***Official SUPER SIZE ME Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Jack Briggs]

Isn't it going into general release at the end of the month? Normally, I am a wait-for-it-to-arrive-on-DVD kinda guy, but this and another film being released (we hope) this summer are going to be exceptions to my personal rule.

 

[WillG]

Now that the film has gone into release, how much you want to bet that this joke makes into Leno's, Letterman's or O'Brien's monologue?

 

[Max Leung]

Are you saying there is no Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack? Or are you trying to say that he promotes Dolby Pro Logic as the best sound format?

Hopefully this film will arrive in Calgary soon - I'd hate to have to wait for the Calgary Film Festival this October to catch this film...

And yes, young woman with spare tires is very clashing on the eyes..."Nice butt, but does she HAVE to show off her full-sized spare?" :b

 

[Kevin Leonard]

Well, I got back from a showing today, and I have to say I found the film to be pretty mediocre. While I can't point to any specific scenes, I felt a smug and at times condescending tone throughout the whole picture.

Spurlock's older cinematic brother, Michael Moore, is also arrogant and condescending (not to mention having a nasty habit of staging scenes and changing the facts to suit his needs), but the difference between him and Spurlock is that Moore knows how to craft an entertaining movie. Though Super Size Me was around 95 minutes or so, it started to drag towards the end, as Spurlock goes from a guy conducting an experiment to some half-hearted crusader.

Yes, there were some interesting facts and scenes spread out among the movie: a comparison between the advertising budgets of giant fast-food chains and fruit companies was illuminating, and there was a fascinating segment that investigated the available food given to students at lunch. But unfortunately, those parts are sidestepped once we get back to Spurlock's personal odyssey where he risks his life to state the obvious--solely eating fast food will have severe repercussions on your body. There's a really good documentary waiting to be told on America's obesity problem, but Super Size Me is not it.

BTW Scott: while I can't tell you if Spurlock edited anything out from the movie, it seems he changed the postscript a bit: he mentions McDonald's pulling the Super Size option shortly after the film's Sundance premiere.

 

[Jack Briggs]

The Los Angeles Times picked up on some of the condescension you report, Kevin — to the point of noting how the film becomes almost fetishistic in conveying shots of morbidly obese people with their faces blurred out ("as though they are criminals," the TImes reviewer said).

On the other hand, the overall assessment of the film was positive. (You're nearly spot-on, vis. the film's running time: It's 96 minutes.)

 

[Brett Hancock]

Haven't seen the movie yet but I plan on it, just thought I would chime in with a few points.

I agree that you make your own decisions and no one forces you to eat at Mcdonalds. The people who sue them for being overweight are stupid.

However that doesn't mean that Mcdonalds is in the right.

They heavily market there products to kids and try and push them as healthy when they are far from it. It's up to parents to monitor what there kids put into there bodies but they also want to make there kids happy. Kid sees a commercial for Mcdonalds and wants it, parent knows they can get lunch and throw them in the playplace for a few minutes and everyone is happy.

Look I could go on and on and I'm sure if I did people would say I sound like an extremely short version of fast food nation. But that was the point.

 

[Richard Kim]

I have seen Super Size Me, and I found it to be an informative and entertaining film. I laughed out loud many times, and the audience applauded at the end.

I don't understand the vitriol being aimed against the film. It's not for abolishing personal responsibility at all. The film does portrays the lawyers involved in suing McDonald's in a less than flattering light (they're just in it for the money).

I have to give kudos to Morgan Spurlock for putting his body on the line to make his film and having the balls to stick to his McDiet to the bitter end.

 

[Brian Harnish]

I, too, am interested in seeing this film. I hope it will at least make it to Orange County. Oh, well. There's always the DVD!

 

[Rob Lutter]

Hopefully it plays here in Orange County, Florida sometime too! I've been dying to see it.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Brian, though you may live behind the Orange Curtain, you can always plan on getting through the guards at the border checkpoints at the Los Angeles County line.

Why not plan a weekend excursion up here and go see this film at the Laemmle Sunset Five in West Hollywood?

 

[Brian Harnish]

Jack- Hey, that's a great idea! I'll hit up some friends of mine on that idea and see if they'd like to come along. Either that, or I could just take a 20-minute trip to the showing in Irvine.

Decisions, decisions!

 

[Paul.S]

Actually, leaving the OC and coming into LA won't be a problem--they obviously let anybody into the place. It's getting in to OC that's the issue: they're must stricter about checking your papers to go in than they are to leave.

-p

 

[Mark McLeod]

It's opening in Calgary on May 28th.

Other Canadian dates include May 21st in Victoria, Montreal and Winnipeg

Edmonton joins Calgary and Hamilton on the 28th and it will hit Ottawa between June 4 and the 16th.

All dates from Alliance Atlantis/Odeon Film's (Canadian Distributor) media website.

You can read my take on the film here.

 

[Brett_H]

Noah,



Part of the problem is the increased cost to the rest of society for the expanding bulk of our citizens. Ever-increasing health care costs are a real concern, and the nation's obesity epidemic is not helping matters. If it were only a factor to the obese individuals, I wouldn't care if everyone else weighed 50 or 500 lbs. Once it starts affecting everyone like it is, that's when it becomes a bigger issue.

Oh, and I'm eagerly awaiting the local opening of this film on 5/26, in the mean time I'm about halfway through "Fat Land" and it's a real eye-opener.

-Brett.

 

[Chuck Mullen]

I heard on the radio recently that obesity has replaced smoking as the number one health concern in the U.S.:frowning:

 

[Paul.S]

Well said, Brett, in the first paragraph of your post #54. And I think the film addresses the issue without turning off non-policy wonks.

What with millions of aging Boomers, it's bad enough that the Social Security situation is a ticking time bomb.

-p

 

[Zen Butler]

Many naysayers to the film also. For one, Costa Mesa's Chazz Weaver, who actually lost weight in rebuttal to the film's maker.

http://www.ncbuy.com/news/2004-05-03/1009517.html

I refuse to fault McDonald's. I/anyone can lose weight eating there or any other establishment. Responsibility lies with your own mouth. I'm only attacking the notion.
As to the film, I'll wait to view it before passing judgment.

 

[Paul.S]

Zen:

First of all, I encourage you to see the film. It addresses many other issues in addition to weight/fat gain (i.e., influence peddling by industry lobbyists, school lunch programs and more).

The problem I have with this laissez faire notion is McDonald's corporate behavior. I'm particlarly taken by McDonald's having used its corporate mouth to lie. The company was successfully sued for their statements that their french fries are fried in pure vegetable oil. What they weren't disclosing is that the fries' rich flavor was derived from their having been dipped in beef tallow before being fried in vegetable oil.

Have you read Fast Food Nation? Amongst many other things Spurlock doesn't even get into (exploitation and maiming of poor, transient Latino labor in meat processing plants that supply McDonald's and the fast food industry's complicity therein via their staunch anti-labor policies), the book details the way McDonald's surveilled two British anti-fast food activists. It's a reprehensible example of bad corporate behavior that makes it difficult for one to argue that this issue is all about personal responsibility.

Our ability to make informed choices so as to exercise "personal responsibility" is hampered by an environment in which corpations lie, litigate and obfuscate in the name of shirking their corporate responsibility. This is a two-way street.

-p

 

[Zen Butler]

First off Paul, that was a very good post. What you said above (quoted) is my main reason for wanting to see this. I was mortified when I was unable to make my 16 y/o lunch one day. I gave him money, then asked what he ate. He then ran down the list of available foods. Horrid, to say the least. This is a school with money too.

I too don't believe Weaver proved very much, the guy is in incredible shape and is only one man. I was very careful in stating I can't blame McDonald's. I was also being sincere when I stated wanting to view the film before passing any judgements on Spurlock.

I feel there are many issues being addressed here under one canopy. "McDonald's corporate behavior" to me, is a separate issue from individual obesity.

I appreciate your stance Paul, although do not totally agree. Looks as if we will have some discussion when this film is more accessible.
Respectfully

 

[Ricardo C]

http://www.cei.org/pages/debunk/debunk_the_junk.cfm

A woman sets out to prove you can eat at McD's three times a day and actually lose weight.