Robert De Zero
Mac and Me is a 1988 sci-fi comedy that is widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made.
I love watching old 80s stuff and I was excited when I was tasked to sit through a forgotten sci-fi family movie. I then found out it was Mac and Me and the thought of having to endure this notoriously bad movie got me thinking about whether I could claim compensation!
It is a shameless rip-off of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, but with more product placement, less charm, and a creepy-looking alien that resembles a deformed fetus. It embraces 80s consumerism The catastrophic reviews didn’t help at all and made sure this alien got forgotten in the shite movie archives.
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What’s it about?
The plot revolves around a boy called Eric Cruise who is in a wheelchair and befriends the alien, named MAC (Mysterious Alien Creature) and helps him reunite with his family, who are also stranded on Earth. Along the way, they encounter evil NASA agents, a gang of bikers, and a bizarre dance sequence where Mac is disguised as a giant Teddy Bear at a McDonald’s.
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The movie starts with Mac and his family accidentally being sucked into a NASA space probe that lands on their planet collecting rock samples and then they are brought back to Earth. Mac escapes and ends up hiding out at the Cruise family house where the kids keep him secret just like in that other alien flick…. E.T!
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The movie is full of illogical scenes, bad acting, and unintentional hilarity. Some of the “highlights” include: Mac drinking Coca-Cola and burping loudly, Mac hiding inside a teddy bear and making weird noises, Eric falling off a cliff in his wheelchair which shouldn’t be funny but hilarious, Mac causing a car to explode by touching it, Mac flying in the air with Eric in his wheelchair, and Mac reviving the boy from death by using his electric powers.
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Product Placement
Like I mentioned earlier that movie is full of shameful product placement. Coke, Skittles, Volkswagen, Clearblue, and McDonalds. There is a cameo of none other than Ronald McDonald, who apparently knows Mac and his family personally. The dance sequence, where nobody in the restaurant seems to think that a giant cuddly bear dancing on the tables is out of the ordinary at all which is so strange that Mac may as well have been his usual naked alien self and nobody would have batted an eyelid. One of the supporting characters wears a Maccy’s uniform throughout the movie. The endorsement for McDonald’s is so in your face throughout the feature that the movie may as well have been called ‘Big Mac and Me’!
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The placement of Coke throughout is relentless and becomes even more shameful at the end when Mac and his family are brought back to life by drinking Coke.
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Conclusion
To sum it up Mac and Me is a movie that is so bad, it’s good. It is a cult classic that has been mocked and parodied by so many over the years, including Paul Rudd, who has repeatedly pranked Conan O’Brien by showing clips of the movie instead of his own projects.
The movie is a must-see for fans of bad cinema, or anyone who wants to laugh at the absurdity of it all. The movie ends with the alien family becoming US citizens and driving a car into the distance saying we’ll be back. I hear the sequel was in the works but Pepsi and Pizza Hut pulled out, I’m joking of course!
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So, am I still going to sue…? Yes… I tell a lie, as I wouldn’t want to sue as I found the film highly entertaining in its cheesiness and my love for 80s nostalgia.
