Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Fed Up
Collapse
-
- Published: 11-17-2014, 09:37 AM
- 2 comments
X
Collapse
-
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.
-
#1Alison JaneGirl Boss JaneFind all postsView Profile11-19-2014, 08:11 AMEditing a commentI have a real problem with sugar. I would like to see this.
-
#2Christian Bates-HardyPod PersonFind all postsView Profile11-19-2014, 09:27 PMEditing a commentIt'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. -
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (271)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4162)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (391)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (298)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (497)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Film Masters
Released on: April 23rd, 2024.
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Cast: Richard Carlson, Juli Reding, Lugene Sanders, Susan Gordon
Year: 1963
Purchase From Amazon
Tormented – Movie Review:
The late Bert I. Gordon’s 1963 horror film, ‘Tormented,’ is an effectively spooky ghost story made with an obviously low budget but no less effective for it.
The story revolves around a professional piano player...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:19 AM -
-
Released by: Grindhouse Releasing
Released on: March 12th, 2024.
Director: William Grefé
Cast: William Shatner, Jennifer Bishop, Ruth Roman, Harold Sakata
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Impulse – Movie Review:
Directed by the one and only William Grefé, 1974’s Impulse is one of those rare films that allows you to witness what it would be like if a really sweaty William Shatner got mad at a lady carrying balloons. Before that...-
Channel: Movies
04-15-2024, 01:20 PM -
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Andrew Legge
Cast: Emma Appleton, Stefanie Martini, Rory Fleck Byrne
Year: 2022
Purchase From Amazon
Lola – Movie Review:
Irish filmmakers Andrew Legge’s 2022 movie, ‘Lola’, which was made during Covid-19 lockdowns, is a wildly creative movie made in the found footage style that defies expectations, provides plenty of food for thought and manages to make...-
Channel: Movies
04-10-2024, 04:09 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco, Jorge Grau, Pedro L. Ramírez
Cast: Alberto Dalbés, Evelyne Scott, Fernando Rey, Marisa Mell, Wal Davis, Norma Kastel
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Spanish Blood Bath – Movie Review:
Vinegar Syndrome brings a triple feature of Spanish horror films of the in this new three-disc Blu-ray boxed set. Here’s what lies inside…
Night Of The...-
Channel: Movies
04-10-2024, 04:02 PM -
-
Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Zelda Williams
Cast: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Carla Gugino, Joe Chrest, Henry Eikenberry
Year: 2024
Purchase From Amazon
Lisa Frankenstein – Movie Review:
The feature-length directorial debut of Zelda Williams, 20214’s Lisa Frankenstein takes place in 1989 and follows a teenaged girl named Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) who, two years ago, lost her mother...-
Channel: Movies
04-03-2024, 03:40 PM -
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Gianfranco Giagni
Cast: Roland Wybenga, William Berger, Stéphane Audran
Year: 1988
Purchase From Amazon
Spider Labyrinth – Movie Review:
Professor Alan Whitmore (Roland Wybenga) is an American who works as a Professor of languages studies and has a fascination bordering on obsession with translating pre-Christian religious texts. He was also locked in a closet...-
Channel: Movies
04-03-2024, 03:37 PM -