Critic Reviews
Fast Food Nation (2006) Rank 3 Reviews
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based on (151) reviews
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Entertainment Weekly (Lisa Schwarzbaum)
Naturally, a subject this right-on draws a right-on cast. Kris Kristofferson, Avril Lavigne, and Ethan Hawke pitch in. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Entertainment Weekly (Lisa Schwarzbaum)
Baltimore Sun (Chris Kaltenbach)
Fast Food Nation offers no easy answers, but plenty of food for thought. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Baltimore Sun (Chris Kaltenbach)
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
By the time you've finished watching "Fast Food Nation" (Fox Searchlight), you will surely think twice before biting into that next Big Mac or Whopper. This dramatic version of Eric Schlosser's 2001 nonfiction best-seller, "Fast Food Nation: The ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)
Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, teamed up with director Richard Linklater to write a fictional movie adaptation of his book, ostensibly to communicate the same themes in a format that would be more accessible than a preachy documentary. They ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)
MovieWeb (Dodd Alley)
In case you do not know at this point: fast food is bad for you! After many years of submitting to the manipulative clown better known as Ronald McDonald, the entertainment industry has decided to take a look beneath the bun in the greasy world of fast ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at MovieWeb (Dodd Alley)
filmcritic.com (Chris Cabin)
A few weeks ago, it was announced by McDonald's that it would be making an unprecedented push towards "class." Amongst other things, it will be installing wireless internet in a large amount of its restaurants and changing décor into a mellow, ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at filmcritic.com (Chris Cabin)
Los Angeles Times (Carina Chocano)
If Linklater regards the fake culture that has replaced real places with horror, he has nothing but respect and affection for his characters, and the movie is rescued from nihilism by his humanistic view. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Los Angeles Times (Carina Chocano)
Chicago Reader (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
Many reviews have suggested that this is as politically mild as a John Sayles movie, but Linklater clearly agrees with the frustrated kid who says, "Right now, I can't think of anything more patriotic than violating the Patriot ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Chicago Reader (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
The New York Times (A.O. Scott)
It's a mirror and a portrait, and a movie as necessary and nourishing as your next meal. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at The New York Times (A.O. Scott)
eFilmCritic.com (Erik Childress)
Groucho Reviews (Peter Canavese)
You know what they call a Royale with Cheese in Austin, Texas? The Big One...ambitious and a typically satisfying outing for one of America's most consistent directors. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Groucho Reviews (Peter Canavese)
Contra Costa Times (Mary F. Pols)
Though eye-opening, it's as non-threatening as any film involving sexual coercion, grotesque factory accidents and conveyor belts loaded with cow kidneys could be. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Contra Costa Times (Mary F. Pols)
Philadelphia Inquirer (Steven Rea)
A rambling but potent ensemble piece. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Philadelphia Inquirer (Steven Rea)
Voir.ca
Fast Food Nation, de Richard Linklater, d'après le best-seller d'Eric Schlosser, donne sérieusement envie de devenir végétarien. Entretiens avec le réalisateur, l'auteur ainsi que les acteurs Lou Taylor Pucci, Wilmer Valderrama et Catalina ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Voir.ca
Premiere (Ethan Alter)
What sets Fast Food Nation apart from other recent multi-character studies like "Crash," "Bobby," and "Babel" is that Linklater doesn't set up a single incident that ties all the story strands together. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Premiere (Ethan Alter)
Combustible Celluloid (Jeffrey M. Anderson)
If they like them at all, Americans prefer their political films simple. None of this poking around in gray areas; let's have a movie that explains its view in no uncertain terms. No one could watch Crash or United 93 and fail to come away with "racism ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Combustible Celluloid (Jeffrey M. Anderson)
Newsday (Gene Seymour)
The unstoppable director Richard Linklater ( A Scanner Darkly ) and writer Eric Schlosser take the latter's nonfiction bestseller and rig up a fictitious, sprawling narrative to take up the book's scathing talking points. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Newsday (Gene Seymour)
Palo Alto Online (Tyler Hanley)
This unflinching expose into the dark underbelly of the All-American burger is a thought-provoking cinematic meal. Akin to the pro-environment documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Fast Food Nation aims to inspire change and raise awareness via the big ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Palo Alto Online (Tyler Hanley)
Entertainment Insiders (Jonathan W. Hickman)
Early in âFast Food Nationâ there is a closeup of a hamburger patty. It looks remarkably like a cow pie. The resemblance here is intended.
Richard Linklaterâs narrative feature film based on the best selling non-fiction book by Eric Schlosser ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Entertainment Insiders (Jonathan W. Hickman)
FirstShowing.net (Alex Billington)
Fast Food Nation is Richard Linklater's film adaptation of the New York Times Bestseller of the same name by author Eric Schlosser. Linklater and Schlosser teamed up to write the screenplay that puts a fictional spin on the otherwise factual accounts ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at FirstShowing.net (Alex Billington)
Lobo Howls (Judith Wolfe)
I walked away from the movie deciding I would never eat another fast food burger again. EVER! I am even considering returning to my former vegetarian days (and don't start to tell me about the dangers of eating spinach, please). ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Lobo Howls (Judith Wolfe)
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema (Mark Pfeiffer)
Akin to a socially conscious ensemble film by John Sayles, Fast Food Nation takes aim at corporate America moreso than the McDonald's and Burger Kings of the world. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema (Mark Pfeiffer)
Reno Gazette-Journal (Forrest Hartman)
Fast Food Nation has its heart in the right place and, even though fictionalized, it will probably open a lot of eyes. It is not, however, as effortless and enjoyable as most of Linklater's films. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Reno Gazette-Journal (Forrest Hartman)
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) (Josh Larsen)
...a deeply unappetizing experience, sort of like downing three Big Macs at one sitting. At least it's more nutritious. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) (Josh Larsen)
Detroit Free Press (Terry Lawson)
Fast Food Nation is alternately funny and disturbing, and surprisingly informative, even as it sacrifices some of its strength by lecturing to an audience that might be snacking on fake cheese-covered corn chips and calorie-laden cola. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Detroit Free Press (Terry Lawson)
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (John Beifuss)
If 'Texas Chain Saw,' 'Prime Cut' and a score of other features that graphically literalized the concept that Meat Is Murder didn't transform moviegoers into vegetarians, what impact will an artful polemic like this have on the national stomach? ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (John Beifuss)
Salt Lake Tribune (Sean Means)
When Fast Food Nation is on target, especially showing the plight of the Mexican workers who keep the industry going, the movie gives us plenty to chew on. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Salt Lake Tribune (Sean Means)
World Socialist Web Site
Linklater has worked with Schlosser to turn his non-fiction investigative journalism into a fictional narrative, undoubtedly in an effort to draw a wider movie audience. Three separate strands of the story are woven together in an attempt to give the ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at World Socialist Web Site
The New Zealand Herald
As someone who spent some of his teenage summers as a freezing worker, there wasn't much in the grisly slaughterhouse detail in Fast Food Nation to make me wince. What did though, is how the film - by versatile director Linklater scripting with Eric ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at The New Zealand Herald
The Nation (Stuart Klawans)
When Richard Linklater made Slacker, it wasn't enough for him to define a generation. (Well, part of one.) He had to bounce from character to character, format to format, so his movie would be as blob-like and shifting as a college-town community. When ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at The Nation (Stuart Klawans)
E! Online (Matt Stevens)
Consider this one done medium-well. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at E! Online (Matt Stevens)
Leonard Maltin's Picks
A friend warned me that there were scenes of cattle slaughter in this movie, and Iâm glad I knew it ahead of time; I now pass along that caveat to you even as I recommend Fast Food Nation. Unlike Eric Schlosserâs best-selling book, which was a piece ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Leonard Maltin's Picks
The Flick Filosopher (MaryAnn Johanson)
You think itâs a simple hamburger. You think itâs merely a matter of personal choice: You eat the hamburger, or you donât, and if you donât eat the hamburger, itâs got nothing to do with you. The blight of candy-colored fast-food joints ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at The Flick Filosopher (MaryAnn Johanson)
Philadelphia Inquirer (Steven Rea)
Fast Food Nation picks up, and drops off, various members of its cast, sometimes without a satisfying resolution. But its final scenes, inside a real working meatpacking plant, on the killing floor, are brutally to the point. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Philadelphia Inquirer (Steven Rea)
Portland Oregonian (Shawn Levy)
The result is a hodgepodge: not as unpleasant as the alleged foodstuffs described in Schlosser's book, but not exactly prime rib. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Portland Oregonian (Shawn Levy)
Comingsoon.net
Eric Schlosser's 2001 novel "Fast Food Nation" was a probing investigation into the country's fast food business and how the disgusting methods they used to create their menus. Four years later, Morgan Spurlock did his own experiment to force people ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Comingsoon.net
Rolling Stone (Peter Travers)
It's less an expose of junk-food culture than a human drama, sprinkled with sly, provoking wit, about how that culture defines how we live. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Rolling Stone (Peter Travers)
The Sydney Morning Herald
Greg Kinnear has the perfect face for a salesman. It's handsome in an unemphatic way and it frames guileless blue eyes which widen perceptibly when he's surprised - as he often is in Fast Food Nation. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at The Sydney Morning Herald
Chicago Tribune
The question is not "Where's the beef?" In director Richard Linklater's "Fast Food Nation," the questions are more about who cut up the cow that turned into the patty; where the cutters and gutters come from; who flips the patties on grills in ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Chicago Tribune
Variety
The vigorous muckraking sensibility that informed Eric Schlosser's 2001 nonfiction bestseller keeps this fictionalized screen version of "Fast Food Nation" bobbing along despite its overly slackerish narrative organization. Richard Linklater's ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Variety
Boxoffice Magazine
Based on the best-selling rant by Eric Schlosser that exposed the food industry, Richard Linklater's film version opts for a fictionalized rather than a documentary approach, inventing characters and situations that echo the authors original concerns. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Boxoffice Magazine
Mediasearch, Australia
Richard Linklaterâs adaptation of Eric Schlosserâs 2001 non-fiction book offers little more than a sensationalised and over-dramatised fictional view of the production of beef patties for the fast food industry. The film is inundated with one ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Mediasearch, Australia
Sunday Online, Australia (Peter Thompson)
A new film takes us inside the industrial and social reality of America's eating habits. Based on the best-selling book by Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation is directed by independent filmmaker Richard Linklater and features such names as Bruce Willis, ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Sunday Online, Australia (Peter Thompson)
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Ed Blank)
Profits mushroom at Mickey's, a McDonald's rival whose president has one concern: reports of fecal matter in the fat-laden beef patties. Solution: Send marketing vice president Don Henderson (Greg Kinnear) to Cody, Colo., to investigate. Mickey's has ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Ed Blank)
Village Voice (J. Hoberman)
A more materialist (and successful) ensemble film than the mystical "Babel," in that everyone is connected through the same economic system, Fast Food Nation is exotic for being a movie about work. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Village Voice (J. Hoberman)
ReelTalk Movie Reviews (Jeffrey Chen)
Not the most naturally flowing film, but it does get its point across. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at ReelTalk Movie Reviews (Jeffrey Chen)
PopMatters
Stumbling across the border from Mexico to California, Sylvia (Catalina Sandino Moreno), along with her sister Coco (Ana Claudia Talancón) and boyfriend Raul (Wilmer Valderrama), looks forward to a new life. Whatever traumas afflicted her back home, she ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at PopMatters
Philadelphia Daily News (Gary Thompson)
These vignettes pay inconsistent dividends. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Philadelphia Daily News (Gary Thompson)
Detroit News (Tom Long)
They say you don't want to see what goes on behind the scenes in the making of sausage or politics. Fast Food Nation blends the two, and the result may not be a very good movie, but it certainly is effectively disgusting. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Detroit News (Tom Long)
The Onion (A.V. Club) (Scott Tobias)
Less a movie than a political act, Fast Food Nation aims to disseminate its counter-propaganda to the widest possible audience, which is the only plausible reason why the book has been shoehorned into a narrative instead of a documentary. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at The Onion (A.V. Club) (Scott Tobias)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (William Arnold)
It's a bold proposition, and the resulting film has some powerful moments and strong performances, but it fails to be an involving or satisfying drama, and it's not half as effective as the book in creating outrage over what junk food is doing to us. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Seattle Post-Intelligencer (William Arnold)
ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
The idea underlying Fast Food Nation is intriguing: take the premise of the best-selling non-fiction book by Eric Schlosser and convert it into the backstory of a fictional film. Where director Richard Linklater runs into trouble is in the execution ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
Miami Herald (Rene Rodriguez)
Fast Food Nation would have benefited from a longer running time -- the movie often feels like it's missing big chunks of plot -- but Linklater's cautionary message gets through. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Miami Herald (Rene Rodriguez)
TV Guide (Ken Fox)
Presenting facts in a wrapper of fiction only muddies the waters, and many of the film's subtler points are likely to slip by viewers who haven't first read Schlosser's book. Other salient points are shoehorned into the dialogue, rendering key scenes ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at TV Guide (Ken Fox)
Cinema Blend
If Morgan Spurlockâs Super Size Me didnât make you lose your appetite, then wait until you see the extended cow slaughter scene at the end of Fast Food Nation. This grueling climaxâwhich reinforced my decade-long decision to âjust say noâ to ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Cinema Blend
The Land of Eric (Eric D. Snider)
So Richard Linklater read "Fast Food Nation," Eric Schlosser's bestselling exposé on the junk food industry, and decided the way to turn it into a movie was to fictionalize it. Rather than shining the spotlight on McDonald's and Burger King, he'd ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at The Land of Eric (Eric D. Snider)
Greenwich Village Gazette (Eric Lurio)
Before I read the press kit, I didn't know that Richard Linklater was a professional vegetarian. But I do now, and I know that in order to proselytize his faith, he took Eric Schlosser's 2001 bestselling âexposé,â [You really think that hamburger ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Greenwich Village Gazette (Eric Lurio)
City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
Fast Food Nation, directed by Richard Linklater from Eric Schlosser's 2001 bestselling exposé of the McDonald's conspiracy, is an anti-commercial. It's designed to kill desire and deprogram the viewer's appetite.
Linklaterâwho, along with ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
Moviepie.com
Due to scenes of seriously graphic, gag-riffic grossness, discretion among audience members prone to queasiness is advised when sitting down for this fictionalized adaptation of Eric Schlosserâs non-fiction bestseller.
Directed by Richard Linklater ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Moviepie.com
The Age
MAKE up your own mind, indeed. Eric Schlosser's 2000 non-fiction bestseller Fast Food Nation is a gripping read and a key document of the anti-corporate movement gaining momentum in the US just before September 11: an abundantly documented, wide-ranging ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at The Age
Tim Voon
"Fast Food Nation' is more information than entertainment. If you have a fair idea of how the meat industry works, and how the meat gets from a cow and into your burger, then this movie will do little to educate you.
I am not sure how much of this ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Tim Voon
FilmJerk.com (Edward Havens)
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
You are what you eat, and at this time of year, most of us are a little more than we need to be.
But that can also mean that some of us are E. coli, fecal matter, BGH, salmonella and whatever other toxic tongue-twister slips uninvited into the food ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
L.A. Daily News
"Fast Food Nation" opens inside the brightly colored burger palace Mickey's (wink-wink) where disturbingly happy families and youth sports teams gather for good times. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at L.A. Daily News
Orlando Weekly (John Thomason)
As many of you are aware, Fox Searchlight is releasing director Richard Linklaterâs adaptation of Eric Schlosserâs best-selling book Fast Food Nation this month. Rather than a âdocumentary,â as we here at Mickeyâs Burgers Corporate Headquarters ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Orlando Weekly (John Thomason)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The rancher doesn't mince words: "The food your company sells is crap, total crap, even when there isn't manure in it." And there apparently is manure (or the less polite four-letter word) in some of it, Don Anderson has been told. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Bob Townsend)
What's most frustrating about Fast Food Nation is how much it promises and how little it delivers. ...read the complete Fast Food Nation movie review at Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Bob Townsend)
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