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King Corn (Standard Packaging) 
Actors : Earl L. Butz, Ian Cheney, Curt Ellis
Director : Aaron Woolf
Studio : New Video Group
by New Video Group
Brand : New Video
Release Date : 2008-04-29
Publisher : New Video Group
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
EAN : 0767685115046
UPC : 767685115046
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 68 reviews)
List Price : $19.95
Our Price : $9.82
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Album Description |
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Engrossing and eye-opening, KING CORN is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom - corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naivet‚, college buddies Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aid, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America's modern food system. |
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Webanix.com |
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Picking up where Super Size Me left off, King Corn examines America's health woes through the multifaceted lens of one humble grain. Director Aaron Woolf and co-writers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis offer irrefutable proof that the US is virtually drowning in the stuff. Corn meal, corn starch, hydrologized corn protein, and high fructose corn syrup fuel a multitude of products, from soft drinks to hamburgers. The starchy vegetable grows with ease and government subsidies insure over-abundant production. Woolf documents the 11-month effort of college friends Cheney and Ellis, who trace their ancestry to the same small Iowa town, to raise their own crop. After finding a farmer willing to lend them an acre, they meet with agronomists, historians, and other experts before plowing, seeding, and spraying. Prior to harvesting, the easygoing Yale grads travel to Colorado to compare the grass-fed cattle of yore with today's corn-fed counterparts; then to New York to explore the links between corn syrup, obesity, and diabetes. With assistance from author Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma), a whimsical score, and stop-motion animation--farm toys and corn kernels--Woolf and associates bring biochemistry to vivid life. On a micro level, this genial eye-opener celebrates friends and farmers; on a macro level, King Corn bemoans the subsidies and genetic modifications that have turned a formerly protein-filled product into the fatty "yellow dent no. 2." Bonus features include a music video, photo gallery, and "The Lost Basement Lectures," an amusingly fake instructional movie about the aims of agriculture. --Kathleen C. Fennessy |
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Enlightening, vivid, sticks well with you |
Saw this more than a year ago. Not only did I enjoy it at the time, it remains vivid in my memory and closely associated with the ideas of corn agriculture and the meat and processed food industry. I've seen a lot of alternative-food/farm films and this was one of the best for vivid information and entertainment. Up there with Supersize me. I'm going to get my own copy to see it again and share it around.
One particular delight is that the guys don't come into it with a bias the way many of this genre of films do, and they have a lighthearted, this-is-for-fun engaging quality rather than a grim, we're-doomed attitude. |
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just ok, but the message comes through clear |
King Corn
It was a real eye opener to see the hair sample. I had no idea corn was hidden so carefully in the majority of food in a grocery store. It well worth the price, but do not exspect hollywood quality production. You can exspect quality of information in a straight forward clear way that your young children will understand and you will enjoy. |
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The Health Woes |
Have you ever watched a documentary, read a book, talked to a person, or whatever and found out more than you really wanted to know? Well that's what happened when I watched this documentary. So why did I give it 5 stars? Because whether or not I wanted to know this, I needed to know this and so does everyone else.
I don't want to get into a lengthy review because other reviewers before me have done quite well, but the affect that corn has on what seems to be pretty much everything is mind numbing. The health concerns that are raised over how it is used (corn fed beef, high fructose corn syrup, etc), especially the hypothesis that this will be the first generation that has a lower life expectancy than the generation previous is quite frightening. Sometimes ignorance can be bliss, as I indicated earlier, but knowledge is power and I really think this is something that people need to know about. |
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KING CON |
If your idea of entertainment is watching corn grow or paint dry, this is your movie.
SPOILER ALERT:
The boys learn that they're 60% corn.
They wonder why.
They decide to find out by growing an acre of corn.
They load their car.
They drive to Iowa to plan their corn.
They talk to people about planting corn.
They plant corn.
They play baseball while they wait for their corn to grow.
They make a box and put a camera in it.
They set up a slow motion camera to watch corn grow
They eat burgers.
They talk to people about growing corn.
Months later, they harvest their corn.
They count their corn.
They go to a grocery store and find that everything contains corn.
They wear jeans and interview a lot of farmers.
They dress up and interview Earl Butz.
They reveal enough facts about corn to fill two paragraphs.
They take an hour and a half to do it.
We took three days to watch this "ENORMOUSLY ENTERTAINING!" (so says The Boston Globe on the front of the DVD) movie because it was so boring we couldn't do it in one stretch.
Save your money -- buy Food, Inc. instead and learn so much that you might want to watch it a second time to see what you missed on the first viewing.
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Good Premise, but Not Impressed |
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While this had an entertaining premise, and a few funny scenes (make your own corn syrup, anyone?) it really wasn't impressive. There was no information covered that hasn't been better and more effectively covered by other documentaries. It didn't really go anywhere and had few active, useful conclusions or plans of action. I recommend spending your time on one of the more useful documentaries. |
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Webanix.com - Discount prices, fast delivery on DVD Webanix.com - King Corn (Standard Packaging) only $9.82 at webanix.com products. |
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