Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!

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.

'Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! (2017)' attempts to pull the curtain back on the new craze of so-called 'healthy' fast food, focusing specifically on chicken-based chains such as Chick-fil-A. It goes about doing this by showing host Morgan Spurlock (whose admission of sexual harassment kept the piece in purgatory for a couple of years) attempt to start his own fast food restaurant. For a while, it isn't clear exactly why he's doing the very thing he condemned in the movie's predecessor. The way in which he seeks to erroneously market his food as healthy, his chicken as humanely cared-for, his intentions as pure is all just a little too unironic for my liking. Plus, the picture is shot and edited in a bizarrely chaotic, almost amateurish fashion. Eventually, though, something clicks and the affair's true intention becomes crystal clear. Though it isn't the most outwardly scathing of exposés, it's certainly a condemnation of the thuggish culture surrounding 'big chicken' (five chicken-farming companies who provide birds for the entire United States) and the way in which they mislead the general public (which, to be fair, the fast food chains themselves also do), bully farmers and basically make their own rules. There are many eye-opening moments in the movie, especially as it moves into its second half, and its exploration of what goes on before the food arrives at our tables is often actually a little upsetting (thankfully, there's no footage of the killing floor itself). Spurlock is an engaging host (if not necessarily, by his own admission, a great guy) and, once it's clear that he intends to use the information he's gaining as activist ammunition, it's easy to want his experiment to succeed. When everything comes together, it's incredibly satisfying. The picture's pay-off is nearly ingenious; it's the sort of thing that makes you smile because it's so clever and it eliminates any remaining doubts that your host may have truly sold out to the dark side. In the end, though, will it make a difference? Its predecessor did seem to have some effect - after all, this 'new' health craze can't have come from nowhere (though it obviously didn't solely originate with a single documentary) and McDonald's did remove the 'super size' option suspiciously close to the thing's release. If anything, though, I think the movie just proves how willing people are to put their blinders on if it means they can have a clear consciousness. It's not like this stuff is a state-guarded secret; you can find out all sorts of stuff about the food you eat simply by going online. If you show most people a chicken, they'll consider it cute and wouldn't dream of killing it - much less eating it. If you walked into a kitchen with that same chicken and emerged with a fried chicken sandwich, those same people would wolf it down like an animal. Documentaries like this try to show us that we aren't free from blame, that our choices do have an impact whether we like it or not. At the very least, they're able to show us the companies that feed us aren't above lying to us; in fact, that's their very foundation. Ultimately, I think that the film is better than its predecessor, primarily because its central concept is resonant right the way through. It's enjoyable, yet informative and it's told from a very relatable perspective. I just kind of wish that the denouement delved a little deeper into Spurlock's post-'grand opening' plan. 7/10.

Excellent film. Eye opening. Funny, accurate, controversial. Spurlock scores another urgent and necessary exposé on the eating culture in America. One might as well become vegetarian- you won't ever look at poultry the same way again.

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

Now, the sequel, subtitled "Holy Chicken!", was supposed to come out all the way back in 2017 exclusively on YouTube, of all places. However, because of some controversy surrounding director and star of the film, Morgan Spurlock, it didn't end up coming out until 2019. I'm not going to get into the controversy here since it isn't relevant to the film, but I will briefly go over my thoughts on the first movie. While it is a well-made and entertaining film that raises some good points, the whole "eat nothing but McDonald's" experiment portion of the film is deeply flawed at best and possibly outright fraudulent at worst. Still, I enjoyed it for what it was. The sequel is not about eating nothing but, say, KFC for a month. It's actually about Spurlock opening his own fast-food franchise that sells "grilled crispy chicken sandwiches" using all the same tactics that other fast-food restaurants use to trick people into thinking their food is healthy. He doesn't try to hide any of it from his customers, in hopes to educate them about fast-food marketing tricks. He also becomes a chicken farmer in this documentary and exposes corruption within the chicken farming industry. He shines a light on how poorly the farmers are treated and how they really grow chickens for meat. I thought this documentary was very interesting and well-made. I'd actually argue that it's better than the original since it doesn't have the whole experiment aspect to it which has since been proven to be likely exaggerated or influenced by other factors. I'd recommend checking this out, it's very educational and a fun watch. Now, after the controversy that came out recently some might feel uncomfortable with supporting Spurlock's work, which I understand. Personally, I feel like I can separate the artist from the art on a case-by-case basis. This is a case in which I think I can. Spurlock personally came forward completely unprompted and confessed to what he did rather than getting called-out by someone else and denying it like so many others, which I do respect. Also, this documentary has nothing to do with his personal life, which is also a big factor. Anyway, I'm rambling and getting off-topic. This is a good movie. Check it out.