GOOD BURGER

Last year, Nickelodeon and Paramount brought HARRIET THE SPY to the silver screen. This year, the cable network that specializes in goo and slime brings a silly story about competition between two fast food burger joints. Featuring two young African-Americans in the leading roles, GOOD BURGER is a colorful comedy which features friendship, fair competition, being responsible for one’s actions, and hard work.

Dexter Reed (Kenan Thompson) is a 15-year-old who loves to have a good time. On the last day of school, he “borrows” his mother’s car and takes it out for a drive. When Good Burger delivery boy, Ed (Kel Mitchell), rollerblades in the way of Dexter’s car, Dexter gets crashes into a car driven by Mr. Wheat (Sinbad), Dexter’s retro teacher. Dexter realizes that he was responsible and tells Mr. Wheat that he will pay for the car damage by getting a summer job.

Dexter applies to work as a fry boy for the colossal Mondo Burger establishment which just opened opposite the Good Burger restaurant. Mondo Burger runs a tight ship with an ultra-slick image and a reputation for cutthroat efficiency. Their calling card is having burgers twice the size as those at Good Burger. (Actually, they are putting in an illegal food additive which makes the meat expand.) A little unpolished and smart-alecky, Dexter is fired from Mondo Burger after one day. When Dexter goes to Good Burger to console himself with a few shakes, Ed sees that Dexter is blue and asks the manager to offer him a job. Dexter gets a job and is soon paying off Mr. Wheat.

When Mondo Burger opens, Good Burger can’t compete. Business looks awful until Ed shares his secret sauce with his co-workers. They love it, and Good Burger is now drawing in the customers with Ed’s Secret Sauce. Mondo Burger boss, Kurt (Jan Schwieterman), however, will not be undersold and makes all sorts of wicked plans to steal the recipe to Ed’s Secret Sauce. Ed, in ignorant bliss, does not give up the formula. Finally, Kurt poisons Ed’s Secret Sauce, and kidnaps Ed and Dexter. Will Dexter and Ed escape to tell the people to not eat the poisoned Good Burgers, or will it be too late?

For all its colorful sets, crazy charters and good lessons, GOOD BURGER has two major moral flaws. At the end of the story, Ed pours the illegal food additive into the Mondo Burger ground meat, eventually causing the Mondo Burger building to explode. In a sense, he takes the law into his own hands and destroys property. Though not vengeful, Ed justifies his actions by a weak, but lengthy talk about how our judicial system is failed and will take months of litigation to bring Kurt and the foul Mondo Burger people to justice. Thus, the movie is a primer on vigilantism.

Additionally, throughout the movie, Ed seems to be a little effete or even lonely for male affection. Ed turns down a kiss from a seductive woman. On another occasion, Ed has a lengthy hug with Dexter. The movie doesn’t explore Ed’s burgeoning sexuality, but it does show Dexter falling for an attractive female co-worker. Though perhaps minor and incidental, Ed’s neutrality, in this clearly heterosexual movie, seems a bit strange.

GOOD BURGER is somewhat monumental in that it is one of the few movies for children featuring an African-American cast as the lead characters. Though aimed at the whole Nickelodeon audience, it will clearly attract an African-American audience. It is worth noting that the director Brian Robbins, who made the extremely foul-mouthed movie THE SHOW about hip-hop artists, has created a virtual foul language free movie with GOOD BURGER. This is good news for parents. Yet, with a few odd moral inconsistencies in this movie, GOOD BURGER ranks behind HARRIET THE SPY in creativity and morality.