Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Fed Up

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Christian Bates-Hardy
    Pod Person

  • Fed Up



    Released By: Anchor Bay Entertainment
    Released On: September 9, 2014
    Director: Stephanie Soechtig
    Cast: Katie Couric
    Year: 2014
    Purchase from Amazon

    The Movie:

    Fed Up is a documentary from director and producer Stephanie Soechtig (Tapped, GMO OMG) that aims to trash conventional wisdom about America's waistline-expanding epidemic of obesity. Fed Up's thesis is that the ethos of personal responsibility as it relates to personal health and wellbeing is a lie. Fitness only goes so far, as illustrated by damning parallel the film draws between the rise of the fitness revolution and the rising level of obesity and metabolic disease in America. The film smartly alternates between its full-frontal assault of facts and research, and touching scenes with several American teens and their families who struggle with obesity in a society that is making them fat. This is a wildly one-sided documentary, but that's okay, because the other side is winning in the grocery stores, gas stations, stores, malls and schools of America every single day.

    The movie begins with a powerful montage that characterizes obesity as an “epidemic” that is worse than Cancer. This is theme that the film later returns to, as Soechtig and her co-writer Mark Monroe will demonstrate how the Food Industry in America is using many of the same tactics that Tobacco companies utilized before people's awareness of the correlation between cigarette smoking and lung cancer reached critical mass. But before Fed Up starts contradicting everything you know about diet and nutrition, Soechtig zeroes in on the human element of this story, and focuses on the first of several obese teens in the film. These kids are representatives of the most obese generation in American history, but their struggle to lose weight is not their fault, nor is it an accident of genetics. The truth is that decades of Food Industry lobbying and government policies approved by the US Department of Agriculture have had a direct contribution to the decline in the actual nutrition and food value of the American meal.

    Another smart thing that Soechtig does in this film is rely on the narration of popular broadcast journalist Katie Couric. Her narration of the film's events takes on a personal dimension, as she discusses how she first became aware of the fitness movement, but also the growing problem of obesity. Couric's skills as an interviewer, and likely her personal connections, come into play later as she not only interviews former President Bill Clinton, but asks representatives from the Food Industry hard-hitting questions about how their business practices for the last thirty years have had a direct, negative impact on the North American diet.

    The real issue the film highlights, and the source of the obesity epidemic, is America's addiction to sugar. But the problem isn't just our love of the sweet stuff; the issue is that sugar and artificial sweeteners are being added to almost everything we buy off the shelves in our grocery stores. The behaviors and metabolic disorders associated with obesity are a direct result of the biochemistry associated with sugar consumption. Sugar is being added to almost every processed or packaged food on the market, and so it's difficult to cut out of your diet or consume only the recommended 10g daily intake. It's also highly addictive, activating the same receptors in the brain as cocaine. The only difference being, that sugar is eight times as addictive as cocaine. Sugar is also a poison, and the excess with which we consume sugar in our daily diet is a major contributor to the development of chronic health problems like type-two diabetes, but also several forms of Cancer.

    Rather than continue to just divulge facts and figures from the movie, I recommend you simply find a copy of Fed Up and watch it. While a good amount of this film is a pure info dump, it moves on at a brisk pace throughout it's 99 minute running time. While I was initially skeptical due to Soechtig's one-sided approach to her film's argument, instead I found myself more emotionally invested in Fed Up than any documentary I've seen since Jodorowsky's Dune. Everyone eats, and everyone should be upset by what this film reveals about the truth on the end of your fork.

    Ultimately, Fed Up puts its money where its mouth is, by providing practical advice on how to eat healthy, and challenges viewers to take the Fed Up Challenge by avoiding sugar and processed foods for 10 day after watching the film.

    Audio/Video/Extras:

    Fed Up is served on Blu-ray by Anchor Bay Entertainment with a 1080p transfer in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Visually this a rather nice looking, digitally shot documentary, but picture quality does drop depending on the source footage used in a given scene. Several of the teenagers have recorded video journals for the film, and these are typically done using grainy webcams or consumer grade video cameras. Likewise, older footage from the 70s and 80s is used periodically when discussing the historical context of the obesity problem, but the film interweaves this footage in pretty well so that the transition is never jarring. Generally, Fed Up is a bright, colorful documentary that doesn't attempt to use visual scare tactics or appear too foreboding, despite the startling facts that it reveals about diet and nutrition.

    On the audio side, the film is presented in 5.1 DTSHD-MA in both English and Spanish. In the Spanish version of the film, the narration is handled by Kuno Becker, rather than Katie Couric. There isn't too much to say about the film's audio. The dialogue is clear, the background music fills all the channels nicely, but this isn't the kind of movie you're going to use to show off your 5.1 surround system.

    Fed Up is disappointingly light on bonus features. The only extras included are a handful of deleted scenes, which are mostly extended interviews.

    The Final Word:

    If you've ever struggled with weight loss or healthy eating, then Fed Up is a film you need to see.


    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!






















    • Alison Jane
      #1
      Alison Jane
      Girl Boss Jane
      Alison Jane commented
      Editing a comment
      I have a real problem with sugar. I would like to see this.

    • Christian Bates-Hardy
      #2
      Christian Bates-Hardy
      Pod Person
      Christian Bates-Hardy commented
      Editing a comment
      It's definitely worth watching. I too have a serious snacking problem and am constantly struggling with trying to get enough exercise in the winter months to keep the belly fat blues away.
    Posting comments is disabled.

Latest Articles

Collapse

  • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Severin Films
    Released on: April 30th, 2024.
    Director: Lee Frost
    Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
    Year: 1969
    Purchase From Amazon

    Hot Spur – Movie Review:

    Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
  • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Mondo Macabro
    Released on: April 9th, 2024.
    Director: Max Pecas
    Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
    Year: 1985
    Purchase From Amazon

    Death Squad – Movie Review:

    Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
  • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Quality X
    Released on: February 28th, 2024.
    Director: Chuck Vincent
    Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
    Year: 1982
    Purchase From Amazon

    Roommates – Movie Review:

    Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
  • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Blue Underground
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Jess Franco
    Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
    Year: 1970
    Purchase From Amazon

    Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

    Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
  • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Saul Bass
    Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
    Year: 1974
    Purchase From Amazon

    Phase IV – Movie Review:

    Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
  • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Radiance Films
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
    Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
    Year: 1969-1972
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

    Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
    ...
    03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
Working...
X