Good Burger

Good Burger is a 1997 American comedy film directed by Brian Robbins starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. It evolved from the comedy sketch of the same name featured on the popular Nickelodeon series All That. It was produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Tollin/Robbins Productions, and was released on July 25, 1997 by Paramount Pictures.[1]

Plot
On the first day of summer, slacker high school student Dexter Reed takes his mother's car on a joy-ride while she is away on a business trip. Soon enough, he accidentally crashes into and damages the car of his teacher, Mr. Wheat. Dexter is in danger of going to jail, as he has neither a driver's license nor car insurance. However, Mr. Wheat agrees to let Dexter pay for the damages instead of calling the police. With the damages estimated at $1,900, Dexter is forced to get a summer job. After being dismissed from the new, soon-to-open Mondo Burger for clashing with and insulting the owner, Kurt Bozwell, he ends up working for Good Burger. There, he meets and reluctantly befriends the dimwitted Ed and a host of other colorful employees. Initially, neither of them are aware that Ed inadvertently caused Dexter's car accident. On his way to make a delivery, Ed skated in front of Dexter, causing him to swerve and crash into Mr. Wheat's car.

The survival of the smaller Good Burger is threatened by the grand opening of Mondo Burger, with its fancy decoration and oversized burgers. Luckily, Good Burger is saved by Ed's new secret sauce. Upon realizing that Ed caused his car accident and learning from Mr. Wheat that the damages from the accident exceed the original $1,900 estimate (now $2,500), Dexter takes advantage of Ed's gullibility to extort money from him so that he can pay off his debt sooner. Ed signs a contract that gives Dexter 80% of his profits.

Ed's sauce vastly increases Good Burger's sales and draws the attention of Kurt Bozwell, who wants it for Mondo Burger. After failing to lure Ed to Mondo Burger at a higher wage, Kurt sends Roxanne, a beautiful employee, to entice Ed into revealing the sauce recipe. As a result, Roxanne is repeatedly injured by Ed's clumsiness and ultimately quits her job.

Later on, Ed and Dexter notice a dog eating a discarded Good Burger instead of a discarded Mondo Burger. The two become suspicious and decide to investigate. They infiltrate Mondo Burger's kitchen and discover that their burgers are artificially enhanced with Triampathol, an illegal chemical. Kurt discovers them and calls an acquaintance named Wade, who has them committed to an asylum known as Demented Hills so that they can't bring to light their misdeeds.

Afterward, Kurt and his men break into Good Burger and taint Ed's secret sauce with shark poison. Otis, an elderly Good Burger employee who was sleeping on the premises, catches them red-handed, causing Kurt to commit Otis to Demented Hills as well. After Otis informs Ed and Dexter about Kurt's scheme, the three manage to escape Demented Hills and steal an ice cream truck to drive back to Good Burger, arriving just in time to prevent anyone from eating the poisoned sauce.

Ed and Dexter then break into Mondo Burger to expose their chemically induced burgers to the police. Ed tries to take a can of Triampathol while Dexter creates a distraction, but he clumsily knocks one can into the meat grinder. Inspired, Ed pours nearly the entire supply into the grinder. As Kurt corners Dexter, Ed suddenly arrives with an empty can. Kurt mocks Ed's presumed foolishness, whereupon Ed snidely comments that the can wasn't empty when he found it. At that moment, chaos ensues in the Mondo Burger building. The burgers begin to explode due to the overuse of Triampathol, causing the whole building to fall apart. A large artificial burger falls from the rooftop of Mondo Burger building and ironically destroys Mr. Wheat's newly repaired car.

In the aftermath, Mondo Burger is now shut down, and Kurt is arrested for using the illegal substance and contaminating Good Burger’s sauce. Dexter tears up the contract with Ed and tells him that he gets to keep all the profits from his sauce. Ed and Dexter return to Good Burger, where they are both praised by the other employees as heroes for saving the restaurant.

Cast

 * Kenan Thompson as Dexter Reed, a sixteen-year-old high school student who desires to slack-off during his summer vacation.
 * Kel Mitchell as Ed, the inept, teen cashier of Good Burger.
 * Abe Vigoda as Otis, an elderly Good Burger employee who works as the fryer and also gets caught up in some of Ed and Dexter's adventures.
 * Jan Schweiterman as Kurt Bozwell, the evil owner of Mondo Burger who will stop at nothing to make his food chain number one.
 * Sinbad as Mr. Wheat, Dexter's teacher who demands money from him for car damage.
 * Shar Jackson as Monique, a Good Burger employee who scolds Dexter for using Ed's gullibility to steal most of his money, but eventually becomes his girlfriend.
 * Dan Schneider as Mr. Baily, the owner and manager of Good Burger.
 * Ron Lester as Spatch, the head fry cook of Good Burger.
 * Lori Beth Denberg as Connie Muldoon, a customer whose extremely complex orders are too difficult for Ed to memorize.
 * Josh Server as Fizz, the drive-thru employee of Good Burger.
 * Ginny Schreiber as Deedee, one of the 2 female employees at Good Burger who is a vegetarian.
 * Linda Cardellini as Heather, an insane girl in Demented Hills that has feelings for Ed.
 * Shaquille O'Neal as Himself
 * George Clinton as Dancing Crazy, a Demented Hills patient.
 * Robert Wuhl as an Angry Customer
 * Carmen Electra as Roxanne, a henchwoman of Kurt who tries, but fails, to seduce Ed into telling his secret sauce recipe.
 * Marques Houston as Jake, Dexter's high school friend.
 * J. August Richards as Griffen, one of Kurt's henchmen.
 * Hamilton Von Watts as Troy, Kurt's other henchman.
 * Wendy Worthington as the Demented Hills nurse.
 * Floyd Levine as Ice cream man

Filming
Most of the film's scenes were filmed along Glendora Avenue in West Covina, California, including at a restaurant currently known as "Peter's El Loco".[4]Film includes short stop-motion sequence in its films title sequence as well as in its opening sequence.[5]

Soundtrack
Main article: Good Burger (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
The Action League Now! episode "Rock-a-Big Baby" was released prior to the film's screening.[citation needed] In its opening weekend, the film grossed $7.1 million and finished #5 at the US box office. It went on to gross $23.7 million.[3] The film was released in the United Kingdom on February 13, 1998, where it reached #14.[6]

Home media
Paramount released the film on VHS on February 17, 1998,[7] and on DVD on May 27, 2003.[8] Warner Home Video (who released Paramount titles on DVD and Blu-ray under license) reissued Good Burger on DVD on September 24, 2013. On August 29, 2017, Paramount re-released the DVD, as the Warner Home Video distribution deal has ended.

The DVD releases lack special features. The film has not been released on Blu-ray yet, unlike most of the films from Nickelodeon. The only official HD versions of the film are available on the iTunes Store,[9] FandangoNOW,[10] and Vudu.[11]

Reception
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 32% based on reviews from 38 critics and an average rating of 4.2/10. The consensus reads, "Good Burger might please hardcore fans of the 1990s Nickelodeon TV series that launched leads Kenan and Kel to stardom, but for all others, it will likely prove a comedy that is neither satisfyingly rare nor well done."[12] Lisa Alspector of Chicago Reader 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."[13] Andy Seiler of USA Today gave the film a score of 2/4, saying, "Good Burger is not very well done, but it does have energy."[14] Leonard Klady of Variety wrote, "The meat of the piece is definitely FDA cinematically approved, and perfect if you like this brand of entertainment with the works."[15] 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.[16]

Retrospective reviews well after the initial release have described its continued popularity; Nathan Rabin, writing for Rotten Tomatoes, said it "obviously connected with a lot of children at the time of the film's release and holds up surprisingly well 18 years later."[17] Courtney Eckerle said "the 90s generation will never forget [this deliciously terrible movie]"[18] and Tara Aquino of Mental Floss called it "a silly cult hit that's indelibly a part of Generation Y."[19]