Starring Greg Kinnear, Wilmer Valderrama, Ethan Hawke, Luis Guzman, Bruce Willis, Kris Kristofferson, Esai Morales, Patricia Arquette, Ana Claudia Talancon, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Bobby Cannavale
Written By: Richard Linklater, Eric Schlosser
Directed By: Richard Linklater
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Buy on Amazon.com link

….So yeah, i’m never eating at a Fast Food restaurant again. Fast Food Nation (the movie) was inspired by the bestseller novel written by Eric Schlosser. The film has an all-star cast, along with several subplots that are all associated with the fast food industry. Just like the book, this movie will make you want to put down the burger and go vegetarian….or at least that’s how I feel. I know that won’t happen but that’s how I feel.

Fast Food Nation starts out at the Mexican/US borders where we see immigrants getting picked up. They come over to America in hope to have a phosphorous life and start anew. One couple ends up working at a meat packing factory, and soon realize the hardships of working there. The working conditions are psychically demanded, but also mentally demanding as well. Besides the immigrant couple, there’s an Ad executive who works for the burger company and has to investigate contaminated meat products. He soon realizes that there’s something else going on besides shit in the burgers. On another spectrum, there’s a girl named Amber who works for the fast food joint. She realizes its wrong to work for a company like that, since it’s so harmful to animals and she gets all militant & quits her job.

After taking a day or two to have this movie stink in, I think this movie could have been better. I think they focused on the illegal immigrant storyline too much. At first, you think Greg Kinnear’s storyline is going to be the biggest storyline of the film but his character eventually fades away towards the middle of the movie. I understand Linklater wanted to show what it was like to work in a meat factory, but I think they should have focused on the actual fast food industry more. We should all know by now that’s not a pretty job to work for farming & meat companies.

I really had a hard time watching the end of the movie. The reason why I had such a hard time was the director decided to show you what exactly happens when they kill the cows. I’d rather not know what happens and let me just enjoy my burger. But after seeing that footage, it definitely makes you re-think of eating meat or at least certain kinds of meat. Killing animals & eating them is a touchy subject and always will be. I can’t see myself eating just veggies my whole life. But I certainly don’t want to go out and kill the animal. Let someone else deal with the disgusting job. I liked fishing but I hate eating fish. I just like the sport of it and then letting the fish go back into the water. I understand that these animals are breed for this purpose, and what are people going to do with pet cows and buffalo in their backyards? It just sucks that they are treated this way. I could go on and on about meat products and animals, but I stop writing term papers after my 4 years of college.

Besides finding out that there’s e-coli in the meat, and punk kids spitting in your food; you don’t really find out anything else about the food industry that you don’t already know. I would have liked to have know more about the fast food industry besides illegal immigrants sleeping their way to better jobs.

Bonus features includes some audio commentary with director Richard Linklater and author of the Fast Food Nation novel, Eric Schlosser; as well as a featurette called Manufacturing Fast Food Nation. There’s a few other things to check out after you see the movie but nothing that spectacular.

Fast Food Nation had a lot of promise to be a good thought-provoking movie, but in the end it fell short. There were a lot of good scenes and interesting storylines but some of them go nowhere. I think this film would have been better if there was more of a focus on the fast food industry and not illegal immigrants working in a meat packing factory.

Features:
Audio Commentary with Director/Screenwriter Richard Linklater and Author/Screenwriter Eric Schlosser
Manufacturing Fast Food Nation
Flash Animation Films: The Meatrix, The Meatrix II: Revolting, The Meatrix II 1/2 and ?The Backwards Hamburger
Photo Gallery

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Stereo

Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French

Favorite Scenes: I’m not sure I have a favorite scene, it certainly wasn’t the ending..*barf*
Rating: R
Running Time: 114 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: