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Patricia Arquette, Bobby Cannavale, Paul Dano, Luis Guzman, Ethan Hawke ... see more see more... , Ashley Johnson , Greg Kinnear , Kris Kristofferson , Avril Lavigne , Esai Morales , Catalina Sandino Moreno , Lou Taylor Pucci , Ana Claudia Talancón , Wilmer Valderrama , Bruce Willis , Michael Conway , Francisco Rosales , Dana Wheeler-Nicholson , Roger Cudney , Glen Powell Jr. , Cherami Leigh , Juan Carlos Serran , Yareli Arizmendi , Matt Hensarling , Mileidy Moron Marchant , Dakota Edwards , Raquel Gavia , Hugo Perez , Ellar Salmon , Helen Merino , Erinn Allison , Barbara Chisholm , Larizza Salcido Gameros , Lana Dieterich , John Scott Horton , Mitch Baker , Aaron Himelstein , Frank Ertl , Marco Perella , Armando Hernandez , Monica Cano Mascorro , Carlos Adrian Romero Ayala , Humberto E. Velez Sanchez , Cora Cardona

Inspired by author Eric Schlosser's New York Times best-seller of the same name, director Richard Linklater's ensemble drama examines the health issues and social consequences of America's love affair... read more read more... with fast food and features an all-star cast that includes Greg Kinnear, Ethan Hawke, Kris Kristofferson, Patricia Arquette, and Luis Guzman. Mickey's is the most popular fast-food chain in America, and The Big One is the top-selling burger that put them on the map. When the higher-ups at Mickey's corporate offices learn that the frozen meat patties used to make the wildly popular burger have somehow been tainted with contaminated meat, they send marketing executive Don Henderson (Kinnear) on an urgent mission to ensure quality control and find out precisely how their product became compromised. It's a long way from the Southern California boardroom to the immigrant slaughterhouses, though, and the further Henderson works his way through the bustling feedlots and toward the ubiquitous restaurant sites that have become a staple of modern culture, the more he begins to realize just how dangerous convenience can become when it leads to blissfully ignorant complacency. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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43% liked it

61,561 ratings

Critics

50% liked it

141 critics

R, 1 hr. 46 min.

Directed by: Richard Linklater

Release Date: November 17, 2006

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DVD Release Date: March 6, 2007

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Flixster Reviews (3,813)

  • FrizzDrop
    August 12, 2011
    FrizzDrop
    A film about food that disgusts with the same intent as the documentaries Food Inc. and Super Size Me, this barely broaches the true nature of the industry that feeds billions but lies with the same intent as any movie villain. Though the film is intricately varied, relating seve... read moreral different paths into one contingent storyline, it rarely reveals its message or intent, instead just going for pure shock value. Yes, the tales of illegal immigrants being exploited all for the sake of a livelihood is awful, execs ignoring key health code violations is deplorable, and the lack of regulation in this powerhouse of an industry is both socially bereft of empathy and sadistic, but what exactly do you want us to take away except a deep level of personal loathing? Sure, activism is a surefire answer, even the more pacifist views expressed as well as references to Green Peace and that of action, but there is no clear indication that the film wants anyone to take this into account. We are instead subjugated to our sterling cast, made up of cameos including Bruce Willis, Avril Lavigne, and Ethan Hawke, popping in just to lend star appeal before fading out again so we can get back to the plant, where atrocities happen one after another like unwanted fireworks. It might have been more powerful if the corporation was under threat at one point, but much of this just panders to our inherent sensibilities and gag reflexes. The scenes of putting down cows was especially catered to end on some sick low note, and though certainly good enough for a film competing with real world documentaries, there is no buildup for it to happen at all. Powerful for all the wrong reasons, I can safely say that this film makes me want to stay far from fast food.
  • LoughnerWasLucid
    August 3, 2011
    LoughnerWasLucid
    Avril Lavigne trained, mentally prepared, and totally morphed into her character. i was completely fooled into thinking she was this anorexic, worthless, hair-flipping, obnoxious teen bitch who sleeps in her black hoodie and hasn't digested one cheeseburger that she has eaten. fa... read morescinating transformation.
  • garyX
    April 20, 2011
    garyX
    Based on a factual and damning indictment of the fast food industry by Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation tries terribly hard to be the "Traffic" of the meat packing industry, but the fictionalized approach lacks the biting satire required to do the material justice. The story begi... read morens quite well, focusing on a fast food company executive investigating an allegation that their burgers have "got shit in them" and it makes for a couple of good scenes involving nice cameos by Bruce Willis as a corporate hard ass and Kris Kristofferson as a jaded rancher. But half way through the film he just disappears, never to be seen again and it turns into a daytime soap opera about immigration?! Obviously fearing McLawyers, the film is based on fictitious companies and therefore passes the buck onto non-existent perpetrators and the whole thing just feels like a toothless, unfocused tirade by an easily ignored soap box environmentalist. Done as a straight documentary adaptation of the book it would've been a powerful statement but if Linklater really felt the need to dramatize he should've watched Thank You For Smoking first to see how it's done.
  • puffchunk
    April 5, 2008
    puffchunk
    Meat factories are gross. Duh. Yet somehow they made a movie about it, and tried to do some character development which ended up just wasting my time.
  • binky013
    January 7, 2008
    binky013
    Fast Food Nation is a tricky title for this movie. The idea of our obsession with fast food is foregrounded, but this film is trying to touch on as many sad facets of 21st-century America as it can. From immigration and second-language issues, to service industry working... read more conditions and pay, to corporate lobbying, to a kind of over-glazing homogenization of thinking, Linklater is interested in hitting as many problem issues as possible. It's no wonder that so many actors were willing to jump in for the casting call -- so many "pet" issues -- no pun intended -- they themselves might champion are included, even if only peripherally.

    As for the "entertainment" value of Fast Food Nation, well, at moments it's there. The cattle who won't leave the pen once the fence is cut down is kind of amusing, though tragically true to life. Unfortunately, in the desire to say something about almost everything, those moments are few, far between, and more quickly killed than the poor cattle in the rush to move on or back to the next issue. Of course there is value in addressing issues, even if there are too many of them to actually do justice to any single one. Think All the President's Men. Now there's a movie that can never be watched too often. The issue of the Nixon administration must never be forgotten.

    Yes, this Richard Linklater project is good for at least one watch, and it's always heartening to see Esai Morales doing good work. Now there's an actor whose career I keep hoping will finally get kicked into high gear. Morales has a presence, a core intensity that has yet to be fully acknowledged. Check him out closely in the face-to-face scene with Greg Kinnear. Kinnear can't even hope to hold up his end of the conversation. Want to see acting talent? Just concentrate on Morales' hands in that scene -- forget everything else. It's like what I was saying about June Allyson attempting to stand on her own with Barbara Stanwyck in Executive Suite. Incredibly lopsided. No contest, really. Stanwyck's in a different league. Ditto Morales with Kinnear. La Bamba, now, I know, seems like a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Morales was young and a little raw then, but you could still see that he was the very top talent in that movie. I gotta add Morales to my favorite actor list right now.
  • LitelBluHli
    November 26, 2007
    LitelBluHli
    I like it...but...a little disturbing. I don't know if I can watch it again.
  • mjgildea
    October 26, 2007
    mjgildea
    I know what Fast Food Nation was trying to do, but I didn't care despite the cheapest of theatrics (see the kill floor scene.) I was under the impression that I'd be getting some kind of biting satire but all I really saw was an attack on the government and corporate America. I f... read moreelt like I was watching a low rent cross between Thank You For Smoking and Syriana that relied on a parade of cameos by mostly b-list celebrities and an ambitious but poorly executed script of intersecting storylines and painful dialogue. Dreary, preachy, depressing disappointing and boring, but mostly boring. Mostly disappointing if you consider that Richard Linklater did this. This movie can suck a big rubbery one.
  • Godless
    October 2, 2007
    Godless
    A great premise that is lost on this ham fisted and poorley executed film. This movie does for animal activists what Land of the Dead does for Zombies.
  • gor41
    September 27, 2007
    gor41
    Tips over into polemic towards the end but on the whole offers an even handed critic on the system behind your burgers. It holds back the gore till late on in a calculated bid to shock but singularly failed for me - after all, how do people think a living animal ends up on your p... read morelate ? The starry cast list does have the whiff of left wing liberals supporting the 'cause' but the characters are just about believable enough for you to overlook this.
  • MovieGeek13
    July 31, 2007
    MovieGeek13
    It would have been better as a documentary, but Linklater is great at creating interesting characters, and that at least saves the film's dramatic clumsiness.

View All Fast Food Nation Reviews

Critic Reviews

David Denby
November 20, 2006
David Denby, New Yorker

The fiction that Schlosser and the director Richard Linklater have extracted from the book is a mess, with narrative lines that go astray or simply wind up in the air.

Richard Roeper
November 20, 2006
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper

To me at least, there were just too many ingredients. Full Review

Stephanie Zacharek
November 18, 2006
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

To a degree, Fast Food Nation gets the job done, not least because of a harrowing section, late in the film, made up of actual slaughterhouse footage. Full Review

Dana Stevens
November 17, 2006
Dana Stevens, Slate

Even if you swear off burgers forever, it won't make Fast Food Nation's characters come to life. Full Review

Tom Long
November 17, 2006
Tom Long, Detroit News

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 ef... Full Review

Terry Lawson
November 17, 2006
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

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... Full Review

Michael Booth
November 17, 2006
Michael Booth, Denver Post

Too many story threads are consistently ignored or dropped altogether. Full Review

Jason McBride
November 17, 2006
Jason McBride, Globe and Mail

A frustratingly toothless film whose heart is in the right place even if its head isn't. Full Review

Bruce Westbrook
November 17, 2006
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle

Linklater and Schlosser have plenty to say. They just fail to say it cohesively. Full Review

Jack Mathews
November 17, 2006
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News

No question, these are alarming issues, but I would direct you to Schlosser's book. Full Review

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  • Name the two movies where Avril Lavigne had a part.  Answer »
  • What was the name of the famous new hamburger in "Fast Food Nation"?  Answer »
  • WHAT MOVIE WAS AVRIL LAVIGNE RECENTLY IN  Answer »
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