Good Burger

Good Burger

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Brian Robbins
Produced by Mike Tollin
Brian Robbins
Written by Dan Schneider
Kevin Kopelow
Heath Seifert
Starring Kel Mitchell
Kenan Thompson
Abe Vigoda
Music by Stewart Copeland
Cinematography Mac Ahlberg
Edited by Anita Brandt-Burgoyne
Production
company
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • April 25, 1997 (1997-04-25)
Running time
 95 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $9 million
Box office $23.7 million[1]

Good Burger is a 1997 American comedy film directed by Brian Robbins and starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. It evolved from the comedy sketch of the same name featured on the Nickelodeon series All That. It was produced by Tollin/Robbins Productions and Nickelodeon Movies and released on July 25, 1997 by Paramount Pictures.

Plot

On the first day of summer, dim-witted but kind-hearted Ed has a nightmare about talking hamburgers. Troubled by it, he shows up late to work at Good Burger. On the same morning, Dexter, a high school student, steals his mother's car after she leaves for a business trip. He accidentally crashes it into that of his teacher Mr. Wheat. With no driver's license or insurance, he is liable to go to jail. Mr. Wheat agrees that he will not call the police if Dexter pays $1,900 to cover the damage and also needs to pay for the damage of his mother's car. In need of money, he gets a job at Mondo Burger, but after a clash with the young strict manager, Kurt Bozwell, he is fired. He then finds work at Good Burger, where he meets and reluctantly befriends Ed and a slew of colorful employees.

Dexter is successful at Good Burger, but his success takes a turn for the worst. Across the street, Mondo Burger opens a new franchise. The oversized burgers they make threaten to put Good Burger out of business until Ed invents a "secret sauce", which improves Good Burger's business. Dexter learns that Ed caused his car accident by darting front of his car while wearing rollerblades. Ed is then fooled into signing a contract that allows Dexter to receive portions of Ed's bonus paychecks earned from the sauce to pay off the debt to Mr. Wheat, and to also save some for his own pocket.

Upset that Good Burger is doing so well because of Ed's sauce, Kurt tries to get the recipe, first by enticing Ed to work at Mondo Burger for more money. Dedicated to Good Burger, he refuses and Dexter warns him not to trust Kurt because he knows what the man is like. Kurt then sends in an attractive employee named Roxanne who fails to seduce Ed into divulging the recipe. Meanwhile, Dexter takes a shine to coworker Monique, and she eventually agrees to a double date with him along with Ed and Roxanne. The next day, however, she breaks up with Dexter after she discovers his attempts to cheat Ed out of his money. This also angers Otis, who had once befriended Dexter, now believes he had been acting on his own selfish needs.

Guilt-ridden, Dexter tries to tell Ed the real reason behind his contract, but before he can confess, the duo encounter a dog on the street and attempt to feed it a Good Burger and a Mondo Burger. It eats the former, but refuses to even look at the latter. Suspicious that there is something wrong with the meat, Ed and Dexter disguise themselves as old women and enter Mondo Burger to investigate. They discover that Mondo is using an illegal food additive called "Triampathol" to make their burgers oversized. Kurt is not fooled by Ed and Dexter's disguises. He kidnaps and sends them to Demented Hills Asylum to prevent the public from learning Mondo Burger's secret.

With Ed and Dexter out of the way, Kurt and his employees break into Good Burger after closing time and spike Ed's "secret sauce" with shark poison. When Ed and Dexter's coworker, Otis, attempts to call the police on them, Kurt sends him to Demented Hills as well. There, he tells Ed and Dexter about Kurt's scheme to poison the "secret sauce." After getting the entire asylum to break out into song and dance, they escape. They steal an ice cream truck, but are pursued by a Demented Hills van. Ed and Dexter throw ice cream treats at it, causing it to crash. Upon arriving at Good Burger, Ed stops a woman from eating a poisoned burger just in time. He and Dexter break into Mondo Burger so they can expose the chemically infused burgers to the police. While Dexter provides a distraction, Ed tries to take a can of Triampathol, but accidentally knocks one into the meat grinder. He then decides to pour the rest of it into there. On the roof, Kurt catches him and Dexter and confiscates the empty Triampathol can. Suddenly, the Triampathol-laden meat begins to explode, and destroys Mondo Burger. The police arrest Kurt for illegal use of the chemical. With the destruction of Mondo Burger, Mr. Wheat's car is destroyed once again, much to Dexter's amusement as he hands him the first half of the money owed for the crash. Wheat desperately tries to call off the deal with Dexter, promising to pay for his mother's car if he helps remove the neon burger on his car.

Dexter tears up the contract and lets Ed keep all of his bonus checks, and both end up on friendly terms. They then walk back to Good Burger, where the employees praise them, especially Ed, as heroes.

Cast

Filming

Most of the film's scenes were filmed along Glendora Avenue in West Covina, California in 1996.[2] The building known as "Good Burger" was filmed at a restaurant currently known as "Peter's El Loco" 437 Glendora Ave., West Covina, CA. Meanwhile, Mondo Burger was located across the street at the Samantha Courtyard shopping center, with extra details added to the facade for the film. Ed's house is located on 959 East Topeka Street, in Pasadena, California.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack containing hip hop, R&B, funk, and punk music was released on July 15, 1997 by Capitol Records. It peaked at 101 on the Billboard 200 and 65 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.

Release

Short film

The Action League Now! episode Rock-a-Big Baby was released prior to the film's screening. It was rated PG "for some risqué humor."

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $7.1 million, finishing in 5th at the box office. It went on to gross $23.7 million.[1]

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 32% based on reviews from 38 critics.[3]

Lisa Alspector of Chicago Reader gave the film a negative review, and wrote "The perceived notion that kids want their movies fast and furious is barely in evidenced in this 1997 comedy, a laboriously slow suburban adventure in which a teenager's summer of leisure slips through his fingers when he has to get a job—an experience that proves almost life threatening because of the cutthroat competition between two burger joints."[4]

Andy Seiler of USA Today gave this film a score of 2/4, saying that "Good Burger is not very well done, but it does have energy."[5]

Leonard Klady of Variety enjoyed the film and wrote "The meat of the piece is definitely FDA cinematically approved, and perfect if you like this brand of entertainment with the works."[6]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote "It didn't do much for me, but I am prepared to predict that its target audience will have a good time." He gave the film two out of four stars.[7]

Home media

Paramount released the film on VHS on February 17, 1998 and on DVD on May 27, 2003. Warner Home Video (who releases Paramount titles on DVD and Blu-ray under license, as Paramount themselves have moved to digital-only distribution) reissued it on DVD on September 24, 2013.

The DVD have received some criticism, due to its lack of special features. It has also been noted that the film has not been released on Blu-Ray format yet, unlike most of the films from Nickelodeon.

References

  1. 1 2 http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=goodburger.htm
  2. ↑ Filming locations for Good Burger, IMDb
  3. ↑ "Good Burger (1997)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  4. ↑ Alspector, Lisa. "Good Burger". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  5. ↑ Seiler, Andy. "Good Burger". USA Today. Retrieved 2014-02-22.
  6. ↑ Horst, Carole (1997-07-21). "Good Burger". Variety (magazine). Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  7. ↑ Rotten Tomatoes - Good Burger Reviews

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Good Burger
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, May 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.