When is the last time you went to McDonalds, and just dug right into a large fries, slurped a shake, or took a big bite from a Big Mac? How about ninety times in one month? We all know that junk food is bad for us and that fast food is one of the worst culprits. When two young girls tried to sue McDonalds for making them obese Morgan Spurlock asked: Is McDonalds making us fat? So he went on a thirty day McDiet to find out. What he found out is what we already know: McDonalds is not good for us. However the way in which he did it is what makes the film so compelling.
Spurlock begins by covering all his bases, and seeks the treatment of three doctors and one nutritionist; even though his vegan girlfriend looks on in disgust. Despite the raw evidence that McDonalds is unhealthy and just the basic facts Spurlock embarks on "Every eight-year-old’s dream", and after making it over the three day hump he’s well accustomed to his McDiet. He quickly starts to gain weight and experiences other health difficulties including a "whoosh feeling in his penis", but did we expect him to remain completely healthy? Despite warnings from all his doctors to stop he sticks with it.
Spurlock has received criticism that his documentary is unrealistic. Such as, spending excessive amounts of money on a single meal, eating a lot in a single meal, or guzzling down so much soda! The average American does not eat that much. However, we have to ask ourselves would we have a reaction otherwise? Would Spurlock’s diet have hit home, with the same impact? The answer is no. Americans are ignorant people and we like our junk food. We are going to try and get away with as much calories in our diet as we can rationalize in our minds. So, it is necessary for Spurlock to throw a curveball of this nature.
He has also been criticized because he only ate McDonalds. Well let’s think about it. Spurlock passed several McDonalds on his way, and there are more McDonalds than several other fast food chains combined. Plus, which fast food chain spends the most on luring its customers in? McDonalds again. So, it is necessary that Spurlock singles out the biggest bully in the crowd. In doing so he grabs our attention as the audience.
His documentary is not completely based on his McDiet. Spurlock also discusses the horrors of school lunch programs. Most of the ones he went to are unhealthy so he reveals to us how it is possible to eat healthy in school, based on the lunch program of an Appleton, WI school. In doing this he reveals the ignorance of American youth. Apparently curly fries are a vegetable, and it is extra good accompanied by cola. All the while the adults, that are supposed to be promoting good health simply turn away because it will cost too much to change it. This situation, along with the growing realization that America is a fast food nation shocks us all.
Throughout the course of the month Spurlock undoubtedly gains weight, amidst other serious problems concerning his health. He gives America the swift kick in the tail that we need. Sure, some of us will go on living our lives normally, but maybe some of us will not. Watch Spurlock’s documentary and see first hand his transformation; perhaps it will inspire a different transformation of your own.
Submitted via the Submit A Movie Review section of this site.
Benjamin Wood
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http://www.walrusgod.com
Score: 4.5/5
Superhero movies have, for the last five or ten years, become a consistent blockbuster summer release. There tend to be at least three or four every year, and for the most part, their quality has been suspect, relying heavily on CGI action sequences while sacrificing engaging stories. The one that seems to defy this is Batman Begins, which succeeded most likely because of Christian Bale's tremendous performance as Bruce Wayne and the fact that director Christopher Nolan played to his strength, which is making dark, brooding cinematic experiences. Iron Man, at first glance, seems to be pandering in the normal Superhero direction, going for action and the occasional slapstick, while constructing only the skeleton of a story around its special effects. When one looks deeper, however, it becomes obvious that Iron Man is much more than a by-the-numbers movie, and definitely sets the bar high for the rest of the summer blockbusters.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is an engineering genius, graduating from college while most kids were still in high school, and being hailed as the person who "wants to save America." He inherited his father's weapons company, and has turned it into a multi-billion dollar company. He is also a hopeless womanizer and a borderline alcoholic, and ditches award ceremonies to drink and gamble at a casino. Things change, however, when he is taken hostage after a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan, and he is forced to use his amazing intelligence to escape.
Even under the constant watch of his captors, Stark builds a weapon-laden suit of armor, which he locks himself into, and proceedes to burn down the rebel base where he was kept at. Returning home, Stark has a newfound sense of duty, and vows to stop making weapons and instead divert his company's resources to helping people, not killing them. This decision is not received well by many people, most notably Stark's business partner Obadiah Stane (a wonderfully creepy Jeff Bridges) and his military commander friend Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes (Terrence Howard). Stark, however, doesn't care, and proceeds to build a more sophisticated robot suit than the rudimentary one he built while held hostage, and devotes the use of this suit to helping those in need (his first "mission" is to save an Afghani village that is being assaulted by insurgents).
Downey plays Stark with the exact right mix of cynicism, sarcasm, and new-found activism that the character demands, and is not for a minute unbelievable in this role. In fact, if Iron Man does spawn sequels (which the movie hints at constantly), it could easily serve to resurrect Downey's career and serve to silence those that thought his best days were before he nearly ruined himself with drugs and alcohol. In fact, Downey's career mirrors Stark's in many ways, and for that reason lends even more credibility to the role.
Bridges plays Stane effectively, although his character is fairly one-sided, and Howard does a serviceable job as Rhodes. More impressive is Gwyneth Paltrow, who plays Stark's assistant Pepper Potts. She is devoted to her boss, and goes out of her way to help him, although it's clear that she harbors a crush on the eccentric billionaire and is somewhat hurt by his constant womanizing. Paltrow, an actress I usually find myself underwhelmed with, plays the role extremely well, and gives the second best performance in the movie.
Director Jon Favreau manages to capture the essences of all of these characters while also maintaining the intense action sequences and momentary slapstick diversions. No area of the film seems shortchanged, although sometimes the action sequences linger a little longer than was probably necessary. Really, the only major faults I can find with the film is that it felt long (it probably could've been just as effective if it had been shortened by about 15 minutes), and it doesn't always attempt to break completely free of the traditional superhero movie box, although it definitely plays at the very limits allowed by the genre.
Rarely are superheroes allowed to have fully fleshed out characters, and even more rarely are they allowed to really grow as characters outside of those moments where the plot demands that they do (generally when a close friend is killed or their love interest is taken hostage), and Iron Man manages to have both in spades. Stark's character constantly transforms throughout the movie, growing and changing in response to the events at hand in a way that would be expected of (gasp!) normal people. It, along with Batman Begins, shows how good a superhero movie can be when the hero is not an alien (Superman) or a mutant (Spider-man, the X-Men, the Hulk, etc), but is rather a person who just happens to possess great natural talents. It allows for them to be great heroes while keeping their humanity intact, and makes for a much more enjoyable cinematic experience.
Oh, and stay after the credits for one of the best bonus scenes ever tacked on to the end of a film. Honestly, it's not to be missed, and left me giddily anticipating a possible sequel to Iron Man.
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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
0 Comments Published by Site Editor on Saturday, May 03, 2008 at 9:41 AM.
Benjamin Wood
walrusgod movie reviews
http://www.walrusgod.com
Score: 3.5/5
Set in communist Romania, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a film centering around a young college girl's illegal abortion. Yet, the film is as much about friendship and human interaction as it is about abortion. Refusing to tell the audience whether the decision to have the abortion is right or wrong, writer/director/co-producer Cristian Mungiu is more freely able to focus his story on the people involved.
I mean it when I say "people" involved, and not "characters." Indeed, 4 Months is a fictional story, but the film is contructed with the barest of filmmaking flourishes, and ends up feeling as much like a harrowing hand-held documentary as it does a fictional movie. The images are grainy and sometimes almost indecipherable, and there is no music to be found anywhere in the film. Single takes can last for minutes, and a single character may be focused on for the duration of an entire conversation, something that is rare even in many of the cheaper, artier films which 4 Months will almost undoubtedly be associated with.
The acting is superb. Almost every actor is able to naturally flow into the story, and seems like a real person, and not a caricature. Laura Vasiliu infuses Gabita with the detachment and emotional distancing that sometimes comes when having to make a decision as life-changing as having an illegal abortion that could lead to either jail or death. Anamaria Marinca is even better as Gabita's friend Otilia, who has less to lose than Gabita, yet also cares even more and does everything she can to make sure that Gabita comes out of the situation okay. Vlad Ivanov, the illegal abortionist "Mr. Bebe," is believably mysoginistic and easy to hate, which is a testament to the actor's skill as much as it is the nastiness of the character. The lone exception is Alexandru Potocean's performance as Otilia's boyfriend Adi. Adi's character seems entirely peripheral (except to possibly give some insights to Otilia's motivation to so steadfastly help out her friend), and Potocean's acting does nothing to make the character more important.
Ultimately, the film, in many ways, succumbs to the power of the acting and the story. It becomes too real, too intimate, and it is just as difficult to look at the screen as it is to look away. The handheld camera is able to bestow realism, and yet also works towards disorienting the viewer. The story is simple and harrowing, and yet its realism left me wondering what the point of watching this film was. Was it supposed to be about the condemnation of banning abortion? Was it about the ruthlessness of the communist regime which ruled Romania until the 1990's? Was it more about friendship and interactions, and the ways in which we help out those who we are close to, often risking our own wellbeing for the sake of others?
4 Months might be about all of those things, or none of them. The problem I had, however, was that the only thing I could think of while exiting the theater was how uncomfortable I felt, and how I doubt that I will ever be able to sit through watching this film again, and I believe that many of the people who see it will feel the same way. Whether that's a good or bad thing, however, is ultimately up to each person to decide for themselves.
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