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Super Size Me | 2004 | NR | - 4.4.5
Documentary feature that follows a man's month-long McDonald's diet. Morgan Spurlock, healthy and fit at the beginning of the month, decides to see what will happen to his body and health if he eats and drinks only things that are on McDonald's menu for 30 days, while reducing physical activity to that of an average American (no more than 5,000 steps a day and no other exercise). He ends up gaining 20 lbs. and his liver deteriorates very fast. With Dr. Daryl Isaacs, Ronald McDonald and Dr. Lisa Ganjhu. Written and directed by Spurlock. [1:36]
SEX/NUDITY 4 - A woman talks about her partner's inability to reach and maintain an erection and talks about having sex and favoring one position over another. A man has several medical examinations where we see him bare-chested and in his smallish underwear and in one scene he has a rectal exam -- we see his bare buttocks and hip, and the doctor has his hand between his legs, evidently inserting his finger in his anus. On a photograph a man's crotch is circled.
VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - We see a man undergoing surgery to reduce the size of his stomach: several metal tubes are inserted in his stomach and we see internal images of the stomach tissue being sewn up with needles and other surgical tools. A man vomits violently after eating too much McDonald's food (we hear gagging and see yellow goo on the ground). We see an animated segment describing how chickens are processed into chicken nuggets (blood spurts when the chicken's head is cut off ). A man has several blood tests (we see needles being inserted into his arm). A man uses calipers to measure a man's fat content and we see the calipers pinching his skin. A man pulls a long hair out of a McDonald's sundae with disgust (it's not his own).
LANGUAGE 5 - 1 F-word, 4 sexual references, 5 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 2 mild obscenities, 1 religious exclamation.
SUBSTANCE USE - A man smokes a cigarette.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - McDonald's, fast food, obesity, addiction, health, exercise, cultural differences, lobby groups, lawsuits, marketing campaigns that lure children, America's penchant for everything large, greed, diseases caused by obesity, physical education, impotency, school lunch programs, personal responsibility, corporate responsibility, vegans.
MESSAGE - A constant diet of fast food, especially McDonald's, will increase your weight and destroy your liver. Fast food companies, especially McDonald's, try to get children to become addicted to their food. The political power of the fast food industry is a big factor in the obesity and health crisis currently confronting America.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
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