| Good Burger | |
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![]() Promotional poster for Good Burger. |
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| Directed by | Brian Robbins |
| Produced by | Mike Tollin Brian Robbins |
| Written by | Dan Schneider |
| Starring | Kenan Thompson Kel Mitchell Sinbad Abe Vigoda Shar Jackson Dan Schneider Ron Lester Jan Schweiterman Josh Server |
| Music by | Stewart Copeland |
| Studio | Nickelodeon Movies |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 25, 1997 |
| Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | America |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $9,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $87,445,899 |
Good Burger is a 1997 American comedy film by Nickelodeon Movies produced by Paramount Pictures, directed by Brian Robbins, and starring Kenan and Kel, featuring Sinbad, Shar Jackson, Abraham Vigoda, and Jan Schweiterman. The film was based on a recurring sketch on Nickelodeon's sketch show All That. Carmen Electra, Shaquille O'Neal, and George Clinton also make cameo appearances.
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Ed is a dumb but very funny fast food attendant working at the titular restaurant. Ed discovers that there is competition with Good Burger when another restaurant, Mondo Burger, is built across the street. However, the Good Burger manager, Mister Bailey, is not worried about the new restaurant. Meanwhile, Dexter Reed is a teenage slacker who believes he can spend the rest of the summer partying after the school year ends. However, he crashes his mother's car into the car of his teacher (both Nissans, a 300ZX and Infiniti J30, respectively), Mister Wheat, resulting in a confrontation between the two. Mister Wheat gives Dexter the repair bill for his car, forcing Dexter to get a summer job.
Dexter initially finds work at the Mondo Burger under the fascist manager Kurt Bozwell. However, Dexter does not fit in with the other employees and is fired. Hoping to find work where his clear lack of talent and absolute lack of experience will do him well, Dexter goes to the Good Burger to drown his woes in milkshakes. Ed tries to convince Mister Bailey to give Dexter a job at the Good Burger. Though reluctant, Mister Bailey gives Dexter the job of making deliveries in the Burger Mobile. After Kurt personally visits the Good Burger and intimidates the employees, the Mondo Burger opens in an overblown fashion. The Good Burger employees discover that the Mondo Burgers are so successful because of their ridiculous size. Ed and Dexter become more acquainted with each other as Ed shoves grapes up his nose and becomes "Grape-Nose-Boy".
Ed creates a special sauce that the other employees enjoy. The sauce is put on the burgers and marketed to the public, averting the Good Burger's demise. Dexter, hoping to pay off the repair bill for Mister Wheat's car, makes Ed sign a contract that entitles Dexter to 80% of the profits made on Ed's sauce. Meanwhile, Kurt is displeased at Good Burger's rising sales and sends an attractive woman named Roxanne to seduce Ed and obtain the secret formula for his secret sauce. However, her attempts are futile against Ed's astounding stupidity and ends up physically battered as a result. After Roxanne quits Mondo Burger, Ed and Dexter begin to suspect foul play, as they believe that Mondo Burger is using illegal chemicals to enlarge their burgers. Disguising themselves as women, they infiltrate Mondo Burger, where their suspicions are confirmed. However, they are subsequently caught and committed to a psychiatric hospital by Kurt.
As Ed and Dexter plan a way to escape, Mondo Burger employees infiltrate Good Burger and insert shark poison into Ed's special sauce, making anyone who eats it so sick that Good Burger will probably face a lawsuit. Otis, an elderly employee of Good Burger, discovers this plot and threatens to call the police, but is then committed to the same psychiatric hospital as Ed and Dexter. Organizing a synchronized dance number (Resembling Michael Jackson's Thriller) in the hospital to distract the guards, Ed, Dexter, and Otis leave the hospital by a window and carjack an ice cream van in the hopes of making it back to the Good Burger before anyone is affected by the poison in the special sauce. Ed and Dexter manage to make it back to the Good Burger and explain to Mister Bailey about the poisoned burgers. Ed and Dexter then hatch a plan to break into Mondo Burger and expose their illegal practices. While Dexter distracts the employees inside, Ed overloads the Mondo Burgers with chemicals, causing them to explode. Their antics destroy the restaurant, crush Mister Wheat's car and result in Kurt's arrest. Ed is hailed as a hero as he makes a speech and rasps his incessant catchphrase "Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Can I take your order?".
A scene not included in the release, but made it into the trailers, includes a customer saying to Ed, "Give me a Good Shake", so Ed grabs him and shakes him. A deleted scene that Kel Mitchell wanted to put in the film but director Brian Robbins disagreed with was to have Dexter say to Ed "Excuse me a second", and have Ed wait literally one second before following Dexter. The head-butting scene was removed by the BBFC for the UK video release, despite the cinema release being uncut.
Good Burger received largely negative reviews from film critics, garnering a "Rotten" rating of 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. However it has become a sort of cult favorite for fans of the early to mid 1990s Nickelodeon.
The Nostalgia Critic gave a negative review of the film, citing the porous jokes, in particular, the scene in which Ed was sticking grapes up his nose while making absurd noises. The Critic hailed the scene as the Eleventh Level of Hell, saying that Dante didn't write about it because he thought it would be too scary for people to comprehend. He also wondered how Abe Vigoda even ended up on the film and even compared the owner of Mondo burger to Adolf Hitler.
The film was released on July 25, 1997 and had a budget (not including prints and advertising) of $9,000,000. It opened at the fifth position with $7,058,333 and in total, the film earned $23,712,993 in the US & Canada.
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.
In 2007, Nickelodeon revived Good Burger and showed it on Nick@Nite December 8, 2007. Before it was shown, Nickelodeon had two of the actors record over what they said in the previous film to censor it for kids. The first censor is when Otis says "I think I broke my ass". Nickelodeon censored it so he said "I think I broke my tail". The other is when the man in the mental institution (played by George Clinton) says "Ooh, this music sucks", which was censored to "Ooh, this music stinks". The actors' lips almost clearly show the original lines, and closed captioning will reveal the original lines. Subsequent showings, such as the January 17, 2010 showing, have also been censored in the same fashion.
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Good Burger is a 1997 film from Paramount and Nickelodeon about the exploits of Dexter Reed and other Good Burger employees who try to save their restaurant from being run out of business. It was based on the All That sketch of the same name.
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