Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

67 3 Idiots
47 44 Inch Chest
82 Ajami
71 American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
73 Amreeka
75 Art of the Steal, The
43 Barefoot to Timbuktu
19 Bitch Slap
49 Blood Done Sign My Name
24 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76 Broken Embraces
52 Celine: Through the Eyes of the World
67 Children of Invention
65 City Island
64 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
84 Cove, The
83 Crazy Heart
21 Crazy on the Outside
51 Creation
xx Daddy Long Legs
81 Damned United, The
57 Defendor
61 Delta
68 Departures
64 District 13: Ultimatum
72 Easier with Practice
85 Education, An
61 Exploding Girl, The
70 Eyes Wide Open
24 Falling Awake
81 Fish Tank
56 For My Father
52 Formosa Betrayed
xx From Mexico with Love
43 Frozen
xx Ghost Town
77 Ghost Writer, The
69 Girl on the Train, The
73 Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The
47 Good Guy, The
78 Greenberg
35 Happy Tears
68 Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess
20 Harlem Aria
xx Killing Jar, The
52 Killing Kasztner
xx Kimjongilia
41 Last New Yorker, The
76 Last Station, The
47 Little Traitor, The
51 Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
71 Lourdes
73 Me and Orson Welles
77 Messenger, The
80 Mid-August Lunch
57 Missing Person, The
76 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
79 Mother
50 My Name is Khan
88 Neil Young Trunk Show
49 Nine
67 North Face
64 October Country
67 Off and Running
52 Paranoids, The
40 Phyllis and Harold
49 Pop Star on Ice
49 Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
74 Prodigal Sons
xx Promised Lands (Re-release)
89 Prophet, A
76 Red Riding Trilogy, The
63 Runaways, The
32 Saint John of Las Vegas
83 Secret of Kells, The
69 September Issue, The
36 Serious Moonlight
57 Severe Clear
63 Shinjuku Incident, The
xx Shutterbug
77 Single Man, A
76 Still Bill
34 Stolen
xx Suicide Girls Must Die!
52 Tales from the Script
74 Terribly Happy
74 That Evening Sun
47 To Die for Tano
19 To Save a Life
63 Toe to Toe
69 Town Called Panic, A
54 Until the Light Takes Us
60 Videocracy
84 Vincere
66 Waiting for Armageddon
45 White on Rice
82 White Ribbon
xx White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, The
43 Women in Trouble
xx Word is Out
64 Yellow Handkerchief, The
64 Young Victoria, The

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Super Size Me

EMAILPRINTRoadside Attractions / Samuel Goldwyn Films

Super Size Me reviews
73
7.2 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 61 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary

Written by:

Directed by: Morgan Spurlock

Release Date:
Theatrical: May 7, 2004
DVD: September 28, 2004

Running Time: 96 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Morgan Spurlock, and Dr. Daryl Isaacs

Why are Americans so fat? Find out in Super Size Me, a tongue in-cheek - and burger in hand -- look at the legal, financial and physical costs of America's hunger for fast food. (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

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...

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A deliciously amusing socio-culinary prank.

Read Full Review >
91

Portland Oregonian Karen Karbo

The film has accomplished something few documentaries manage: It's created a stir. It's got people thinking and talking. And avoiding the fries.

Read Full Review >
90

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Hilarious and often terrifying look at the effects of fast food on the human body.

Read Full Review >
88

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It’s one of the blackest comedies to hit the screen since Dr. Strangelove. Spurlock proves himself a supersize talent; he makes you choke on every laugh.

Read Full Review >
88

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

The movie is zippy, laugh-out-loud funny, persuasive and at times horrifying, as Spurlock undergoes his unpleasant changes with good humor and bad tummy aches.

Read Full Review >
88

USA Today Claudia Puig

Riveting and darkly comic Super Size Me is a whip-smart documentary.

Read Full Review >
88

Boston Globe Ty Burr

I don't usually make recommendations of this kind, but if you or your kids have gone to a burger joint in the last few weeks, you really do need to see this movie.

Read Full Review >
88

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Clearly an important film, if only for such disheartening reminders that a McDonald's salad with ranch dressing has more calories than a Big Mac or that Miami is the 15th fattest city in the country (Houston is No. 1).

Read Full Review >
88

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A movie every American should see, although parts of it are close to unwatchable - notably an operating room sequence in which a pair of surgeons performs a gastric bypass, or "obesity surgery," as they like to call it, on a dangerously overweight patient.

Read Full Review >
80

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

As enormously entertaining as it is appalling.

Read Full Review >
80

Slate David Edelstein

Super-entertaining, super-disgusting documentary.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Desson Thomson

This is a compelling cautionary tale hot-wired to your gag reflex.

Read Full Review >
80

Empire Olly Richards

It’s a hugely enjoyable descent into epic gluttony.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Super Size Me is an anti-junk-food screed that manages to entertain even as it informs and alarms.

Read Full Review >
80

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

The speed with which a healthy, relatively young stud can morph into a tub of lard is as horrifying as it is entertaining to watch.

Read Full Review >
80

Village Voice Dennis Lim

Sometimes exerts the gross-out fascination of reality TV's muckier specimens--its arc suggests a slow-motion "Fear Factor," or "Extreme Makeover" in reverse.

Read Full Review >
80

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Spurlock's film proves yet again that the phrase "crowd-pleasing documentary" doesn't have to be an oxymoron.

Read Full Review >
78

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Although Super Size Me benefits from a number of interviews with nutritionists, lobbyists, lawyers, and the like, the film inevitably (but not unenjoyably) is dominated by Spurlock, who offers his sober-minded statistics and cheeky asides without ever devolving into an off-putting Michael Moore-like moralizing.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is the documentary that caused a sensation at Sundance 2004 and allegedly inspired McDonald's to discontinue its "super size" promotions as a preemptive measure.

Read Full Review >
75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) James Adams

Watching Morgan Spurlock commit slow suicide in Super Size Me is rather like watching Nic Cage do the same in "Leaving Las Vegas," except here the "preferred" instruments of destruction are hamburgers and vanilla milkshakes instead of booze and cigarettes.

Read Full Review >
75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A cautionary tale as well as an expose on the power of the American fast-food industry. That the documentary comes across as more than a sermon has a lot to do with Spurlock's personality, which is outgoing and instantly engaging.

Read Full Review >
75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The issue may be serious, but the tone is lighthearted, and that, more than anything else, makes Super Size Me a palatable cinematic entrée.

Read Full Review >
75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer D. Parvaz

The strength of Super Size Me lies primarily in Spurlock's character -- he comes across as an affable guy with a goofy sense of humor.

Read Full Review >
75

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Spurlock's movie is the real-life slapstick record of a kamikaze Mac attack. Schlosser's book is the contemporary equal of Upton Sinclair's classic meatpacking muckraker "The Jungle."

Read Full Review >
75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Super Size Me produces more laughs than a man's gastrointestinal distress should.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post Megan Lehmann

An amusing McGimmick.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Goes down easy and takes a while to digest, but its message is certainly worth the loss of your appetite.

Read Full Review >
70

Variety Dennis Harvey

Primarily humorous in a believe-it-or-not fashion.

Read Full Review >
70

The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg

The results are as entertaining as they are sobering.

Read Full Review >
70

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Super Size Me is exploratory, as opposed to being just numbingly didactic, and that's what makes it so engaging.

Read Full Review >
70

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Slickly entertaining documentary.

Read Full Review >
63

Premiere Kelly Borgeson

Made with obvious passion and humor (and a side of fries), Super Size Me is a mostly entertaining look at fast food, the billion-dollar businesses behind it, and its warped effect on our culture.

Read Full Review >
60

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

Beyond any contention is Morgan Spurlock's gift for metabolizing common knowledge into uncommonly entertaining cinema.

Read Full Review >
60

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Packs a lot of good information, witty visual aids and expert testimonials into its fast 96 minutes, and all the bad eating certainly makes for compelling if at times repugnant viewing. But the film ends up too short and, as a consequence, frustratingly glib.

Read Full Review >
50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Tasty while you take it in, but larded down with empty cinematic calories.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Spurlock's movie is an attack on our eating habits, but it's also a prime example of an all-American sport--making a spectacle of oneself for fun and profit. Spurlock, you'll be surprised to learn, is developing a TV spinoff, with himself as host.

Read Full Review >
30

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Insofar as one can distinguish the investigative research from the career move, this Sundance prizewinner is effective muckraking, but it lacks much of a political program apart from the message that we're poisoning ourselves.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 61 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tanika G. gave it a10:
i think its really had to be said and morgan did a fantstic job insaying so i worked at maccers and seeing wat they do and how many ppl eat fast food really made me realise wat ppl are doing to their body. so well done morgan and good job.

frank T gave it a5:
Amusing but absurd. Gorging yourself with McDonald's is bad for you? shocking. This filmmaker is a frustrated actor who decided to cast himself in a feature. the idea that you'd take the super size every time it is offered is absurd. that's like accepting every sales pitch you enounter for a month. duh.

Glen S. gave it a10:
I weighed 345 lbs amd now i am weighed at 200lbs i didnt eat fast food for 2 years and i worked out every day for 2 hours. it was great.

Gabriel B. gave it a10:
Best documentary I have seen in my life, show the real thing, fast food is now one time a year for me.

David D. gave it a9:
This is absoltely funny, and just plain sick at the same time. But one question remains: Why do this? Well, it's not so different than what people really do. Like that Big Mac eating dude. But yes, the gastric bypass scene was sick and slightly unneccesary.

nathan r. gave it a10:
I love this movie.

Dave F gave it a10:
Hilarious and informative. Be warned, burger lovers: you'll never eat fast food again. Those who are giving this a zero need to move beyond what's called the "denial" stage of food addiction.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | March Madness | TV | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use