Super Size Me

[grand theft sparrow]

I'm waiting for a guy to make a movie where he has nothing but a pint of hard liquor in place of each meal for a whole month. Now that would be entertaining to watch.

Your wait is over!    

[mogwai]

dvdanswers

Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment has announced Super Size Me which is from filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. The documentary sees Spurlock becoming a lab rat for the month, eating only McDonalds food, three times a day for a whole month! The documentary will arrive in shops on the 28th September this year, and should set you back somewhere in the region of $26.96. As for extra material, you can expect the disc to include an audio commentary with Morgan Spurlock, a selection of deleted scenes and an interview with Eric Schlosser. We've attached an exclusive first look at the region one artwork below:

[Pubrick]

who cares.

[mogwai]

people who've seen the doc?

[Pubrick]

not likely..

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

People have seen it?

[Alethia]

i liked the film, but i wouldn't shell out twenty five bucks to have it sit on my shelf.

[Ravi]

I can't imagine people watching this movie over and over, especially when the points of the film are so obvious.  I saw it a few weeks ago and thought it was okay, but it isn't something I want to watch again.

[SHAFTR]

If you eat pretty much anything repeatedly 3 times a week for an entire month you would not be in good health.  I wonder how many people really eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at fast fod restaurants.  I think most people will do it for one meal a day if they do it everyday, but I don't know about 3.  This technique seems way too extreme.

I saw the film on the day of its NY premiere, and Morgan Spurlock was in attendance to answer questions after the movie.  His eating McDonald's 3 times a day is in essence a gimmick used to sell the movie, but I found the most fascinating and informative parts of the film to be the investigative segments dealing the with manufacture and marketing of fast food, the American High School lunch system, and the statistics dealing with obesity in America.

Exactly.
True, obviously everyone knows that eating at McDonalds 3 times a day is harmful.  That doesn't mean that this documentary isn't effective.  Sometimes it helps to have common sense proven to us, visually.  For example,  I drink a lot of soda.  Earlier this week I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel and they put a tooth in some cola for 24 hrs.  When they took it out, the tooth was half the size and completely yellow and brown.  That image tends to stick with me more than the idea that soda is bad.  The same goes with this film.  I agree that the 3 times in a day bit is just a gimmick, the strength of this film is when it explores the effect more broadly.  Overall, it works.  We see individual effects along with social effects of fast food.

[Ravi]

http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-25836/

Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me") has scored a pilot commitment from the cable channel for a new one-hour documentary series that plants an individual for 30 days in a completely different lifestyle, whether religious, economic or ethnic. The news marks John Landgraf's first pilot order since taking over the entertainment reigns of the network. Spurlock, who will have an on-air role as host in the pilot, says possible storylines include a wealthy person would discover what it's like to be poor, or a prosecutor would try a 30-day prison sentence. He'll executive produce the project via his The Con production banner along with Ben Silverman, H.T. Owens and Mark Koops of Reveille Entertainment ("The Restaurant"). Also as part of the pact, Spurlock will get a blind script commitment from FX for a potential scripted series. FX is believed to have been involved in a bidding war for the project with at least one other broadcast network.

Show Information
First Aired   June 2005
Status   New Series (Premiering in June on FX)
Classification   Reality
Country   United States
Network   FX

Show Stars    
Morgan Spurlock - Host

Show Crew
John Landgraf - Executive Producer
Morgan Spurlock - Executive Producer
John Landgraf - Creator

[MacGuffin]

'Super Size Me' filmmaker plans film on conservatives, science

"Super Size Me" filmmaker Morgan Spurlock plans a documentary on conservative US politicians' treatment of science, Hollywood press reported.

Spurlock has purchased the film rights to adapt a book, "The Republican War on Science," according to the entertainment industry newspaper Daily Variety.

The book by Chris Mooney argues that Republican stances on stem-cell research, global climate change and sex education, among other topics, show a conservative bias on environment, health and security issues.

"There was a time when science was respected by politicians and government officials and when the information obtained through unbiased scientific exploration was used for the better of society," Spurlock told Variety.

"Today, all of that is being ignored, manipulated and used incorrectly to further political agendas. We need the real answers to the big questions," he said.

The hit documentary "Super Size Me" examined US eating habits and the health effects of fast food and traced Spurlock's one-month diet exclusively of McDonald's offerings.

In that time, Spurlock gained 12 kilograms (25 pounds) against the advice of his doctors.

[hedwig]

that's a great subject. i hope he doesn't appear in the film except when necessary for the interview segments. Chomsky's got a point about celebrity persona detracting from the issues being discussed.

[Ravi]

He's going to become a conservative while documenting the toll it takes on his health.

EDIT:  The name of the film will be Pyramid Machine.

[MacGuffin]

Spurlock Lecture Causes Stir at Pa. School

The filmmaker who ate nothing but McDonald's meals for his Oscar-nominated film, "Super Size Me," gave a profanity-laced, politically incorrect speech at a suburban Philadelphia high school, but not everyone was lovin' it.

Speaking at Hatboro-Horsham High School's first-ever health fair, Morgan Spurlock joked about the intelligence of McDonald's employees, about "retarded kids in the back wearing helmets" and teachers smoking pot in the balcony.

The special education students in the back row were led by teachers out of the hour-long presentation.

"If you put the whole package together, the use of the F-word and poking fun at teachers and the comments about special-needs students, it just wasn't appropriate," Superintendent William Lessa said.

Most of the 700 students laughed, gave him a standing ovation and mobbed him for autographs. A speech Spurlock was to make at the school later Friday night for community members was canceled.

Spurlock said he has never had a complaint after giving similar talks at other high schools and colleges. He said he had been told shortly before his appearance not to talk about McDonald's because a board member of the Hatboro-Horsham Education Foundation, which sponsored the appearance, owns a franchise.

The association's director did not return phone calls seeking comment.

"The greatest lesson those kids learned today was the importance of free speech," Spurlock said.

[MacGuffin]

Spurlock's Super-Sized Apology

Apparently eating all those fries has taken its toll. Morgan Spurlock's battling foot-in-mouth disease.

The Super Size Me filmmaker offered up a super-sized mea culpa after a speech he gave at a suburban Philadelphia high school last Friday featuring profanity and some ill-conceived stabs at humor sparked controversy.

Addressing 700 students and faculty at Hatboro-Horsham High School's first annual health fair, Spurlock dropped the F-bomb, poked fun at the intelligence of McDonalds employees--of which he would know having eaten nothing but Big Macs for a month for his Oscar-nominated documentary, Super Size Me--and joked that the school's teachers smoked marijuana.

Unfortunately the 35-year-old director--who's given similarly spirited talks to numerous schools and colleges across the country discussing his experiences in making the movie and what it's taught him—was unaware how poorly parts of his talk would go over with this particular audience.

"It is never my intent to insult or demean anyone and I understand how some of my remarks may have offended some in attendance and if you feel they did, then I am deeply sorry," Spurlock wrote Sunday on his blog in a "Letter of Explanation."

He also dismissed press reports that his lecture was laced with profanity, noting that he only uttered five curse words throughout, of which the school's superintendent told him backstage "the only words he had a problem with were the F-bombs" which Spurlock regretted using on two occasions.

"When I speak at schools, I try to express my views on difficult topics with humor and a joking mannerism. I try to connect with students by conveying my thoughts in an accessible form, using the same speech and tone that they or I would use in any other lively conversation," added the helmer, who pointed out that he never had any complaints before. "One student even said to me, 'you didn’t say anything that we aren’t going to hear later on TV,' and that was my sole intent.

The vulgar comments prompted principal Dennis Williams Jr. to end his presentation early and the Hatboro-Horsham Education Foundation to cancel a speech he was scheduled to give later that night.

"If you put the whole package together, the use of the F-word and poking fun at teachers and the comments about special-needs students, it just wasn't appropriate," Superintendent William Lessa told the Associated Press.

Aside from the potty mouth, Spurlock also reportedly crossed a line when he talked about "retarded kids in the back wearing helmets," as if he was dissing kids with disabilities, prompting teachers to remove special education students from the auditorium and take them back to class.

The helmer elaborated that the helmet quip was a "slacker reference" to a character played by Napoleon Dynamite star John Hedder in the upcoming comedy, Benchwarmers and his "retarded" remark was not intended to be malicious.

"It should be made clear that the only person I called “retarded” was myself when I was unable to hear a question from the audience," noted Spurlock. "Having done work with special needs children in the past, something this hurtful would never come from my lips."

And last but not least, the doc maker said a comment he made about teachers getting high the balcony during a Q &A was not an insult but rather a wisecrack "at their expense for the enjoyment of students." He also clarified previous statements he gave to local media saying the "greatest lesson those kids learned was the importance of freedom of speech." Arguing people were misinterpreting them, Spurlock noted that exercising such speech didn't give people the right to insult anyone at will.

"I was referring to the fact that the group that hired me to speak asked that I not mention McDonald’s in any of my talk because one of their board members owns a franchise. That would be like asking Neil Armstrong to speak but tell him he can’t bring up walking on the moon, so needless to say, I didn’t agree to their censorship," wrote the filmmaker.

Whatever the adults may have thought about Spurlock's sermon, the kids were lovin' it, laughing the whole way through and giving him a standing ovation at the end.

When he's not speaking to the fast food generation, the writer-director is busy fending off a whopper of a lawsuit filed last May by a company called Cast Iron Partners seeking a hefty share of Super Size Me's profits for allegedly providing him with office space and business advice.

On Monday, Spurlock picked up a Oustanding Reality Program prize for a gay-themed installment of documentary series, 30 Days at the 17th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles.