Back in 2004, the idea that a filmmaker would risk his own well-being by voluntarily only eating

garbage for an entire month was quite novel. The popular expose could have possibly been one
of the factors that led Mickey D’s to eventually add a few healthier alternatives to its menu.
Whether or not the doc also raised awareness among the general public about how such chains
contribute to the country’s obesity crisis is another question.

But “Super Size Me” also trafficked in a less edifying kind of carny cinema: Ladies and
gentlemen, come watch a man try to eat himself to death. The formerly fit Spurlock would gain
24 pounds, see his body mass index and cholesterol levels soar, suffer from mood swings and
lethargy, and accumulate fat in his liver.

A decade later, much of the shock value has dissipated from observing such a nutritionally
induced sideshow. That may be why the initially wiry Gameau, a 30-something-ish cross
between comic Russell Brand and Bret McKenzie of "Flight of the Conchords," feels the need to
jazz up matters in a rather fanciful and intermittently entertaining fashion.

Gameau occasionally shrinks himself down to Ant-Man size, at one point hanging by a rope
from his own nose before traveling through his body “Fantastic Voyage”-style. Talking heads
show up on food labels, street signs and Times Square billboards. Pop songs such as Depeche
Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” add a bouncy component. Brit wit Stephen Fry elucidates the
difference between glucose, lactose, sucrose and fructose in rhyme. An unbilled Hugh Jackman
does some hocus pocus with visual aids concocted with sugar granules on a lit-up podium to
illustrate the history of the substance.