Supersize Me.

I have never ever eaten McDonalds.

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

I liked this movie, but what amazed me was that this all came about because 2 teenage girls sued McDonalds for making them fat.
Americas liability laws amaze me, you can almost sue anyone for anything. I burnt my tongue on coffee, I know I'll sue Starbucks.
We have become a blame society, its never our own fault, we all know smoking is bad for you, but a guy in my hometown lost his legal case against a major tobacco firm, he had lung cancer after smoking 60 a day.
This guy was only in his 30's so he's known for some time that smoking kills, and nobody forced him to smoke 60 a day, but everybody is looking for someone else to blame. At the end of the day if you knowingly abuse your body, and you know the risks involved in eating too much junk food, smoking too many cigarettes, drinking too much etc, you only have yourself to blame.
I don't want to seem cold-hearted, I lost my uncle and dad to cancer recently, both were non-smokers and lead healthy lifestyles, but the way this blame culture is going, where will it all stop?
Sorry to get heavy, but if you're not responsabile for yourself, don't blame others for your shortcomings.
You notice McDonalds didn't sue Spurlock, at the end of the day people still buy their food, even after all the various health warnings, so as entertaining as the film was, has it really achieved anything???

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Hey Pepe, would you say I have a plethora of presents?


Toga, toga, toga......


Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour?

Nope they plucked a guy from West Virginia to live in dearborn michigan as a muslim for 30 days..he lived with a muslim family, dressed in traditional clothes, had a job and had to obey every single rule of islam. You'd be surprised what you would learn.

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Δύο άτομα. Μια μάχη. Κανένας συμβιβασμός.

Part of the perception of the american liability system lies in the fictionalized, alarmist crapola spread about by the american press. For example, the woman who sued McDonalds because her coffee was too hot: she suffered third degree burns. WHen she removed her pantyhose, her skin and much of her crotch came off when them. That part, however, was in the news for about 20 minutes, and the rest of the weeks, all we heard was "she burned herself with coffee and blamed McDonalds". I think we can all agree that coffee should be served within temps that are not dangerous to human life. The press makes a three-ring circus out of cases by telling us only those facts that will be the most alarming, the most scoff-inducing, etc. The judiciary system is not blameless, for sure, but I think it's the press who have sensationalized litigation to the point where our systems appear ludicrous.

That said, the hilarious thing to me about Supersize Me is the non-american notion that we all eat like that every day. I heard several conversations about it when I was in England, earlier this year. It seems Europe has the impression that the american way of life revolves around convenience foods and reality tv - not too flattering, if you ask me.

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Review: Cabin in the Woods 8/10

It's much worse than that, I'm afraid. Lots of people around here are very very anti-american and hostile towards America. The typical image of an american seems to be the one of a person who's fat, unintelligent, uneducated (except for white american history), loud, conservative, christian fundamentalist, excessively patriotic, owner of at least two cars and one gun and with $$ for eyes.

I often find myself defending americans in discussions with friends who although they've never been to American (neither have I) have a view of the country and the people living there that is very one-sided and sometimes, I presume, also distorted. I think it's because I visit this forum so much that I have a more balanced view of you guys. [Golgot, Blibb and Tacitus are just as out of balance as they appear to be though... ]

I have actually heard people - intelligent people with otherwise sound opinions - say things like "I really really hate America". It wasn't like that before Bush. But the answer to why europeans view americans like this probably lies somewhere in the media and in all the (pop) culture actually being sold by US to Europe. Shows like Ricki Lake, Jerry Springer, Dr Phil, Oprah, Leno or even Letterman does not exactly change this view that some of us have.

My best friend, who's a rabid Bush hater and pretty much overall anti-America (we've argued a lot), went to a conference in Boston (his first visit to America). He admitted that a lot of things were not at all as he had expected them to be but instead a lot better and much more impressive. He actually enjoyed the trip quite a bit. At the same time, some things he said were exactly or worse than he had expected. And apparently the part about "fat americans" fell into this category.

But seriously, Americans is the most exposed people in the world. I see or hear or read something american every day and most days I do all three and so do most europeans, I guess. Misunderstandings and stereotypes are bound to happen.

As Jean Baudrillard says: The image is more real than reality.

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

That said, the hilarious thing to me about Supersize Me is the non-american notion that we all eat like that every day. I heard several conversations about it when I was in England, earlier this year. It seems Europe has the impression that the american way of life revolves around convenience foods and reality tv - not too flattering, if you ask me.[/quote]





Yes every nation is stereo-typed, I don't have orange hair, wear a kilt everyday, chase haggis round the hills and have never said Och aye the noo!

Still, when this story and film first appeared in Britain, the British media always lead with the fact that America is the fattest country in the world. In general America is seen as a wealthy country of excess by most Europeans, what do they base this on; tv shows and films. For most people this is their only insight to American life, and a lot of what they see is over blown or excessive.
I've travelled extensively on both coasts in America, and yes I've found things that are totally alien to me, but that's part of the attraction, if we were all the same, life would be really dull.
I saw Supersize me in New York,( in fact Morgan Spurlock lives in the same street as my apartment,) I think he makes the point about America's obeisety without putting it in relative terms. There are almost as many people living in Manhattan than the entire population of Scotland, so in relative terms America will have more obese people, more alcoholics, etc than Scotland. But per head of population, and as a percentage I'm sure Scotland is just as bad.
We have the highest cases of lung cancer, and liver disease in Europe, and the life expectancy in Glasgow is 60!
Maybe I should make a documentary about this.

Piddy, that was my discovery when I went to England last winter and saw what they were watching of our tv. It's like we've not only shipped them our dirty linens, but the most stained and rancid we could find. In the US, there is WAY WAY WAY too much of that stuff on tv nowadays. We're constantly being told that we're stupid, too. Tune into daytime tv and you'll see nothing in the advertising but spots for how to pull yourself out of debt, go back to school, or buy diet pills. It's like absolutely no one is believed to have their stuff together. And the programming showcases the absolute dregs of our society. But to ship the worst of our tv there is inconcievably bad policy. I felt like I'd suddenly discovered my windowblind was up in the bathroom.

As for fat americans, we are. There's no two ways about it. But what is odd about it is, people who can afford healthy foods are the thin ones. McDonald's is what poor people eat, here. You're not going to see Paris Hilton chowing down a Big Mac. 99.999999% of fat americans got that way eating cheap, processed foods.

Jesus H. Garcia, yes you should!!

True... Paris Hilton prefers Carls Jr.

Was Jesus H Garcia related to Jesus MacDonald???


Yep we get all of the USA's craptacular shows, Springer, Oprah, Rikki Lake etc, but much worse is when we make our own copies of these shows!!!

IMO probably the best things on British tv are American, Sopranos, 6 feet under, The Shield, 24, etc.
We get the best and worst of both worlds.
TV in Britain is crap, we used to be the standard, now its all reality or makeover shows.
There is very little money for film and tv over here, and it shows, as most efforts look cheap and nasty.
Go Jerry, Go Jerry, Go Jerry...

Well, I think that money can buy you the time and personal trainer that will keep your body in the same shape as Paris' (in case you wish to look like a skeleton. Of a bird. ). But McDonald's burgers aren't cheaper than burgers you make yourself. At least not here in Sweden. It is much cheaper and healthier to cook your own food with basic ingredients and a little fat instead of buying (not that cheap) fast food with tons of it. It does of course take, besides from the know-how, a little more time.

That is true about us getting the best and the worst of both worlds. I love to watch the Academy Awards a lot because of the fact that there really are no other country that can put up shows like that with the same kind of professionality and high level of entertainment. And, yes, a lot of good entertainment and popular culture as well as litterature and fine culture come from America. And very often the best critics of America are americans themselves. A guy like Noam Chomsky is almost treated like Dalai Lama among some intellectual crowds here in Europe.

The funny thing is that a lot of those who say that they really hate America around here are often influenced by some part of american culture. I mean, Bob Dylan, Rage Against the Machine, Michael Moore, John Sayles, Charles Bukowsky, Public Enemy etc. are/were too a part of american culture.

I am really fascinated with America and the different sides of it that seem to be so different from each other. When I watch "Newlyweds" I want to puke then kill. But when I read "On the Road" I want to go right away.

I still havent seen this and i wanna see it so bad.

I saw this again the other day, and I still wanted a Big Mac after watching it.

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"When I was younger, I always wanted to be somebody. Now that I'm older, I realise I should've been more specific."

Morgan Spurlock, the writer, director and star of the Oscar® nominated documentary Super Size Me, will be the first subject of the new FX series 30 Days as he and his fiancée attempt to live on minimum wage for one month.

Immediately following the Academy Awards® in late February, Spurlock and fiancée Alexandra Jamieson departed New York to Columbus, Ohio. Upon their arrival, the couple endeavored to find jobs that pay minimum wage ($5.15/hour) as well as affordable housing and the best possible quality of life. The couple’s experience will be chronicled on 30 Days airing Wednesdays at 10:00 PM ET/PT on FX.

30 Days, a six-part documentary series, places an individual in a living environment that is antithetical to their upbringing, beliefs, religion or profession in an effort to examine real societal differences that Americans face everyday. Topics include a Christian living as Muslim and conservative heterosexual living with a gay man. Spurlock, who created 30 Days, will executive produce, host and narrate the entire series in addition to being the subject of the show’s first installment.

“I never realized how difficult it would be to live on minimum wage,” Spurlock said. “From having no health care to simply paying our rent and feeding ourselves, each day was a struggle for survival within a system that continually stacks the deck against you. I had no idea, and that’s the ultimate goal of this show: to put people and the audience in situations that force them to see the world through another’s eyes. Most of us cannot relate to the strains, stresses, pressures and prejudices that many Americans face on an everyday basis. 30 Days will close that gap; it’s funny, it’s never preachy and hopefully it will promote some change and understanding along the way.”

Source: Movies Online