Every other week I dutifully head over to my favorite pop culture website, called the AV Club for a special treat. A contributor there has created a long running series of features called "My Year of Flops" which reviews and dissects the failure of a long series of movies which failed at ever getting real commercial or critical success. The movies at times are total garbage, some have redeeming value and occasionally a rare gem simply made before its time. The best though, are the movies that fall into the so bad it's good category, which encompasses movies made with the utmost sincerity which miss the mark completely. (Look here for a taste: http://www.avclub.com/articles/ronald-mcdonald-approved-case-file-151-mac-and-me,36033/)
Inspired by this particular review, I decided that simply seeing a few brief clips was not enough, and that I needed to witness the film in it's entirety with the help of a few friends and some choice film enhancing beverages.
Having braced ourselves thoroughly for the experience prior to the start of the movie, I must admit my recollection of the plot is a bit hazy. It comes back to me in waves like a bad dream. I will do my best. The film opens with a family of aliens who look like the offspring of ET and a flesh light being sucked into a NASA ship. One of these aliens is deposited near the home of a wheelchair bound boy. While rolling around by a quarry one day with his neighbor and love interest the boy experience catastrophic brake failure and is catapulted quite comically into the quarry. Mercifully he is rescued by the Alien.
It is at this point that things got fuzzy enough for me not to be able to provide a solid time line or narrative. I just know that the following things occur:
-Mac, the alien falls in love with Coke
-A ten minute dance scene takes place at a McDonalds which throws the FBI off the scent of Mac
-Mac's family is found in a cave dead, but is immediately brought back to life by drinking Coke
-Mac's family is persecuted and shot at while trying to obtain more coke
-The family becomes US citizens
-The movie concludes with the Aliens driving into the distance in a pink Cadillac convertible with thought bubble appearing that says "We'll be back".
Is this movie worth seeing?: Yes. It is so shameless, so bad and so surreal that it cannot be passed up.
Special thanks to my tolerant friends, girlfriend and roommates who went on this epic journey with me.
Y'know, the storyline becomes funnier when you de-capitalize the c in "Coke." Or maybe its a different kind of funny. I dunno.
ReplyDeleteI forgot about the dance scene. Thanks for reminding me.
I'm fairly certain I faded out during the middle part of the movie - recap was appreciated.
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