|

Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search
Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
Adoration
74
Afghan Star
48
Alien Trespass
56
American Violet
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57
Away We Go
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
62
Big Man Japan
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55
Brothers Bloom, The
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx
Call of the Wild
63
Cheri
62
Cherry Blossoms
63
Dead Snow
65
Departures
18
Downloading Nancy
58
Easy Virtue
70
End of the Line, The
77
Every Little Step
64
Examined Life
80
Food, Inc.
38
Gigantic
56
Girl from Monaco, The
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
87
Gomorrah
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Great Buck Howard, The
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx
Home
82
Hunger
91
Hurt Locker, The
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
81
Il Divo
54
Is Anybody There?
71
Jerichow
58
Julia
74
Lemon Tree
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
40
Limits of Control, The
42
Little Ashes
64
Lymelife
50
Management
57
Merry Gentleman, The
66
Moon
35
New York
62
Not Forgotten
xx
Offshore
78
O'Horten
64
Outrage
40
Paris 36
54
Pontypool
71
Pressure Cooker
52
Quiet Chaos
83
Revanche
67
Rudo y Cursi
86
Seraphine
65
Sex Positive
70
Shall We Kiss?
77
Sin Nombre
59
Sleep Dealer
74
Song of Sparrows, The
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
82
Sugar
84
Summer Hours
61
Sunshine Cleaning
28
Surveillance
42
Tennessee
63
Tetro
64
Throw Down Your Heart
80
Tokyo Sonata
63
Tokyo!
70
Tony Manero
74
Treeless Mountain
88
Tulpan
74
Two Lovers
83
Tyson
83
U2 3D
60
Under Our Skin
69
Unmistaken Child
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
45
Whatever Works
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Super Size Me
Roadside Attractions / Samuel Goldwyn Films
FILM:
MPAA 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)
| GENRE(S): |
Documentary
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Morgan Spurlock
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: September 28, 2004
Video: September 28, 2004
Theatrical: May 7, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
96 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
Director's Award (Documentary), 2004 Sundance Film Festival

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.

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.

90
Film Threat
Pete Vonder Haar
Hilarious and often terrifying look at the effects of fast food on the human body.

88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Its 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.

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.

88
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Riveting and darkly comic Super Size Me is a whip-smart documentary.

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.

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).

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.

80
Dallas Observer
Robert Wilonsky
As enormously entertaining as it is appalling.

80
Slate
David Edelstein
Super-entertaining, super-disgusting documentary.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
This is a compelling cautionary tale hot-wired to your gag reflex.

80
Empire
Olly Richards
Its a hugely enjoyable descent into epic gluttony.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Super Size Me produces more laughs than a man's gastrointestinal distress should.

75
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
An amusing McGimmick.

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.

70
Variety
Dennis Harvey
Primarily humorous in a believe-it-or-not fashion.

70
The Hollywood Reporter
James Greenberg
The results are as entertaining as they are sobering.

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.

70
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Slickly entertaining documentary.

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.

60
Film Threat
Rick Kisonak
Beyond any contention is Morgan Spurlock's gift for metabolizing common knowledge into uncommonly entertaining cinema.

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.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Tasty while you take it in, but larded down with empty cinematic calories.

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.

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.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 59 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Read more user comments...
Discuss this movie in our forums |
|