Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!

Interesting film which does a great job of showing how the fast food/meat industry lies to us about the damage eating their food does to our health and cover up how horrifically the animals are treated. I don't agree with everything Spurlock does in the film and I don't think he goes far enough with what he shows, but still interesting to watch

My Rating : 7/10

Morgan Spurlock knows a thing or two about making a documentary film and fast food. 'Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!' is an excellent and necessary expose on the Big Chicken industry - it's a showcase of how unnatural the whole value chain of the chicken industry is, how the chickens are treated unnaturally to make them grow fast, the unfair treatment of the farmers and the clever use of marketing tricks to give a false perception of the final product.

Superb documentary - engaging, eye-opening and transparent filmmaking.

In this eye-opening documentary, Morgan Spurlock strips away the curtain to reveal the monopolistic and dishonest practices of the chicken industry in particular, but also the fast food industry as well.

The film made me angry at times, but it also can be sad, funny, informative, and always engaging. I never knew a lot of the things that were revealed here and I found many of them quite fascinating.

Morgan does a great job to showcase the different actors in the value chain of the chicken industry. The chicken are treated unnaturally to make them grow fast, the farmers are treated poorly so that they are in debt, the big chicken companies using clever marketing tricks to provide a false perception of the chicken product.

so now what? well, i think the consumers has the power by being active in promoting transparency and fair treatments of the people and animals in this value chain

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Over ten years after his ground-breaking documentary Super Size Me had a dramatic impact on the fast food industry, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock returns to the film that made his name, with the sad realisation that nothing much fundamentally has changed. However, the most popular 'junk food' now has become chicken, which calorifically is the best of a bad lot. But all is not as it seems, as Spurlock delves into the inner machinations of the American chicken industry, and how they twist things to make them not as they seem, whilst endeavouring to set up his own chicken store, where everything is as natural as it claims.

Super Size Me was a small, independent film, with a high concept regarding one guy's determination to eat nothing but fast food for a month, that went on to have quite a cultural impact, resulting in various big name franchises (chiefly McDonalds) adopting a more balanced, healthier menu. This (typically belated nowadays) follow up film (which I only learned about when I saw it featured on Amazon Prime) has received even less publicity (premiering on these shores in January of this year despite being released in 2017!) and won't have anywhere near the same outcome (marred even more by Spurlock's alleged #MeToo indiscretions.)

Despite being on far less of a pedestal, Spurlock approaches his new project with the same passion he spearheaded his original 2004 film with, whilst not forgetting to inject it with plenty of light relief, which his naturally affable personality allows with no problems. Whilst he seemed to be highlighting general ignorance with regards to healthy eating practises last time, here he seems to be honing in on outright corruption, highlighting the chicken industry's exploitation of the poor, oppressed farmers forced to go along with their plans, and the corporate duplicity with regards what the public are told is really (for instance) 'free range' and not 'hormone injected.'

The 'eat nothing but junk' gimmick was what drove much of the first film, and with the novelty not as strong here, it doesn't have quite the same kick. But aesthetically, there's nothing wrong with it, Spurlock guiding it all along with the same gusto that made the last film work so well, and only marginally less so here. ***