Fast Food Nation
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Movie Reviews of Fast Food Nation
Movie Review: What's a little crap between friends?!
Summary: 4 Stars
I know it's been some time since the premiere of this docudrama/comedy, but after seeing it again on IFC, I just had to put MY two cents in on this film.
Like many films in this day and age, "Fast Food Nation" has been politicized (and with it comes confusion, which politics ALWAYS seems to engender) to a point where the point has gone somewhat missing.
There are so many subplots here that it is somewhat hard to follow. The main storyline is all about the industry itself. How can trust be maintained when the heads of the fast food industry effectively "gloss over" the truth about E-coli bacteria in their product?
The entire process is "Exposed" to examination from the raising of cattle to the slaughter pen, and finally to your fastfood restaurant table.
The tacit acceptance of using illegal labor is given quite a bit of time in the film. These people just want to get a little further ahead in life than they could in their own country, but they DO NOT delude themselves for one minute about their place in this society. The illegals in "Fast Food Nation" are not the norm. I'm not exactly sure why Richard Linklater did this.
Then we have the kids. Just so no one can say that Linklater is being unfair, we see that the fast food problems are NOT just with the industry heads. These are an unhappy bunch of young adults. They DO however, show the age old differences between the young and the older folk they will soon replace.
Now we come to the industry itself. I will never eat another hamburger from a fast food restaurant (not that I've ever eaten many up to now, but all that's over) ever again. Now, this is NOT to say that EVERY fast food restaurant is like the ones in "Fast Food Nation", but who in their right mind would take a chance like that? With health care being such a problem, WHY would anyone take a chance like that?
Bruce willis' character summed it up well in his discourse with Greg Kinnear. HE knows the truth. HE also knows how capricious the industry can become if it smells a rat, and Kinnear gets the warning of his tenuous career.
As the film ends, we see Kinnear "falling in line"!
While this film is NOT real, the health concerns are VERY real. The E-coli problem resurfaces every so often, to let us know that nothing has changed. Meanwhile, Millions of Americans stuff their faces with this questionable product every day. Who do we actually blame here?
The DVD has some funny and alarming shorts. "The Meatrix" and "The Backward Hamburger" were informative and quite entertaining.
So, though the story does "wander" from time to time, the main message is clear: you are what you eat......... What do YOU want to be?!
Movie Review: "There is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head."---Theodore Roosevelt
Summary: 4 Stars
Not since Upton's Sinclair's THE JUNGLE has a book/film adaptation addressed the sordid state of America's meat packing industry. The Jungle, a 100 year old expose of the hideously managed, physically dangerous, immigrant and illegal alien-labor-exploitative, cruel and gory disease-ridden conditions in America's slaughterhouses shocked President Theodore Roosevelt into forcing passage of the first Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) in the United States. THE JUNGLE told the story of poor Lithuanian immigrants who worked and died under hellish conditions.
Exactly a century later, FAST FOOD NATION tells the exact same story. The immigrants are no longer poverty-stricken East Europeans in Chicago; they've become poverty-stricken Mexicans smuggled across the border to Colorado. The meat industry is no longer dark and dank, it is well-lit and highly automated. But men in the killing rooms are still slipping on blood and entrails and falling into grinding machines to become part of your Sunday barbecue; the women who cut the meat into steaks are still being sexually exploited through the fear of authority; rats still manage to make their way into the working areas; sick and ungraded animals are still being "processed" with an eye toward maximizing profits. In a word, nothing has changed.
Or rather it has, and changed again. FAST FOOD NATION has a point of view that is decidedly anti-corporate (and pokes it's finger in the eye of at least one very well-known fast food company), but despite it's built-in bias, there is no denying that every incident in this film is based on verifiable facts. The deregulation of most businesses in the last quarter century has largely put this country back to the dawning of the Progressive Era, and has allowed abuses to go on barely checked.
The story of a "Mickey's Burgers" executive (Greg Kinnear) who travels out to the distributor's plant with an eye to discovering why high levels of fecal matter are making it into the chain's increasingly popular products, FAST FOOD NATION tells us what he sees, and more important, what he doesn't see.
Either way, you may find your stomach slowly revolving. I know I'm going to give the fish eye to the next combo meal I eat . . . and it may be a while before that happens.
Disturbing and thought-provoking, FAST FOOD NATION should be required viewing if only to bring an issue that affects all of us to the table---or make us realize it's already there.
Movie Review: SOYLENT GREEN is PEOPLE!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Well, there's nothing THAT dramatic in FAST FOOD NATION, but THE BIG ONE (the fictional hamburger portrayed in the film) is registering excessive amount of fecies, dung, aka manuere. This is what sends Don Henderson (Greg Kinnear) south to their largest meat packing plant to see what the problem is.
FAST FOOD NATION is an ensemble piece that explores the lives of multiple characters and how they entertwine around the theme of the film. The best part about FAST FOOD NATION is the flawless way that the creators have connected so many different aspects of American culture into a very unlikely picture. From the Mexican laborers sneaking into the country, to the hamburger CEOs discussing their profits and their fecal problems, to the resteraunt workers, to the meat packing plant where the untrained illegal aliens are put to work, to the college students who are hell bent on saving the cows and the corruption that not only allows it to happen, but keeps it from being stopped.
FAST FOOD NATION is not a comedy and it isn't a documentary, although you will find many unescapable truths about the things portrayed and you may find many things slightly funny, but ultimately, FAST FOOD NATION is a movie about justice, misconceptions and greed.
I'm sure FAST FOOD NATION is an exaggeration of a worst case scenario when it comes to the way we get the meat that shows up in our resteraunts, but I'm also sure that you may find lots of truths here. It never hurts to be informed and FAST FOOD NATION leaves it up to you to decide.
A perfect example of the genius of the film is after Henderson (Kinnear) finds out the truth about his hamburgers and the disgusting things that may be part of his burger, he sits in front of one at the resteraunt, and after previously scarfing one down, now he stares at one with a look of disgust... afraid to indulge.
You'll never look at a fast food hamburger the same again.
Movie Review: check your burger before you eat it!
Summary: 4 Stars
*Fast Food Nation* joins *11:14*, *Crash*, and *Babel* as the latest trend where A is connected B, who is connected to C, who is somehow connected to A.
This movie centers around a fast-food chain restaurant, Mickey's. I'll give you three guesses on just what Mickey's is really supposed to be. Anyways, there are reports that feces have found its way into the burgers and inevitably landed into consumers' mouths. As a result, there are reports of illnesses.
Thus, enters Don Anderson (Kinnear), who is Mickey's marketing director and inventor of the "Big One" (think of Hardee's Monster Burger). Don is sent, from the headquarters, to Colorado to investigate a meat plant, the current largest supplier for Mickey's.
Meanwhile, we see how a particular group of Mexican illegal immigrants wind up working for the meat plant in Colorado. Money is good, despite the horrendous operations in the plant. To cope, drugs are readily available, which sometimes comes with a price that cannot be paid in greenbacks.
At the same time, Don encounters people who trashes Mickey's as well as those who protect Mickey's. Therefore, Don isn't really sure where he stands. The head honchos in Colorado are like 'so what, what's a little feces as long as the burgers are grilled, which bacteria and feces are eliminated.'
The very end of the movie is haunting, which reminds me so much of *Our Daily Bread*. All I can say is that you probably won't want to eat meat for a few days until you can forget the ending.
I thought the movie was good and thought-provoking. It did drag on in some parts. Be prepared to have philosophical debates with your friends about America as a factory/plant whose goal is to maximize efficiency regardless of the cost.
Movie Review: You can arm yourself with movies,
Summary: 4 Stars
like this, Thank you for Not Smoking, Super-size This etc. Then do what you need to do. Stop your drive-thru habit, stop smoking, lose weight & most of all, Stop whining. We live under capitalism. Everyone wants to get your money. If you believe there is s**t in you gigantic burger, stop eating it. There is plenty of other food in this country. It's no secret that meat sold in fast food restaurant is garbage. If you can't stand up to you kids when they demand junk food, you can continue feed them s**t burgers. At least it's well-done. This movie's more important message concerns one man's sell out when he finds out the truth. It also speaks to the plight of illegal aliens who are exploited & physically maimed by big business (in this case the meat packers). These are people who want nothing more than a better life for themselves & their families. If we wanted to stop immigration we could use our resources to proscecute EVERY employer who employes them. There are laws are already on the books. If there is no way to get a job, why would anybody cross the border. But we don't want them to stop coming. So we hire thousands of border cops to pretend that they are stopping illegals. Or build a 700 mile wall to cover a 3,OOO mile land border. Who's building that wall, by the way? Some have attempted to cross three times in one night. Practice makes perfect. I think the best policy is the easiest & the cheapest. Do nothing. There are various sub-plots in this dvd as well as several entertaining & informative extras.