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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
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.
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
It’s 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
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