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Super Size Me
Short plot summary

What happens when a healthy 32 year old (Morgan Spurlock) eats nothing but McDonald's for a whole month? Surely he won't put on any weight. His cholesterol won't change a jot... Huh kids?

Movie rules
#1 Can only Super Size when asked
#2 Can only eat at McDonald's
#3 Must have everything on the menu at least once
#4 Three square meals a day (Breakfast, lunch and dinner)
Why pick on McDonald's, and not do a general fast food attack?
#1 In New York City McDonald's is the biggest fast food chain by far (twice the size of Burger King its nearest rival.)
#2 McDonald's, in particular amongst fast food giants, offers playgrounds for kiddies, getting them hooked at a very early age.
#3 The inspiration of the film was apparently a lawsuit brought against McDonald's by two customers who blamed their weight gain on the company.
What our panel of critics thought

"Hey wow man, I got that reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey! (The bit on the operating table with those metal thingies in his stomach!) That porker really did look like a space station!"

"Steven Siegel was in this movie! Woah..."

"When this movie was shown on TV in the UK they just so happened to have sent me a book of money-off McD vouchers. How thoughtful! Yummy. I love Big Macs. This movie hasn't stopped me going there at all. Might not go on that 60 day McDonald's binge I had pencilled in for the third quarter though."

"But he didn't actually have liver failure did he? Let's see those eyes go yellow! What would have surprised me more was if he didn't put on any weight at all!"

"Amazing fact: In the USA there are more McDonald's than KFC, Wendy's, Popeye's and Taco Bells combined! There are twice as many McDonald's than Burger King."

"I would pay $2.98 to charity to see his girlfriend, the vegan chef, eat a whole Big Mac."

"Here in Belgium it is a sign of politeness to vomit after a good meal."

"This is real effective documentary making at its superb best."

"3oz of meat is a sensible portion?"

Please tell me the ending or plot overview if necessary

Morgan Spurlock is advised to stop his experiment when it looks like his liver is in meltdown. But he sees it through...

By the end of the 30 day experiment he has gained weight: starting at 185 lbs (a healthy weight for a 6 ft 2 man), ending at 215lbs. His cholesterol goes through the roof.

Justify this movie's existence in the classic strand from theVoiceofReason.com's Veritable Cornucopia

This movie is for everyone who loves McDonald's and fast food in general who wondered what it would be like to live off their favourite food for every meal of every day and take no exercise at all. It's predictably not pleasant. But watching a person suffer is sooooo good to watch!

Our host, Morgan Spurlock, is a superb guinea pig, the loveable classroom comic type, acting out an 8 year old's dream of eating only fast food... It's a fantastic idea and the fact that McDonald's stopped super sizing 6 weeks after this movie premiered is another example of the power of the documentary form.

This movie is an interesting take on the subject. Most times this story is told from the fat person trying to lose weight, not from the healthy fit guy setting out to get fat...

MMMMMMMMM Big Macs......

Quotable quotes (real)

"Super size me."

"Hypertension, Coronary Heart Disease, Stroke, Gall Blader Disease, Osteroarthritis, Sleep Apnea, Respiratory Problems, Endometrial Cancer, Prostrate Cancer, Colon Cancer, Dyslipidemia, Steatophepatitis, Insulin Resistance, Asthma, Hyperuricemia, Reproductive Hormone Abnormalities, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Impared Fertility and Adult Onset Diabetes."

Please give some supportive words to our fat or obese readers...

Eat less, exercise more, overweight babe!

Please give me the facts that made your veins in your head and heart pop the most.

Baskin Robbins (Major ice cream maker): Death of founder partner at age of 51.

After 5 days our hero was eating 5000 calories a day, opposed to the recommended 2500 for a man of his size.

After only 7 days he had put on 10 lbs.

In 2001 the direct media advertising spend (TV, Radio, Newspapers) internationally:
    McDonald's spent: $1.4bn
    Pepsi $1bn
    Hershey Foods: $200mn

    Eat 5 a day vegetables/fruit: $2mn

Spurlock gained 17lbs in 12 days, 24.5 over the 30 days.

Spurlock's cholesterol started at 165, after 17 days it had risen to 225, ending at 230 after the 30 days...

Body fat started at 11% ended at 18% at the end of the 30 days.

Supersize amounts: 42oz Coke (Small is 12oz), 0.5lb French Fries.

Hilarious spell check options given us by our spell checker during the course of writing this review..

The word 'vegan': One of the 6 options: 'vagina'

Other comments

A really interesting movie, well executed. It didn't put us off fast food in the slightest (although even when it was available we never super sized even once). We probably wouldn't go on a 30 day fast food binge but if anybody wants to do this for a whole year we'd pay money to watch the movie... The world's first McDonald's Suicide...?

As a postscript, McDonald's stopped super sizing six weeks after this movie came out.

Date of review

9 May 2005

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