Post by StevePulaski on Aug 22, 2011 18:09:45 GMT -5
Kel Mitchell in Good Burger.
Rating: ★★★
If you were an early nineties baby, and watched Nickelodeon on a regular basis, it's no doubt you saw Good Burger at a young age and really liked it. It's a feel good film. Some people don't get it, and others don't like it. But in order to fully appreciate this film you have to know the humor of Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell, and watch All That. I did both those things when I was younger, and I fell in love with Good Burger.
Now I'm well into my teenage years, and Good Burger still holds up. If you didn't grow up in the time this was made this film will be dreadfully unfunny to you. Even someone who loves the two leads as much as I do can admit that. It's almost like trying to expose an impatient five year old to Felix the Cat. With new programs like Dinosaur Train and Spongebob Squarepants, it will likely only hold their attention for a very short amount of time.
The story centers around a simple fast food place known as "Good Burger." Its main employee is sweet and simple Ed (Mitchell) who is dim-witted, slow, and ironic all in one. Another character named Dexter (Thompson) is forced to work at "Good Burger" to pay repairs after crashing his car. Ed and Dexter meet, they're not the best of friends, but they soon have to stick together when they see that a new burger joint is opening across the street called "Mondo Burger." Good Burger becomes increasingly slower in business and revenue, until Ed and Dexter go behind the scenes to figure out what is really behind Mondo Burger's business.
This is nothing but a film for the kids. Or the people, now teenagers or adults, who grew up with the show. Good Burger was based off of a skit on the sketch-comedy series All That which, to put simplistically, is Nickelodeon's Saturday Night Live. The skits ran for about three to six minutes and showed off the dysfunctional working staff and the character Ed's antics. It was funny in the show, and it remains funny mostly throughout the film.
Kenan and Kel went on to have a successful career until their Nickelodeon program, Kenan & Kel ended. They split up, went their separate ways, and very quietly release new films to the public. This is a time capsule not only for their career as a duo, but when Nickelodeon was making shows that were funny and fun to watch. Now, it's just a shame to see what it's succumb to.
If this had just been another film, not boasting a skit from a Television series, not have Kenan and Kel, and just came out blindly from Nickelodeon, it would without a doubt be panned and not at all have the reputation it does now. Good Burger boasts good leads, a good story, and enough laughs to sustain its run time. It's a good time.
Starring: Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. Directed by: Brian Robbins.