Good Burger

Good Burger
Home video promotional poster
Directed by	Brian Robbins
Produced by	Mike Tollin Brian Robbins Dan Schneider
Written by	Kevin Kopelow Dan Schneider Heath Seifert
Based on	All That by Dan Schneider Kevin Kopelow Heath Seifert
Starring	Kenan Thompson Kel Mitchell Sinbad Abe Vigoda Shar Jackson Dan Schneider Jan Schweiterman
Music by	Stewart Copeland
Cinematography	Mac Ahlberg
Editing by	Anita Brandt-Burgoyne
Studio	Nickelodeon Movies Tollin/Robbins Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	July 25, 1997 (1997-07-25)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$9,000,000
Box office	$23,712,993 (USA)

Good Burger is a 1997 American comedy film by Tollin/Robbins Productions and Nickelodeon Movies, released by Paramount Pictures, directed by Brian Robbins, and starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. It was based on the comedy sketch "Good Burger" (starring Mitchell) featured on the Nickelodeon series All That.

Plot

On the first day of summer, a slacking high school student, Dexter (Kenan Thompson), steals his mother's car while she is on a business trip and accidentally crashes into and damages the car of his teacher, Mr. Wheat (Sinbad). Dexter is in danger of going to jail, as he does not have a driver's license or insurance. But Mr. Wheat agrees to let Dexter pay for the damages to both cars in exchange for not calling the police on Dexter. After determining that the damages will total $1,900, Dexter is forced to get a summer job. He winds up finding employment at Good Burger where he meets and reluctantly befriends dim witted Ed (Kel Mitchell) and a host of other colorful employees. At the time neither one of them realize it was in fact Ed who inadvertently caused Dexter's car accident.

While it seems that Dexter is on his way to repaying the money he owes, things take a turn for the worse. Across the street from Good Burger, a large fancy burger joint called Mondo Burger is about to open up, where Dexter originally found employment before Good Burger, but was fired for insulting Mondo Burger's manager, Kurt Bozwell (Jan Schweiterman). It appears that the opening of the hugely popular Mondo Burger may very well spell the end for small time Good Burger because of the over-sized burgers they produce. Fortunately, Good Burger is saved by the invention of a secret sauce made by Ed. Dexter, having realized Ed was responsible for his car accident, takes advantage of the good-hearted yet dim witted Ed in order to make money off of the secret sauce in order to pay off his debt sooner.

All seems well as Ed's sauce is a huge success. However, Mondo Burger's manager, Kurt Bozwell, makes some failed attempts to obtain the sauce. Kurt first tries to persuade Ed to quit Good Burger to work at Mondo Burger with a higher hourly wage. When Ed turns him down, Kurt sends in Roxanne (Carmen Electra) to seduce Ed alone in order to find out the recipe for Ed's sauce, but to no avail as Ed injures her. Later, Ed and Dexter suspect something is up with Mondo Burger and disguise themselves as old women, to find out that Mondo Burger chemically induces their burgers (that they call "The Big Moody Burger") with "Triampathol", which is apparently an illegal food additive; Kurt kidnaps them and has them committed to Demented Hills mental hospital so they will not tell the public.

Threatened by the success of Ed's sauce, Kurt breaks into Good Burger after closing hours and poisons Ed's secret sauce with shark poison. When Ed and Dexter's co-worker, Otis (Abe Vigoda), tries to stop him, he is committed too. He tells the duo about Kurt's scheme, so they have to plan an escape. The next morning, with the help of Ed doing a dance number and encouraging other patients to dance, the trio escapes the mental hospital via broken windows and they use an ice cream van to drive them back to Good Burger to prevent any customer from eating the poisoned sauce. Ed and Dexter then break into Mondo Burger to expose their chemically induced burgers to the police. Dexter creates a diversion, to which Ed tries to take a can of Triampathol, but clumsingly knocks one into the meat grinder. With an idea, Ed then pours some more of the substance into the grinder. Just before Kurt can do away with Ed and Dexter, the Mondo Burger building starts to rumble in destruction due to the now ridiculously gigantic burgers that have been exploding (of Triampathol overdose). In the aftermath, Kurt is arrested for using the illegal substance and Mondo Burger is destroyed, the debris crushing and destroying Mr. Wheat's car as well (Much to Dexter's amusement as he hands him the first half of the money he owes him for the car damages). Ed and Dexter then walk back to Good Burger where they both (especially Ed) are praised by the other Good Burger employees as heroes for saving Good Burger.

Cast

• Kenan Thompson as Dexter Reed, a high school graduate who desires to slack. He is the main protagonist.
• Kel Mitchell as Ed, the idiotic but well-meaning and kind cashier of Good Burger. He is the secondary protagonist.
• Sinbad as Mr. Wheat, the secondary antagonist who demands $2,500 from Dexter for car damages.
• Abe Vigoda as Otis, an elderly Good Burger employee who cooks the French fries. He has a bigger role around the middle of the film.
• Shar Jackson as Monique, a female 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. Bailey, the owner of Good Burger who is often busy taking care of his mother.
• Ron Lester as Spatch, the head fry cook of Good Burger who has an aggressive hatred of Mondo Burger.
• Jan Schweiterman as Kurt Bozwell, the main antagonist of the movie. He is the arrogant greedy C.E.O. and restaurant owner of Mondo Burger who will stop at nothing to make his food chain number one.
• Josh Server as Fizz, the drive-through employee of Good Burger.
• Ginny Schreiber as Deedee, one of the 2 female employees at Good Burger and a Vegetarian.
• Linda Cardellini as Heather, an insane girl in Demented Hills for whom Ed grows feelings.
• Shaquille O'Neal as Himself.
• George Clinton as Demented Hills Patient.
• Robert Wuhl as Angry Customer.
• Carmen Electra as Roxanne, a henchwoman of Kurt who was assigned to seduce Ed into telling his secret sauce recipe.
• Marques Houston as Jake.
• J. August Richards as Griffen, one of Kurt's right hand men.
• Hamilton Von Watts as Troy, Kurt's other right hand man
• Lori Beth Denberg as Connie Muldoon, a customer whose extremely complex orders are too difficult for Ed to memorize.
• Wendy Worthington as Demented Hills Nurse.
• Colt Buehner as Demented Hills Patient Dr. Doom.

Filming

Most of the film's scenes were filmed along S Glendora Avenue in West Covina, California. The building known as "Good Burger" in the movie was filmed at a restaurant currently known as "Manny'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. The AMC Pacer used as the "Burger Mobile" in the film is now a broken down car with the top "Good Burger" Logo damaged with only the "G" "E" and "R" still standing (Other letters flattened) the red arrow on the passenger side now is fallen off, and the burger is now faded. It still stands today; in an abandoned lot in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Soundtrack

Main article: Good Burger (soundtrack)

A soundtrack containing hip hop, R&B and rock 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.

Box Office

On a budget of 9 million, the film was a box office success, grossing over 23 million.

Critical reception

Despite the popularity of All That and the Kenan & Kel series, Good Burger received negative reviews from film critics garnering a "Rotten" rating of 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film however, has a cult following. Most praise came to Kel Mitchell and Kenan Thompson's performances, while the relationship with Ed and the girl in the mental hospital were negatively reviewed.

External links

• Good Burger at the Internet Movie Database
• Good Burger at AllRovi
• Good Burger at Rotten Tomatoes