Review: Super Size Me… On Second Thought, Please Don’t

Super Size Me – I’ve been postponing watching this movie – and reading the far better Fast Food Nation, for months because I knew once I read/saw them I’d have to give up on a personal bad staple, namely fast food.

Sure enough, after seeing just one hour of the movie and reading 100 pages of the book, I vowed not to eat fast food anymore and so far I’ve made good on that promise.

Several times this movie crosses the line between gimmick and good documentary film-making. You watch a man eat nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days, watch man get sick, watch people bemoan McDonald’s and then see the footage of lobbyists for the fast food industry admitting they are part of the nation’s obesity problem.

I liked the movie more than I expected. I didn’t think I’d like it because the director seems too much into self-promotion and he’s not exactly a tough interviewer. But, he redeems himself by bringing up some great points and leaves the viewer with plenty to, well, chew on.

The DVD comes with an interview between the movie’s director and the author of Fast Food Nation, which contains a good summary of parts of the book. But I think it also shows how much more in-depth and better the book is than the movie it inspired.

I give the movie an 8.
ed: JH