So you say there aren’t enough movies with a full-on dancing scene at a McDonald’s restaurant, complete with break dancers and guys wearing football uniforms? You must have never seen "Mac and Me." "Mac and Me," released in 1988, just in time to appeal to the kids who liked E.T. six years earlier, has just enough strange, off-kilter moments to make it worth streaming on your Netflix-capable device, so if you have a PS3, blu-ray player, Wii, microwave oven, or printer that is Netflix-ready, check out "Mac and Me."
There are conflicting reports online as to whether or not this film was funded by McDonald’s, however, having watched it, it seems pretty evident, if not doggone obvious, that it was. A birthday party at McDonald’s is referenced several times before the wonderful scene I mentioned earlier takes place. The first time we see the big sister character in the film (played by Tina Caspary), she is wearing her McDonald’s uniform, a vintage green with white stripes polo shirt, emblazoned, as they say, with the McDonald’s logo near the boob area. Ronald McDonald is even at the birthday party. I believe it was the same guy used in the McDonald’s tv commercials at the time. I remembered the voice. Alas, Grimace is noticeably absent from the film. It probably has something to do with the late 80’s scandal involving Grimace, the DQ Bandit, and an ugly glue-sniffing/pornography ring that they were both involved in. McDonald’s was likely trying to distance itself from Grimace at this time. I remember seeing something about it on 20/20. I think Geraldo even got involved. You knew you were screwed when Geraldo got involved. Also, and most obviously, the title of the film--come on—MAC and Me? MAC? I wish I could remember more about the release of the film, however, I was just a young lad back then, oblivious to the ways of the world and the ways of women. Now, I am an older lad, oblivious to the ways of the world and the ways of women. Coca-Cola also, evidently, partially funded the film as it is a major plot point in the film that the aliens in the film, when near death, get rejuvenating lifeforce from----yes, Coca-Cola.
So, title alien, Mac, arrives on Earth with his, what appear to be his parents and sister. Like E.T., Mac is stranded alone and befriended by a young boy. The circumstances by which Mac is discovered by the young boy I will leave to your discovery, as I want to ruin as little as possible from your enjoyment of this film. Maybe, I will just ruin a little bit.
The young boy, Eric (Jade Calegory),his older brother, Michael(Jonathan Ward), and their mother (Christine Ebersole—a regular on Saturday Night Live during it’s 7th season—the 1981-82 season) move from Illinois to Southern California. They move to what looks like the same neighborhood Elliott and his mom and brother lived in in E.T. Eric is disabled and uses a wheelchair. This fact is only of significance in the film so his character may be placed in peril a couple of times as he, for the sake of disability humor, can precariously roll down a hill once and be rolled through a shopping mall once only to be saved both times with the help of E.T.----I mean Ronald McDonald----whoops, I mean Mac. Eric’s older brother flirts with Courtney, the older sister of Debbie, the girl who sees Mac and can vouch for his existence. I would have flirted with Courtney too if I was Eric. Eventually, Mac and his family is placed in a potentially harmful situation and it is up to us, the viewers, to watch and see if all will end up safe and well for Mac and his family. The highlight of the film is definitely the birthday party scene. If you don’t want to sit through the movie, you can just You Tube this scene. Type in “Mac and Me birthday party” and, in our world of instant gratification, it will be there. I am glad I watched the entire film. It is not as wonderfully bad as films like “Samurai Cop,” “The Room,” “Birdemic,” or “Here Comes Santa Claus,” however there are certainly enough weirdo moments spread out quite nicely throughout the film to make it worth watching. The director of “Mac and Me,” Stewart Raffill, did the audience a tremendous favor in spreading these moments out as deftly as he did so the film does not drag into mundane tedium and become just another dull 80’s family film that offers nothing goofy or clunky.
I have read modern criticisms of the special effects in the film. I thought the alien effects in the film were pretty good for the time. I think many times, when writing about films from over twenty years ago, people tend to overlook the fact that 80’s technology was not as super awesome as what we have now. Now any schmo can make a video that looks good technically and post it to You Tube. The magic of filmmaking is no longer magic with the accessibility of technology to the masses. You still have to have a story and something interesting to say, though.
Anyway, given the fact that the makers of “Mac and Me” could not produce special effects on their smart phone, the effects are pretty darn good. The aliens in the film are fluid and I never thought to myself, as I have in many recent CGI-laden films, that the special effects were distracting. Sure the aliens looked kind of weird, but they the filmmakers probably were not working with a large budget. McDonald’s was spending a lot of money at the time trying to restore it’s image from the whole Grimace/glue-sniffing fiasco.
So, anyway, I enjoyed “Mac and Me.” The best thing about it is that I was never bored while watching it and I did not check the counter on the bottom of the screen very often to see how much more of it there was to watch. That is always a nice compliment you can give a film. The fewer times you check the counter, the better the film usually is. Grab a Quarter Pounder and an apple pie and watch “Mac and Me” if you want to have a goofy movie day. If you see Grimace, DO NOT make any jokes about glue. It’s still a sticky subject with him.
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