Bowling for Morgan (2004) (V)

User Rating:

3.9/10   

Director:

Paul Hauber

Writer:

Paul Hauber (writer)

Release Date:

28 September 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Short

Cast

Scott Caswell	...	Himself
Anthony Ferruggiaro	...	Himself
Michael Misner	...	Himself
Ed Pugh	...	Lil' Morgan (voice)

Runtime:

USA:34 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Red Bank, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Eat More Air

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Super Size Me (2004)

"Morgan Spurlock was overeating"

The title encompasses most of our filmmaker's argument. And he's right. For 30 days, Morgan Spurlock ate at McDonald's, and most likely overate. Spurlock chose to do what the average McDonald's eater does. Spurlock, a healthy American, was definitely not (physically) an average McDonald's customer. But we got to see what McDonalds' customers habits would do to a healthy person. In this film's case, we see the creator's (Caswell's) initial physical: overweight, high blood sugar, and slight liver damage from drinking.

He supposedly eats at McDonald's for 30 days. We only see him eat there a few times though, and he doesn't actually show us his health progressively: just once at the beginning, and once at the end. We don't know what he eats every time, but sometimes we see him have a salad and water, sometimes chicken nuggets and fries, etc etc. I would be willing to bet, though, that he ate healthier than most people do at McDonald's.

We also see him running around frequently (wearing a McDonald's drink costume?). Anyway, this is called exercise, and it's not what the obese people at McDonald's do. Morgan Spurlock did the average amount of exercise that an American does, in order to place himself in the middle. I am almost positive that this man did an extremely high amount of exercise in order to balance out the fat in his McDonald's diet (he refused to say, though...).

He also apparently didn't drink for the duration of the experiment, since his liver got better. That would only change if you stopped drinking---even a "healthy" McDonald's diet would not magically change that.

Caswell's closing argument is that it's not corporations' fault that we're fat, it's our own fault. And that may be true. But if everyone believed that, then New York wouldn't have made trans-fats illegal, and illegal drugs wouldn't be illegal. After all, it's our own fault if we use addictive substances.

Also, I think he missed the point Morgan Spurlock was trying to make. I don't remember if Spurlock blamed McDonald's, but he definitely said "here's what eating super-sized meals will do to you." He was trying to get Fat America's attention.

Caswell, however, kept his diet and exercise regimen a secret. I have to wonder, if he got healthier by eating McDonald's, what in hell was he eating BEFORE he got on the McDonald's diet? He doesn't mention that either.

This was definitely an entertaining film, though. It had a personal story, and some parts almost certainly inspired by Jackass' (the TV show) antics.