Super Size Me [DVD] [2004]

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" 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.