Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8703 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-01-10
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Fans of Morgan Spurlock's engaging documentary Super Size Me won't want to miss almost an hour of extra footage on the DVD. Best of all is a 25-minute one-on-one interview with Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, but other interesting moments are a chat with a couple who collects McDonald's memorabilia; an analysis of a supermarket's layout; further conversation with Big Mac fan Eric Gorske and his wife; a look at the deep-fried Twinkie; and a disgusting but funny piece on how McDonald's food rots (or doesn't). Spurlock also provides a commentary track along with his girlfriend Alex Jamieson (you know, the vegan chef) in which they discuss why he included certain scenes, how many times he ate McDonald's salads, and his recommendations for books to read and action to take. And because he and Jamieson received so many inquiries about the "last supper" he ate on film before embarking on his special diet, an insert contains the recipes, including the highly sought-after tofu and vegetable phyllo tart. --David Horiuchi

Synopsis
In this hilarious yet informative documentary, debut director Morgan Spurlock makes himself the victim of a cruel experiment: he puts himself on a 30-day diet of nothing but McDonald's food. Eating three meals a day exclusively from McDonald's, Spurlock's health quickly deteriorates. The film documents the process from beginning to end, with Spurlock and his doctors making observations and monitoring the changes to his energy level, moods, liver and kidney function, and obviously his weight. As viewers might predict, Spurlock gains weight at an alarming rate, and during this process he offers a shocking lesson about the serious problem of obesity in America. Clearly McDonald's receives the brunt of the blame, as Spurlock shows how the fast-food restaurant directs its advertising at small children, who are converted into faithful consumers of the brand--and its free toy giveaways, bright colors, and Ronald McDonald clown--for life. Spurlock also examines the quality of the food itself, showing the processes by which favorite products like McNuggets are made. He also shows the proliferation of McDonald's chains both in the U.S. and worldwide. Meanwhile, Spurlock's girlfriend--a vegan chef--observes Spurlock's experiment with disgust and disdain, providing one of many comic elements to the film. Educational, fun, and at times downright gross, SUPER SIZE ME takes a different approach to illustrating America's obsession with fast food.

Customer Reviews

finger-lickin' frightening
As a keen fast food lover myself this dvd made me feel physically sick, especially the extra footage of the fries. Macdonalds fries did not decompose or gather mould at all, not even after 10 weeks or standing. Imagine what they are doing in your body!

Its not only a great watch for the health conscious, but for those dieting and losing motivation, watch this! you will never fun so fast on that treadmil or eat so much salad! It has certainly turned my views around.

I found this dvd entertaining, shocking, frightening, disgusting and funny. What more could anyone ask for? But I will warn you, it made me very very hungry!

Super Size Me
A thoroughly entertaining, thoughtful, gut-wrenching, informative and well-presented documentary. Always funny while presenting serious dietary information and global consumer fare in an impactive and min-boggling way. I found this well made, contemplative, unassuming and yet tightly produced. The frightening results are quite literally dreadful and disturbing and anyone contemplating a fast food diet needs to see this first.

Fallen arches
Many years ago, a Canadian friend achieved the ambition of a lifetime by taking a trip to China. She woke up first morning to discover a McDonalds down the road from her hotel. She felt harassed. She'd spent her whole life trying to assert her own culture and escape the clutches of US monopolies. But the franchise of the bland had beaten her to China, ready to burger yet more of the world's great cuisines.

"Super Size Me" is the latest, and one of the most successful, efforts to geld the Golden Arches and stop their further reproduction. As an institution, McDonalds has been in the visible vanguard of globalisation. George Ritzer's books "The McDonalization of Society" and "The McDonaldization Thesis" exposed the firm's single-minded pursuit of economy, efficiency, and standardisation in marketing and supply. It's not just that the burgers taste the same wherever you go, but the product range and treatment of staff are the same - and there are few concessions to local culture. As a Scot, I'm still outraged they pinched a solid Scots name for their flabby firm!

Of course, it's in its homeland, the USA, that McDonalds grew fat, and it's there that Morgan Spurlock carries out his experiment in gastronomic monogamy. Remaining faithful to a diet of burgers, chips, salt and sugar, Spurlock puts on nearly two stone in his thirty day marathon as he eats his way across the States, dining nowhere but McDonalds. He gained nearly a pound a day! Not to mention his cholesterol levels peaking!

Lest you imagine that the whole film is an extended version of the publicity poster and DVD cover, we don't spend a couple of hours simply watching Spurlock stuff his face. This is actually a decent attempt at investigative journalism - and to be seriously welcomed for that. It's an interesting trend. In recent years the world's major newspapers have largely forsaken their investigative role - I can still remember the Sunday Times Insight Team coming up with real news. Much of the newspaper and magazine industry is now given over to hype - celebrity tittle-tattle and PR stories.

But television has been biting back with some investigative exposures. And Michael Moore has demonstrated that radical - even partisan - research can break through in the cinema and DVD market.

So, more power to Spurlock's elbow. His film takes a bun in cheek look at the USA's eating habits. He doesn't just grow fat off the bland, he talks to people, interviews people, explores the science of the composition - or decomposition - of the burger. It's horrifying stuff.

An excellent, well-paced documentary, making good use of humour and ... yes, irony. "Super Size Me" is further proof that a low budget film can break through and challenge, not just McDonalds, but the whole, hyped-up film industry with its dependency on stars and special effects. An excellent package with a very acceptable set of extras.