| Fast Food Nation | 
 enlarge | Director: Richard Linklater
Actors: Wilmer Valderrama, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ana Claudia Talancon, Juan Carlos Serran, Armando Hernandez
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $2.90
You Save: $12.08 (81%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  107 reviews
Sales Rank: 11266
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 114
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: FOXD2241873D
UPC: 024543418689
EAN: 0024543418689
ASIN: B000MEYKAU
Theatrical Release Date: November 17, 2006
Release Date: March 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: All items are guaranteed to work.
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Product Description
When a marketing executive for the mickeys burger chain is told theres a nasty secret ingredient in his latest culinary creationthe big one he heads for the ranches & slaughterhouses of colorado to investigate .. But discovers the truth a bit difficult to swallow. Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 10/14/2008 Starring: Greg Kinnear Run time: 113 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com
If you're still eating that fast-food burger after watching Super Size Me, you might not feel too hungry after watching Fast Food Nation, a fictionalized feature based on Eric Schlosser's bestselling nonfiction expose. Director Richard Linklater, who cowrote the screenplay with Schlosser, guides a topnotch ensemble cast through a peek behind the veil of how that Big Mac is born. Much of the film focuses on the illegal immigrants who work in the loosely regulated meat-packing industry, and actors including the luminous Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), who plays a desperate but outraged laborer. Greg Kinnear also delivers a spot-on performance as a fast-food chain marketing manager, trying frantically to discover the source of stomach-turning contamination in the company's meat. Stories are woven in unexpected ways, and cameos by the likes of Kris Kristofferson, Patricia Arquette, and especially Bruce Willis keep the narrative fresh. The film has a point of view, but thanks to Linklater's deft touch, is never didactic. As Willis's character slyly says, "Most people don't like to be told what's best for them." Agreed, yet Fast Food Nation likely will help the viewer be more conscious of what's on the end of that fork. --A.T. Hurley Extras from Fast Food Nation 
Fast Food Nation Arcade-Style Game |
Beyond Fast Food Nation 
Super Size Me | 
Fast Food Nation (Paperback) | 
Fast Food Nation: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture |
Stills from Fast Food Nation
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| Customer Reviews: Read 102 more reviews...
 Very, very effective!! October 2, 2008
Fast Food Nation didn't make me a vegetarian. I guess I'm like most people: when it comes down to the dirty details, I'd rather not know. Like war, no one wants to see a bunch of dead and maimed soldiers. To have an idea of something is one thing: to actually know, see, and understand that thing is quite another. We hear about illegal workers coming into this country, and we hear about subhuman slaughterhouse conditions--all of these things we hear about in abstract. But seeing these issues in a specific context enables us to understand these issues.
Fast Food Nation is a fabric of interwoven threads. The film opens in a dark alley in a U.S. border town in Mexico. Smugglers collect fees from a small group of poor Mexicans. The scene shifts from Mexico to the corporate offices of Mickey's Burgers in Anaheim California. The CEO of Mickey's Burgers has a problem: a culture test found high levels of fecal matter in their frozen patties. The CEO sends an executive--played by Greg Kinnear--to trace the source of the infection. The film shifts back to Mexico. Smugglers process a bunch of poor Mexicans through a labyrinth of sleazy motels and packed vans. Eventually, the Mexicans cross the border into the U.S. and wind up in a grimy drop house. Here, the supervisor of a meat processing plant--a tall sticky-looking white male--looks over the human livestock. He waves a casual finger around the walls and the floor selecting the strongest males and the most attractive females.
A couple of new hires are led through the meat processing plant. The floors and walls are spotless and glowing. The employees' uniforms are snow-white. The new hires receive their white shiny hard-hats, their white shiny aprons, and take their places at the receiving end of the production line--the last stage of the meat processing line; the kill-floor is the first stage of the meat processing line. Another plot-thread involves a teenage girl named Amber who works at one of the Mickey Burger chains. She's bright and intelligent. She has a lot of potential, but she's afraid to leave Mickey Burgers because it is her first job. Back at the meat processing plant, there's drama at the slicing section of the production line: jealousy. A couple of female line-workers strive for the affection and favoritism of the line-manager. The females use their bodies to negotiate favors from the line-manager. In another plot-thread, a group of young Eco-activists sublimate their frustrations against animal abuse by freeing cows from the ranch that supplies the meat processing plant. But when the gates to those filthy pens fly open, the cows--with dung and urine clinging to their legs--refuse to leave. The activists kick and yell at the cows, but the content animals remain in the filthy pen where they'll eventually be slaughtered and transformed into Mickey Burgers.
Greg Kinnear, Bruce Willis, Kris Kristofferson, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Luis Guzman, etc., all performed well in this underrated film from 2006.
Richard Linklater and Eric Schlosser, who authored the bestselling expose of the same title, co-wrote Fast Food Nation. Linklater is one of my favorite directors; his films are both brainy and entertaining. The disparate elements of Fast Food Nation--illegal immigration, animal abuse, sexual abuse, corporate greed and irresponsibility, etc.--converge into a grisly and powerful metaphor on the consequences of fear and complacency. In many ways, humans and cows have much in common. This is a great film with an important message. I highly recommend it.
author of Gotta Be Down!
I bit horrifying...but ok...read my review September 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ok, so I bought this movie b/c I don't eat burgers, fries, ect....any fast food would be Subway...b/c I can WATCH them make the food...and now I have more of reason than ever...when that kid SPIT in the food, I freaked...I mean I know this stuff happens, but still!!
My problems w/ this movie are that some parts are very boring. Too much talking, and not enough action...I did NOT care for the sexual parts, there was no need to put pure sex w/ nudity in this movie...it served NO purpose to the meaning of this film.
It does make me think twice though...I had no idea how awful the slaughter houses were, and what the cows go through...that was disturbing, and I was bothered....
I felt strange for the rest of the night, and wish I would have never watched the movie....it's a movie I would sell or give away in a heart beat. I plan to NEVER watch it again.
If you have $12 you want to spend on a DVD...find something else to spend it on....
 Informative If A Little Slow Moving July 26, 2008
Fast Food Nation I would rate as a good not great movie. It exposes the meat packing and food services industry as not all that sanitary and certainly not compassionate. The groups of teenagers, illegal immigrants, and phony and even unsavory corporate suits show the viewer that the all mighty dollar is king and many workers are just pawns in their universe.
There are some slow draggy moments in the film especially the border runs to pick up the illegal aliens. Nonetheless, I believe this film has started a trend of people becomming more health conscious and turnng more to vegatarianism.
 A disconnected effort brings down the message July 23, 2008
Linklater produces a movie that leaves you wondering how three basic story lines were even put together in the first place. The message of the fast food companies putting their profits as their highest priority gets muddy in the story lines leaving you feeling disconnected from this powerful message. A disenchanted businessman, illegal labor, and teenage angst fail to bring the powerful message home to the viewer.
All story lines were good in their own right, and honestly could have been made into three seperate story lines, or their should have been mingling of the plot lines to make the movie stick together. Fantasic performances from a variety of famous names fail to make the movie gel, the matieral for this movie is simply lacking.
I would read the book only if you wanted to learn about the darker side of fast food. Many points in the movie are worth educating yourself, and helping you to make better decisions. A weak story line simply fails to do this important topic any justice. If this movie is on tv, and you can't find your remote it may be worth watching, but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch this film.
 What Were They Thinking? July 14, 2008
As many others have already commented, this is nothing like the book even though they share the same title. The writers even stated in the commentary that the they decided to "set the book aside". Having said that I will restrict my comments to the merits of the movie alone.
This disjointed, rambling, unfocused movie tries to intertwine several stories into one:
* A successful marketing executive (Greg Kinnear) for a large fast food chain (the not too cleverly named "Mickey's") is sent by his boss on a mission to find out why there is feces in their meat
* A young woman who quits her promising (?) job at Mickey's and joins with some other activists only to find out that cows are big, stupid animals that are not at all interested in being "set free"
* Several immigrants from Mexico who are spirited into the country by a "coyote" (portrayed by the always great Luis Guzman) and find various jobs in the food industry
* A crotchety cattle rancher (Kris Krisofferson) who paints meat packers as the evil empire
* Two teenage Mickey's employees who plan to rob a fast food restaurant but never do
Although the various story lines do intersect slightly, none of them (save the plot with the Mickey's executive) really seem to have a point, and even that one ends with a fizzle.
Even though this film boasts an all-star cast the acting seems wooden and the characters are burdened with dull and meaningless dialog. The only bright spot (besides Guzman) was Bruce Willis' portrayal of a meat buyer for Mickey's where he steals the scene with his "we all have to eat a little sh*t from time to time" speech. Also, the effort to tie illegal immigration to the problems with American's addiction to fast food just doesn't gel for me.
This movie was so dull that made me long for even a mediocre documentary. It tries to take the high moral ground but fails in every attempt. There is a story out there in how America feeds itself, but this film fails to bring anything worthwhile to the discussion other than the fact that slaughter houses are nasty (did we really need to be told that?). Even the special features (animated shorts such as the Meatrix and The Backwards Hamburger) are feeble attempts to "educate" us in the evils of the industrial farming industry. In the end they only trivialize some important issues, issues that need intelligent discourse, not talking cows.
I bought a copy of the DVD based on the strength of the book. I threw it away in order to clear the space on my shelf for a more worthy title. There are plenty of good movies out there and this is certainly not one of them.
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