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

'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.

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.

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.

Greetings again from the darkness. What we expect in a documentary is a presentation of the topic in a manner slightly slanted towards the filmmaker's beliefs. What we hope for in a documentary is to learn something new or to be exposed to a different way of looking at a subject. We don't typically expect a great many laughs or even a film with significant entertainment value. For those who recall Morgan Spurlock's 2004 Oscar nominated SUPER SIZE ME, you likely won't be surprised that his latest is heavy on humor and entertainment, and a bit light on education. Still, his formula works - and we allow ourselves to be dragged along.

Spurlock kicks the film off by announcing that he wants to open his own fast food restaurant. He proceeds to confer with some celebrity chefs, a marketing firm, and a business strategist. Capitalizing on his success as a documentary filmmaker is a key element to the strategy, and of course, his mission is to once again expose the fast food industry for perpetuating myths of healthier fast food options.

He legitimately asks, "Have things gotten better?" We are meant to interpret this as ... have things gotten better since 2004 when Spurlock documented his self-imposed all-McDonalds food every meal for an entire month. It's at this point where the research kicks in. Facts and statistics are discussed. We learn that 44% of us eat fast food regularly, and that chicken overtook beef a couple of years ago as the protein of choice. We first assume this must be due to consumers making the "healthier" choice, but then we are informed that fried chicken outsells grilled chicken - and the gap is widening.

The most interesting segment of the movie occurs as the buzzwords and their meanings are discussed. Having "nutrition" broken down from a marketing perspective truly exposes the outright fraud being perpetrated on the public. "Health Halo" is the moniker applied to descriptions like "fresh", "all-natural", and "no added hormones". Even "crispy" is used in place of the more accurate "fried", which is obviously a word no consumer would associate with healthy food. Spurlock is in his element when providing a startling visual for what qualifies as "free range" according to the FDA.

'Big Chicken' is compared to 'Big Oil', as 5 corporations control 99% of the chicken farming industry: Tyson, Perdue, Pilgrims, Koch Foods, and Sanderson Farms. We get an explanation of how these corporations apply enormous pressure on the farmers, keeping them in a constant state of debt - or worse for farmer Jonathan Buttram who has been blackballed for helping Spurlock make this movie. Spurlock bounces from Columbus, Ohio to Boulder, Colorado to Tennessee to Kentucky to Washington, D.C, to Alabama; and from Chick-Fil-A to Wendy's to 7-11 to Popeye's, and even to McDonalds - Spurlock's first visit in 12 years to the establishment that put him on the movie map.

Very little new information is provided here, but Spurlock does what he does best - entertain with examples of extremes. While his "fried grilled" chicken sandwich is a publicity stunt, the real story is how menus and labels are used to manipulate the consumer, many who don't seem to much care.