Super Size Me

I heard Morgan Spurlock being interviewed by Luke Weston on life fm, so I determined to go and see his film.


Spurlock's doco is all about the world's obesity problem, but its hook is his determination to frame it by eating only McDonald's food for an entire month.

It's all a bit jokey at the outset, and Spurlock seems such a jovial character, that it's easy to buy-into his journey and get on his side. The shortcomings in the film's production values actually enhance this, and give the whole thing a raw authenticity and credibility that shooting with a more clinical production team might have sterilised.

And you have to wonder just what his game-plan actually was. With all the medical observations of his state-of-health, just what would he have done if he'd completed the month showing no ill effects at all? At the outset, even his doctor reckons there'll be barely any measurable change before the month is up.

It's a bit of a shock, then, when half-way through the same doctor takes it all back and realises that his patient is on the brink of a complete medical disaster.

In other words, death.

So, does Spurlock continue with the hook his film needs?

We see him talking to camera in the middle of the night, having got up feeling awful, and now he's clearly pretty freaked at his stupid reckless behaviour.

Super Size Me is that precious mixture of fun and education in equal measures, that leaves you vowing to eat a bit more carefully in future, even if you don't completely rule the clown's burgers out.