bumper crop of obesity and diabetes, and a government paying farmers to grow what’s making us sick. You’ll never enjoy a soda again. (Balcony Releasing)


GENRE(S): Documentary  
WRITTEN BY: Ian Cheney
Curtis Ellis
Jeffrey K. Miller
Aaron Woolf
 
DIRECTED BY: Aaron Woolf  
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: October 12, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 88 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

91
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Aaron Woolf's we-are-what-we-eat documentary King Corn is a lively introduction to the corn industrial complex.
Read Full Review
88
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
A breezy diary from a pair of first-time farmers, as well as a wry rebuke to a nation devoted to eating cheaply but not necessarily well, King Corn makes its points without much finger-wagging.
Read Full Review
83
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
The film always teaches and entertains in equal, ample measure. It's a treat -- and it's good for you.
Read Full Review
78
Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
The film’s light hand, appealing style, and simple exposition make it an eminently watchable inquiry into the politics of food and public health, accessible to the documentary-shy and wildly appropriate for older kids, who may further respond to its generational emphasis.
Read Full Review
75
Boston Globe Janice Page
It's fair to say that a meaner documentary might have packed more punch. But it's hard to imagine Michael Moore turning out anything that feels as pleasantly nourishing.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
Neatly, and often humorously, summarizes a very unhealthy situation.
Read Full Review
70
Film Threat Zack Haddad
A very creative documentary that takes a seemingly dull topic and makes it entertaining.
Read Full Review
70
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
It should be required viewing before going into a supermarket, McDonald's or your very own refrigerator.
Read Full Review
70
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Thankfully, this information arrives via a graceful and frequently humorous film that captures the idiosyncrasies of its characters and never hectors.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Dennis Harvey
No doubt inspired to some degree by "Super Size Me," this equally engaging, slightly better-crafted documentary deftly balances humor and insight.
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice Robert Wilonsky
King Corn will put you off corn for a long, long time, but this is as much a thoughtful meditation on the plight of the American farmer as it is a rant against our expanding waistlines.
Read Full Review
70
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
In this 2006 entry the insights are worthwhile.
Read Full Review
63
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Homey but not especially interesting trips down the Ellis and Cheney family lanes.
Read Full Review
60
Los Angeles Times Staff (Not credited)
King Corn is entertaining enough, but it's also a moral, crucially skeptical road trip down the food chain.
Read Full Review
50
The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz
Mr. Cheney and Mr. Ellis are so pleasantly nondescript that they make no particular impression. As a result, all the time spent on autobiographical detail and personal banter hampers the film’s urgency, and plays like an awkward attempt to justify a format that the filmmakers are too self-effacing to exploit.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Discuss this movie in our forums

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