mcdonalds Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I've been known to frequent certain fast food establishments far more than I should, to the extent that the employees recognize me and greet me warmly upon my return. So my guilty conscience prodded me to revisit Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, which is available for free online viewing via our friends at SnagFilms. We've embedded it after the jump so you can view it right here at Cinematical.

SnagFilms is celebrating their one-year anniversary, and Super Size Me is currently the most popular title. Clearly it's not just guilty consciences that make the doc essential, and surprisingly enjoyable, viewing. Spurlock sets out to test the boundaries between personal and corporate responsibility, to see if eating every meal at McDonalds every day for 30 days would be dangerous to his health -- as one judge indicated would need to be proved if a lawsuit against the fast food giant could proceed. Spurlock establishes his baseline medical condition with three physicians, who anticipate that the diet may only affect him to a limited extent.

What starts off as "wish fulfillment of an eight-year-old child quickly turns to drudgery. A healthy man and a healthy eater, Spurlock finds no joy in his self-imposed diet, and has a tendency to be strident. Yet the medical risks are real, as is his concern about waking people up about the dangers of a fast food nation. Coincidentally (?!), McDonalds started to phase out super-sizing -- right about the time of the film's release. Super Size Me remains a vital document and a plea for the healthy, responsible consumption of food. It's funny, too!

Watch Super Size Me after the jump!

If you're like me, you eat way too much on Thanksgiving. And the last thing you want to do after eating so much is to watch a film about food or eating. Kevin made up a great list of food movies in honor of the holiday, and Kim wrote about "eating" films with a twist, but following your feast, you might get stomach pains just thinking about most of them. None of them could do too much harm, however, because they are all enjoyable fictional films. As a companion piece, I have come up with seven documentaries that you would definitely want to avoid in the wake of turkey day; A few of them you will want to avoid even after your digestive system has settled.

In the wake of Sacha Baron Cohen's alter-ego Borat trying to gain access to the White House, MTV has listed ten other publicity stunts for films -- including Kevin Smith's truly grovel-worthy MySpace friends-for-a-movie-credit exchange. Although probably most disturbing on the list is the 1988 film Mac and Me which was partially financed by Coca-Cola and McDonalds, and features a musical number that finds Mac dancing with Ronald McDonald. Holy hour and a half long commercial, Batman!

However, I'm reminded of several stunts that didn't make the list. Remember when Clue was released in theaters, and they featured three different endings, so people would go see it more than once? What a fiasco, as finding out which theater was showing what ending proved to be too much work. Don't forget about the "unauthorized" documentary about M. Night Shyamalan that aired on the Sci-Fi channel. It turned out to be a fake created to get more viewers in to see The Village. Of course, the most memorable publicity stunt, real or fake (the jury is still out) has been Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah's couch. Although given Tom's downward slide lately, that one appears to have backfired on him as well. Of course, leave it to MTV themselves to have Steve-O going number one on the carpet at the premiere to promote Jackass: Number Two. They just seem to be getting classier, don't they?

What do you think about publicity stunts? Do they make you want to see the movie or avoid it like the plague? Do you have any personal favorites that didn't make the list?

According to Advertising Age Magazine, we will soon be subjected to a Burger King movie. I know what you're thinking. When I read this article, I thought I'd woken up in the wrong universe this morning. But it is apparently true. The fast food company is working with the advertisement firm Crispin Porter & Bogusky on the project, which has a partially written script but no director, cast or studio. No plot was given either, but the firm says it will take place in an apartment above a Burger King and will be a cross between Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State, Raising Victor Vargas and What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, intentionally avoiding the kind of dumb comedy featured in another fast-food-advertisement of a movie, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. The budget will be under $10 million and the movie will not feature any name stars (as if any would do this).

The thing that worked for Harold & Kumar is that it was dumb, and people could enjoy it because it didn't take itself seriously. A somewhat serious movie marketed by Burger King seems way too ridiculous for anybody to accept. Perhaps the restaurant chain could do well to remember a little disaster called Mac and Me, which was a blatant advertisement for McDonalds that horribly ripped off E.T. and featured such serious subjects as a handicapped child and a broken home. It had the awful stench of old guys in suits who think they know what is necessary to make a hit but who actually have no clue. This Burger King thing stinks pretty similarly. These are the people who have been giving us one of the creepiest commercial campaigns ever to hit television (and no, the king mascot will not appear in the movie).

So, I say good luck to Burger King in blowing a hunk of money on something that will probably fail. Once in awhile I encourage stupid businessmen to learn the hard way. 

[via Hollywood Wiretap]

I must admit, when I first saw this article about toy makers lining up behind potentially huge summer movies like The Da Vinci Code, I was wondering what kind of "toys" you could really market with a movie that features an albino monk at its center. They don't have lightsabers in The Da Vinci Code. Okay, so they're actually coming out with an adult board game, among other things, though toy makers say that even the most hyped movies can be a challenge to translate into high merchandise sales. Toy companies are interested in movies such as Warner Bros.' Superman Returns, Paramount's M:i:III, and Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean sequel (speaking of tie-ins, I bet the first Pirates sold a lot of eyeliner thanks to Johnny Depp). Sales or no sales, as long as these tie-ins don't make the kids chubby . . .

A 10-year contract between Disney and McDonald's is about to expire ... and The Mouse House has no real interest in continuing the relationship. Yes, synergy-fans, sad but true: Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald are getting a divorce -- and you can thank all the fat little children they created together.

A recent (and rather excellent) article in the L.A. Times indicates that the New Disney (now with added Pixar!) wants nothing more to do with the deep-fried fat-making that's made McDonald's a corporation wealthy enough to purchase the sun. Thanks to people like Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), the population of Earth seems to have (just now) realized that, hey, fast food is pretty rotten for your insides ... especially if you're a three-year-old kid who couldn't care less about nutrition but realllllly wants that stupid little plastic Narnia keychain.

Plus it looks like DreamWorks has signed a deal to hawk Shrek 3 under the Golden Arches, and one would assume Mickey doesn't exactly dig that relationship. DisneyCo will undoubtedly lose a very healthy revenue stream with this divorce, but it looks like Steve Jobs & Co. are looking to improve Disney's image just a bit ... and it's about time.

As New York frantically prepares for the arrival of Tom Cruise (by speedboat, no less!), McDonald's has bigger (Filet O') fish to fry. Also: felons are getting their Fiddy, and Fred Durst is totally getting his directorial debut on, beeyotch.

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00:00 - Cruise is coming to town!
02:04 - Bizkit's Durst sez' he's the next Scorsese
02:49 - McDonalds preparing Fast Food Nation counterattack
03:52 - While Brokeback ain't fit for prisons, 50 Cent's masterpiece apparently is