Late Review: Supersize Me
Published June 19, 2005
When this movie hit the shelves, I read all about it. I watched interviews with the creator, and I wanted to know more. I did not, however, see the film until now. Supersize Me is a documentary about the obesity epidemic in the US and in particular McDonalds involvement. It was an interesting movie, but it felt a little flat. I give it a 3 out of 5; if you don't know anything about the obesity epidemic, i'd bump it up to a 4 out of 5; and if you are in fact suffering with obesity, I'd give it 5 out of 5.
The information presented in this movie simply wasn't new. I'd already heard it all before. Some of the visual presentation was interesting. Many of the interviews were fascinating, but the focus on McDonalds wasn't that interesting. I would have rather seen a full blown documentary on obesity in general. While this movie did talk about obesity, the clear focus was McDonalds and fast foods impact on obesity.
The documentary was very watchable. It had an interesting premise. The information presented was fascinating, but it seemed a little stale. I already knew the outcome having seen interviews of the creator after the movie was made, and many of the statistics have been around in news articles for quite some time. Sure, this film may have been the reason for a lot of that information coming to light, but I just feel that it doesn't have the same freshness as it did when it first came out.
- Late Review: Supersize Me
- Published: June 19, 2005
- Type: Review
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Documentary
- Writer: Nicholas Roussos
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McDonald's also followed Wendy's lead by making Happy Meals in which parents could sub in fruit and milk for fries and a soda.
Did you hear about the new show on FX by Super Size Me creator Morgan Spurlock (sp?)? I've heard it's quite good.
I heard that he was going to live off of minimum wage for some period of time, but I don't know any details.
Namely, it is no longer possible to "super-size" any item at any McDonald's location I know of. After investing huge amounts of money to secure a trademark on "super sizing" and advertise it so everyone would know it was a McDonald's thing, they just dropped it like a hot rock.
Some people hate this fact, and others love it, but either way it's quite rare for a corporate giant to change a practice of this magnitude just because of a documentary film.
IN Canada we still have supersize, why? because were not all idiots who believe a movie? Maybe, although I doubt it were almost as bad, I think people here just blame the people for eating so much, not the corperation. Try eating nothing but Cheese for 30 days or something and you will also see bad side effects. Although the guy in supersize me also ate HUGE means that a "normal" person would not eat. If you eat less Mcdonalds it can be a healthy diet.
We dont have fruit at Mcdonalds here in Canada that I know of, but it would be cool. Good to have a selection.
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Another thing worth mentioning about this little film is the responses it drew from McDonald's. Along with the standard corporate tactics of denying all wrongdoing, McDonald's actually changed a few things about their way of doing business. Some of these things may be responses to the wider campaign against obesity and fast food, but at least one of them can be directly credited to this film.
Namely, it is no longer possible to "super-size" any item at any McDonald's location I know of. After investing huge amounts of money to secure a trademark on "super sizing" and advertise it so everyone would know it was a McDonald's thing, they just dropped it like a hot rock.
Some people hate this fact, and others love it, but either way it's quite rare for a corporate giant to change a practice of this magnitude just because of a documentary film.