Good Burger (1997)
★★★ — Good Burger (1997)
Good Burger grew out of a recurring sketch on the Nickelodeon sketch series All That, where Kel Mitchell's airheaded counter attendant Ed had become one of the show's most popular characters. Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures greenlit the feature adaptation off the back of Kenan and Kel, the spinoff sitcom that had launched in 1996 and was already drawing solid ratings for the network. Director Brian Robbins was a co-founder of Tollin/Robbins Productions and had his hands across much of Nickelodeon's mid-nineties output, later moving into more mainstream studio comedy with films like Norbit and Daddy Day Care. The film arrived in the summer of 1997, squarely in the middle of a period when Nickelodeon was aggressively expanding its brand beyond television, following the modest theatrical success of Harriet the Spy the previous year.
Good Burger is the kind of movie that makes perfect sense as a All That sketch stretched to feature length, silly, absurd, and built on the same goofy chemistry that made Kenan & Kel TV gold. As a kid, I never really liked it because it felt so different from their show. It wasn’t just short sketches and punchlines, it had a plot, actual villains (a corporate fast-food chain trying to put Good Burger out of business), and way too much Ed, the fry cook with a heart of… well, mystery. It was weird, messy, and didn’t have the rapid-fire pace I expected. But watching it as an adult it’s actually ok. Not great, not a classic, but surprisingly funny in places. The humour is dumb in the best way: food puns and gross-out gags. There’s a sweetness to it too, the friendship between Dexter and Ed, the underdog stand against corporate greed, that gives it a little heart beneath the silliness. It drags in spots, the story’s paper-thin, and the jokes don’t land as often as they should. But when they do they hit hard in that nostalgic, early-’90s-kids-comedy sweet spot. Harmless, occasionally hilarious, and clearly made for 12-year-olds.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 1997 | Watched: 2025-09-22
Where to watch (UK)
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK
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