Fast Food Nation (15)

Fast Food Nation (114 mins, 15) isn't quite the cinematic equivalent of a McDonald's, but it is like one of the restaurants in Gordon Ramsays's Kitchen Nightmares. You leave wondering how its talented chefs could have stewed the fresh, juicy ingredients into such unappetising stodge. The source of the ingredients is Eric Schlosser's best-selling exposé of the hamburger industry, but instead of making a documentary, Schlosser and Richard Linklater, the director, have co-written a fictionalised feature film about various people connected to the "Mickey's" restaurant chain. Unfortunately, the stories fizzle out, and as an agit-prop manifesto the film is as limp as a defrosted slice of gherkin. Unless you always thought that burgers were made without cows being killed or factory-workers being exploited, it won't give you much to chew on.