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Fast Food Nation | 2006 | R | - 8.7.9
A man (Greg Kinnear) working for a fast food chain is assigned the task of uncovering the truth about why the meat they use is testing so high with fecal content. While investigating he finds untrained illegal immigrants working in the meat packing plant, he meets a rancher (Kris Kristoffersen) who knows what goes on in the plant, and meets the man (Bruce Willis) responsible for the unbeatable deal the plant and the restaurant have struck. Inspired by Eric Schlosser's bestselling nonfiction exposé of fast food companies. Also with Catalina Sandino Moreno, Wilmer Valderrama, Ana Claudia Talancon, and Bobby Cannavale. Directed by Richard Linklater. [1:46]
SEX/NUDITY 8 - A man and a woman have sex in a truck: her bare breasts and abdomen are visible as well as his bare chest, and we hear them moaning and see them thrusting.
► A woman leans over into the front seat of a car, and a man thrusts from behind (we see the thrusting and hear him moaning).
► A man and a woman kiss, they go into a meat locker and continue kissing, and the man moves down the woman's chest and abdomen (presumably to perform oral sex but nothing is visible).
► We hear two women in a pornographic movie a man is watching in a hotel room; the women pant and moan, along with making suggestive remarks about rough sex. A man caresses a woman's clothed buttock and whispers something in her ear, and another woman warns her of his promiscuity. A man flirts with a woman and asks her to meet him after her shift (it is implied to have sex). A man talks to his niece (she's in her late teens) about birth control and asks if she is "on the pill." A woman talks about walking into a hotel room and finding three men having sex with each other.
► Women wear low-cut tops that reveal cleavage in several scenes, and a woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage. A man takes off his shirt and is bare-chested. A man in a hotel room lies on his bed, wearing boxers (his bare chest is visible), when two maids enter the room (they quickly leave).
► A man and a woman kiss. A man and woman hold hands while they walk.
► A woman says that a man is "hot." Men in a conference room try to come up with slogans for a new hamburger called "The Big One," and they end up with suggestive references like "I've got a Big One," and "Eat me." A woman talks about a man being "cute."
VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A grinding machine is turned on, a man slips and falls into it, and one of his legs is ground up (blood sprays, the man screams and struggles and we see the remaining stump to the knee); another man tries to pull him up, and when he does, he then falls back hard on the machinery breaking his ribs and striking his head hard.
► We see the "killing floor" in a meat packing plant: a cow is pushed into a chute, we hear a loud pop and the cow falls over dead, it is strung up by the hind legs, its throat is slit (blood gushes out), its legs are cut off, its skin is ripped off (chains are attached to the skin and it is pulled away while a man with a knife cuts any connective tissue) and we see large organs slipping along a ramp; a woman watching from nearby is sprayed in the face with blood.
► A woman threatens to kill a man, she shoves him against a wall, grabs his crotch and squeezes. A woman with a knife threatens another woman.
► There are several scenes that show people working in a meat packing plant using sharp knives and being around grinding machines, and there is a feeling of dread and impending doom (nothing happens).
► People trying to sneak into the U.S. across the Mexico border run and hide when they see truck lights approaching them. Four people cut a fence and try to free a herd of cattle.
► A woman collapses on the floor of a meat packing plant (she has apparently been using drugs). A man holds a gun in the air. A young man acts out an armed robbery and pretends to shoot a gun. A man yells at a woman, and two sisters argue.
► A woman talks about untrained workers working on the "gut table" and that when they pull out the guts "all the poop pours out everywhere." A man talks about the fecal tests done on hamburger patties and that the levels were astronomical. A husband and his wife talk about investigating meat contamination and that they "don't want to kill the customer." A man talks about finding dead bodies (human and animal) on his land. Two men wonder about whether their job will be to "kill cows." A man talks about a man being willing to "slit your throat for a nickel." A man talks about workers "getting their arms cut off" and the workers being "ankle deep in blood" and the cows getting "their heads cut off." A woman talks about finding a woman's dead cat in her suitcase in a hotel room.
► A young man spits into a sandwich that he prepares for a customer in a fast food restaurant. People wash grinding machines with high-pressure hoses, and we see bits of meat and a river of blood on the floor. We see cow carcasses hanging from hooks and moving through a plant. We see pieces of meat being loaded into a grinder. Two men wash an air vent on a roof and many rats pour out (one man screams and the other sprays the rats).
► We see a man who is missing his arm below the elbow (presumably from an accident in the meat packing plant). We see a man in a hospital bed in a neck brace and with IVs in his arm. A training video shows people with injuries (like burned skin from hot spray).
► We hear that 40,000 people die each year in traffic accidents.
LANGUAGE 9 - 44 F-words and its derivatives, 7 sexual remarks, 44 scatological terms, 13 anatomical terms, 22 mild obscenities, name-calling (gringo, retard, lazy, idiot), 7 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - A woman snorts a white powder from her finger, and a man and a woman smoke a marijuana cigarette. People drink alcohol in a bar scene, a man drinks a beer in a few scenes, people drink beer in a dorm room, a man and young woman drink beer. A woman talks about a man giving women drugs to have sex with him, a man talks about people being "meth freaks," and a man blames a workplace accident on drug use.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Meat, the fast food industry, slaughterhouses, meat processing plants, illegal immigration, merchandising, artificial flavorings, family, politics, hope, protest, revolution, jealousy, drug addiction, terrorists, the Patriot Act, terrorism, raising awareness, protests, regrets, hard work, embezzling, infidelity, workplace safety, price fixing.
MESSAGE - Meat processors and fast food restaurants produce meat that's dangerous to health and the way animals are treated is reprehensible. Everybody needs to do unpleasant things and ignore even more unpleasant things to get by. Bad guys do win.
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.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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Venom: The Last Dance - 2.6.5
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