Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! | |
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![]() Toronto International Film Festival screening poster | |
Directed by | Morgan Spurlock |
Written by |
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Produced by |
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Starring | Morgan Spurlock |
Cinematography | David Vlasits |
Edited by | Pierre Takal |
Music by |
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Production companies |
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Distributed by | Samuel Goldwyn Films [1] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! is a 2017 American documentary film directed by Morgan Spurlock. A sequel to the 2004 film Super Size Me , it explores ways in which the fast food industry has rebranded itself as healthier since his original film through the process of Spurlock working to open his own fast-food restaurant, thus exposing some of the ways in which rebranding is more perception than reality. [2] This was Spurlock's final film before his death in 2024.
The film opens with a series of news reels detailing the grand opening of a new fast food restaurant owned by Morgan Spurlock, best known for his documentary Super Size Me, detailing the negative effects of eating exclusively at the fast food chain McDonald's for a month. Spurlock goes on to explain that six months prior to this grand opening, he had received an invite from the marketing agency for Carl's Jr. and Hardee's proposing a commercial script where he goes to expose them as a bad fast food brand, only to discover they were "actually doing a lot of great things". Skeptical that fast food has improved in the 12 years since his original documentary, when many of the health issues faced then are still prominent, Spurlock wants to learn more. Rather than go on another fast food binge, he decides to "become part of the problem" by opening his own fast food chain in order to find the truth.
After consulting with CCD Innovation on a business model, Spurlock discovers that the "Big Chicken" industry has made it hard to purchase live chickens to raise on a chicken farm. He learns that the five major chicken producers are Tyson Foods, Pilgrim's Pride, Sanderson Farms, Koch Foods, and Perdue Farms.
Spurlock discusses the National Chicken Council with a farmer. Near the end of the movie, he opens his own chicken sandwich restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. He labels his restaurant "Holy Chicken". [3]
At the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, where it premiered on September 8, 2017, the film was second runner-up for the People's Choice Award for Documentaries. [2] [4] Following its premiere, YouTube announced they had purchased distribution rights to the film to stream on YouTube Red for $3.5 million. [5] In December 2017, YouTube Red temporarily dropped the film after Spurlock admitted to previous instances of sexual misconduct and harassment. [6] The production company Warrior Poets also announced that the film was being pulled from the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. [6] Samuel Goldwyn Films released the film in theaters on September 6, 2019, and released it on VOD a week later. [1] It was also restored on YouTube, along with its predecessor, as part of the new YouTube Movies service under the "Free to Watch" category.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 74%, based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 7.17/10. The website's consensus reads, "Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! may not be as filling as its predecessor, but it still manages to offer a moderately enriching overview of unsavory industry practices." [7] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 61 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [8]
Super Size Me is a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day period from February 1 to March 2, 2003, during which he claimed to consume only McDonald's food, although he later disclosed he was also drinking heavily. The film documents the drastic change on Spurlock's physical and psychological health and well-being. It also explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit and gain.
Morgan Valentine Spurlock was an American documentary filmmaker, writer, and television producer. He directed 23 films and was the producer of nearly 70 films throughout his career. He received acclaim for directing the documentary Super Size Me (2004), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. He produced What Would Jesus Buy? (2007) and directed Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? (2008), POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011), Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope (2011), and One Direction: This Is Us (2013).
Eric Matthew Schlosser is an American journalist and author known for his investigative journalism, such as in his books Fast Food Nation (2001), Reefer Madness (2003), and Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety (2013).
Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); and the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).
Chicken McNuggets are a type of chicken nuggets sold by the international fast food restaurant chain McDonald's. They consist of small pieces of reconstituted boneless chicken meat that have been battered and deep fried. Chicken McNuggets were conceived by Keystone Foods in the late 1970s and introduced in select markets in 1981. The nuggets were made available worldwide by 1983 after correcting a supply issue. The formula was changed in 2016 to remove artificial preservatives and improve the nutritional value.
Supersize means "larger than average or standard sizes; extremely large". The phrase was particularly used by McDonald's restaurants to upsize their French fries and soft drinks to an extra-large size. In the United States, McDonald's introduced the supersized option in the summer of 1987.
What Would Jesus Buy? is a 2007 documentary film produced by Morgan Spurlock and directed by Rob VanAlkemade. The title is a take-off on the phrase, "what would Jesus do?". The film debuted on the festival circuit on March 11, 2007, at the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas. It went into general U.S. release on November 16, 2007.
Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? is a 2008 documentary film conceived by Adam Dell and co-written, produced, directed by, and starring Morgan Spurlock.
Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America is a 2005 book by Morgan Spurlock.
McLibel is a British documentary film directed by Franny Armstrong and Ken Loach for Spanner Films about the McLibel case. The film was first completed in 1997 as a 52-minute television version after the conclusion of the original McLibel trial. It was then extended with new footage to 85-minute feature length in 2005, after the McLibel defendants took their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special – In 3-D! On Ice! is a documentary special that examined the "cultural phenomenon" of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 10, 2010. The special was directed by Morgan Spurlock.
Rotten Tomatoes Movieclips is a company located in Venice, Los Angeles that offers streaming video of movie clips and trailers from such Hollywood film companies as Universal Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, along with other studios such as Lionsgate Films and DreamWorks.
POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is a 2011 documentary film about product placement, marketing and advertising directed by Morgan Spurlock. The premise behind the production is that the documentary itself would be entirely paid for by sponsors, thus being a form of metacinema. The film's slogan is "He's not selling out, he's buying in."
Fat Head is a 2009 American documentary film directed by and starring comedian Tom Naughton. The film seeks to refute both the documentary Super Size Me and the lipid hypothesis, a theory of nutrition started in the early 1950s in the United States by Ancel Keys and promoted in much of the Western world.
"The Spy Who Learned Me" is the twentieth episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. The episode was directed by Bob Anderson and written by Marc Wilmore. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 6, 2012.
"Supersize Me" is the seventh episode of season 8 and 207th episode overall of the American animated television series Beavis and Butt-Head. It aired on MTV on November 17, 2011, along with "Bathroom Break".
One Direction: This Is Us is a 2013 3-D documentary concert film about British boy band One Direction. It opened in the United Kingdom on 29 August 2013. It also opened a day later in the United States. The film follows the group on their Take Me Home Tour. It was a commercial success and grossed $68 million worldwide.
Rats, also known as Rats NYC, is a 2016 American documentary horror film directed by Morgan Spurlock. Based on a book by Robert Sullivan and distributed by the Discovery Channel, the film chronicles rat infestations in major cities throughout the world.
Gaga: Five Foot Two is a 2017 documentary film about American singer-songwriter Lady Gaga. It documents the events around the production and release of Gaga's fifth studio album, Joanne, and her halftime performance at Super Bowl LI. The film, directed by visual artist and documentarian Chris Moukarbel, made its debut at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival before having a worldwide streaming release on Netflix on September 22, 2017. It was also shown during the European leg of Gaga's Joanne World Tour, before each of her shows.