Back in 2004, I wrote about the documentary Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock. I felt at the time it was the most important documentary you could watch. It is still one of the best. Morgan has gone off the deep end with a couple of ventures since then but he is back with another good documentary (maybe.)

His new film Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken takes on the food industry again but this time doesn’t focus on health. He instead takes on the chicken industry and attempts to shine a light on some very negative aspects of one of our favorite foods.

Spurlock is back on track again and albeit with his standard glib, superficial approach. If the film seems dated it is because this 2019 release was shot in 2016 and farmed around for distribution. He sold it and the result is what you can see. In SSM2, he comes across as schlocky while attempting to come across as hard-hitting investigative journalism. I think the problem is the self-righteous self-promotion gets in the way of tell the story. He taps around the edges of breaking some news that everyone already knows. 

Watch it for the fun of Spurlock as a corny showman. Watch it for the irony of him opening a chicken restaurant that shows the BS behind all the marketing hype. Don’t watch it for any hard-hitting documentary discoveries.

by Chris Doelle

Rating 5 of 10