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Super Size Me
Roadside Attractions / Samuel Goldwyn Films


7.1

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 58 votes
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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.

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.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

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

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.

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.

USA Today Claudia Puig

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

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.

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).

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.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

As enormously entertaining as it is appalling.

Slate David Edelstein

Super-entertaining, super-disgusting documentary.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

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

Empire Olly Richards

It’s a hugely enjoyable descent into epic gluttony.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

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

New York Post Megan Lehmann

An amusing McGimmick.

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.

Variety Dennis Harvey

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

The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg

The results are as entertaining as they are sobering.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

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

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Slickly entertaining documentary.

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.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

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

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.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

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

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.

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 58 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.

Super Size Me Roadside Attractions / Samuel Goldwyn Films

Super Size Me
Roadside Attractions / Samuel Goldwyn Films