Good Burger: 25th Anniversary Steelbook - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Good Burger: 25th Anniversary Steelbook Edition



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, can I take your order?!

Ahh yes, the late 90s. When ska-punk banks like Less than Jake, Reel Big Fish and various others dominated the teenager circles, Sinbad was a huge thing as a comedian, and stupid stoner type comedies were all the rave. This means that when Nickelodeon produced Good Burger it was sure to be a hit, right? Well, kinda. It certainly made some money back being shot on a $9 Million budget and raking in $23.7 million, but it’s always been hated by critics and guiltily loved by fans. It was such a weird cult hit that film fans would joke for YEARS that the awful flick was going to get a Criterion release (including fake Criterion covers that circulated the internet for years..back before memes were really a thing). It’s just one of those movies that is pure cheese, purely stupid, and purely a thing of it’s time even though it kick started Kenan’s career, and left Kel in the dust.

Good Burger is the best burger joint in town, having been a staple of the town’s society for the better part of 40 years. Everyone loves the burger joint, but their future comes into jeopardy when the giant corporate Mondo Burger moves in and starts pushing out the little guy (ala, every David and Goliath business story ever). They’ve got bigger buildings, bigger promises to employees, and of course a secret recipe that makes their burgers bigger than ANYONE else around.

The manager (Dan Schneider, co writer of the film) has to fire his best employee, leaving only Ed (Kel) around to do a delivery run. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Ed is going to mess it up, but off he goes anyway. Simultaneously Dexter Reed (Kenan Thompason) is on his last day of school and getting ready for the summer. But his summer gets turned upside down when he crashes into his teacher’s new sports car (teacher played by Sinbad of course) to avoid Ed and his out of control delivery truck, forcing the teen to get a job at Good Burger to pay off all the damages. Unaware of it being Ed that ruined his summer, Dexter bemoans his bad fortune, but also realizes that they can capitalize on a secret sauce of Ed’s own design. A secret sauce that suddenly has everyone pouring in to check them out, pulling all of Mondo Burger’s eyes DIRECTLY at them. Now it’s all out war between the burger joints as Mondo Burger strives to shut down Good Burger even faster, with Ed and Dexter doing their best to go undercover and foil the giant burger joints plans.

All of this to write a summary for a movie that came about because of a single few minute clip. As such, the film feels like just that. A movie that was best as a SNL type scene and should have been left at that. However, Nickelodeon decided to make it a full length feature film with a high priced comedian, and what comes out is a complete mess of a film that is hilariously to watch when you’re drunk (or using a certain popular green herb) with some friends. I remember growing up watching the ever living daylights out of the movie in my middle school years, even buying the VHS and DVD back in the day. It’s not a great movie, it’s not even that funny of a movie, but Good Burger certainly has its moments if you grew up in that late 90s Ska-Punk era of music (it immortalized Less than Jake for a generation).




Rating:

Rated PG by the MPAA




Video:

The image is startlingly good for a low budget 1990s Nickelodeon flick too. It’s clean of any major debris, there’s no real artifacting, and the clarity is really good. It IS a cheap Nickelodeon film though, so while it certainly is very pleasing and well defined with the detail levels, it will never be a 5/5 rated film as well. Details are great without being outstanding, and primary colors are really sharp and clean. The yellow of Dexter’s shirt and the red of the coke machine’s really pop, and the cheap plastic “outfits” of the Mondo Burger goons shines with bright purple. Black levels are really impressive too, showing no signs of major crush or blurred shadow details. All in all, this is a very pleasant surprise video wise.









Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is much like the video score. Really really good for it’s genre, almost pushing into really great territory. The mix is vibrant in the musical score, allowing the whole surround stage to be used (including some decent LFE usage as well). Vocals are crisp and clean as can be, and the front sound stage even uses some panning effects (such as when Ed crashes the van, or when they’re being chase out of Mondo Burger). This IS still a low budget comedy, so we’re not expecting a full Atmos sound stage, but the little comedy is really very excellent at its job.












Extras:

• Original "Good Burger" Sketch from All That (1994)

Final Score: ​

Good Burger is a gigantic ball of nostalgic 90s fluff that really only appeals to the kids who grew up in that generation (e.g. Me). However, it’s still complete nostalgia bait and one of those movies that you can hum along to the Less than Jake infused ska-punk sound track and have a stupid good time if you’re someone who enjoys a little green herb. Basically a light hearted stoner comedy without the weed, Paramount’s Good Burger is a guilty pleasure flick that many of us never expected to make it to Blu-ray (even with the jokes that it was inevitable for a Criterion Collection release some day). It’s stupid, awful, still kinda fun, and Kenan Thompson as a youngling back before he became the SNL monstrosity that he is now. For those who bought the stand alone release last year, be warned that this is the same release, just with a steelbook packaging for it’s 25th anniversary and the inclusion of a digital copy.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Kel Mitchell, Kenan Thompson, Sinbad, Abe Vigoda, Shar Jackson, Dan Schneider
Directed by: Brian Robbins
Written by: Dan Schneider, Kevin Kopelow, Heath Seifert
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French DD 2.0
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG
Runtime: 95 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: July 19th, 2022

Recommendation: Nostalgic Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I actually can't remember if I saw this back in the day or not. Will have to revisit it.