Mac and Me is a 1988 American science fiction adventure film co-written (with Steve Feke) and directed by Stewart Raffill. The film is about a "Mysterious Alien Creature" (MAC) that escapes from nefarious NASA agents and is befriended by a boy who is confined to a wheelchair due to paraplegia. Together, they try to find MAC's family, from whom he has been separated. Mac and Me stars Christine Ebersole, Jonathan Ward and Tina Caspary, along with Lauren Stanley and Jade Calegory in their only film appearances.
Despite a measure of praise for Calegory's lead performance, the film met with widespread critical censure, and failed at the box office. Reviewers noted imitation of numerous concepts from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and excessive product placement, as its principal flaws. The film was nominated for four Golden Raspberry Awards, winning Worst Director and Worst New Star (for Ronald McDonald). On the other hand, it received four nominations from the Youth in Film Awards (now Young Artist Awards).
Mac and Me holds a 0% approval rating at review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, and has been named as one of the worst films ever made. It has, however, attained "so bad it's good" cult status.
Video Mac and Me
Plot
A NASA spacecraft has landed on an unknown planet and begins to take rock and soil samples. Four aliens discover it and are sucked up through its vacuum, after which it makes its way back to Earth. The aliens are able to escape from a military base by using their powers (with which they can destroy or heal anything they touch). During the escape, the youngest one hides in a passing van, occupied by a wheelchair-bound boy named Eric Cruise, his older brother, Michael, and their single mother, Janet, who are moving to California from Illinois.
Shortly after the Cruise family arrives at their new home, Eric becomes suspicious of the alien's presence. The next morning, he finds that the creature ends up ruining much of the house and learns its identity, but is blamed alongside his brother by their mother for what has happened. After seeing the creature again, Eric tries to catch up to him, but ends up sliding down a hill and falls into a lake, where he nearly drowns, but is rescued by the alien. Eric is not believed at all when he tries to tell his family about the creature's actions.
Later that night, he sets a trap with the help of his new friend, Debbie, who had also seen the alien. The two trap him inside a vacuum cleaner, which malfunctions and causes the entire neighborhood to suffer a power surge. After the alien is released, Michael now believes Eric, but it leaves before Janet can be convinced. Eric's behavior towards the alien changes after he fixes all of the damage he caused to the house, and leaves behind several newspaper clippings which Eric believes are an attempt to communicate.
FBI agents Wickett and Zimmerman, who had been present when the four aliens had escaped from the base, have tracked down the youngest one to the Cruise residence. The two are immediately recognized by Eric and Michael. Eric is forced to take the alien, whom he has now named MAC (Mysterious Alien Creature), to a birthday party at the McDonald's where Debbie's older sister, Courtney, works. Wickett and Zimmerman follow, but, now disguised in a teddy suit, MAC starts a dance number as a distraction and escapes with Eric on his wheelchair.
After Wickett and Zimmerman chase them through a nearby neighborhood and shopping mall with additional help, they are rescued by Michael. After catching up with the agents, Janet inadvertently learns from Wickett that MAC is indeed real. Eric, Michael, Debbie, and Courtney decide to help reunite MAC with the other three aliens, revealed to be his family. With MAC's help, they travel towards the outskirts of Palmdale, California and manage to find them in an abandoned mine. While stopping at a gas station, they accidentally alert security.
After MAC's father steals a gun from a security guard, the police arrive and an unintended shootout takes place in the parking lot followed by an explosion, with Eric being caught in the crossfire and killed. Once Wickett, Zimmerman, and Janet arrive by helicopter, MAC and his family use their powers to bring Eric back to life.
For saving Eric, MAC and his family are granted citizenship, with the Cruise family, their neighbours, as well as Wickett and Zimmerman in attendance at the ceremony. The film's final scene shows MAC's father driving his family, along with the kids who helped them. MAC, who is chewing gum, blows a bubble that bears the message, "We'll be back!"
Maps Mac and Me
Cast
- Christine Ebersole as Janet Cruise
- Jonathan Ward as Michael Cruise
- Tina Caspary as Courtney (credited as Katrina Caspary)
- Lauren Stanley as Debbie
- Jade Calegory as Eric Cruise
- Barbara Allyne Bennet as Scientist
- Martin West as Wickett
- Danny Cooksey as Jack, Jr.
- Squire Fridell as Ronald McDonald
- Jennifer Aniston and Nikki Cox appear as uncredited extras
Production
Producer R.J. Louis had previously worked on advertising campaigns with McDonald's, and had an association with their charitable arm, Ronald McDonald House Charities. He explained that at the time, Ronald McDonald was "even more [well-known] than Santa Claus", but that E.T. was close behind, and thus felt that the next "generation" needed an E.T. of their own. Louis was required to negotiate the rights to use the McDonald's brand and its elements within the film. He pitched the project as a cross-promotional endeavor which could be promoted at its restaurants, and with its profits helping to support Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Some have reported that the film was - at least partially - financed by McDonald's, which Louis denies. He did receive funding from Golden State Foods, a food service distributor closely associated with McDonald's; Louis had encountered its CEO in his efforts to pitch the film, and was attracted by its charitable goals. Despite McDonald's specifying that they did not want Ronald McDonald to appear in the film, he nonetheless appeared in a scene set at a McDonald's restaurant, which featured an extended dance sequence. The character also introduced the film's theatrical trailer.
Louis noted that he was one of the first to leverage the chain as a platform for promoting films; Disney would later enter into a long-term deal with McDonald's to cross promote its properties, such as films, through in store campaigns such as Happy Meal toy distribution, although this relationship ended in May 2006, amid pressure to reduce the promotion of junk food to children. Despite this, Louis remarked that he was "still the only person in the universe that ever had the exclusive motion picture rights to the McDonald's trademark, their actors, their characters, and the whole company."
Stewart Raffill was brought on as director, despite the film not even having a script written yet. Raffill remarked that he wrote the script in a hotel room while on pre production. The crew aimed to distinguish the film from E.T. by having Mac be a member of a family, and having powers and skills. In one scene, Eric Cruise (played by Calegory, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair in real life) is seen rolling off a cliff in his wheelchair; Raffill noted that he performed a portion of the stunt himself, explaining that "it's very hard to do physical things when you're in that condition. It's very hard to make a wheelchair work, because it's not a very balanced thing. When you start going fast in a wheelchair, you place tremendous risk on the child, so you have to try and figure out how to do that in a controlled fashion."
Music
- Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack album was released by Curb Records, featuring one track from its musical score by Alan Silvestri and the theme song "Take Me (I'll Follow You)" by Bobby Caldwell.
Track listing:
- "You're Not a Stranger Anymore (Theme from Mac and Me)" - Jara Lane (3:42)
- "Take Me (I'll Follow You)" - Bobby Caldwell (5:32)
- "You Knew What You Were Doing (Every Inch of the Way)" - Marcy Levy (3:30)
- "Down to Earth" - Ashford and Simpson (5:27)
- "Waves" - Debbie Lytton (3:44)
- "Send Out a Signal" - Larry Hart (4:31)
- "Wait and Break My Heart Tomorrow" - The Flint River Band (4:40)
- "Overture (Theme From Mac and Me)" - Alan Silvestri (4:24)
- Score
In 2014, Quartet Records released a limited edition disc (1000 copies) of Silvestri's complete score. The disc also includes "You're Not A Stranger Anymore (Theme From Mac and Me)" and "Take Me (I'll Follow You)," which Silvestri co-wrote for the film.
Release
Mac and Me premiered in Hong Kong on August 5, 1988, with a United States release following on August 12. The film was released in the United Kingdom on July 21, 1989.
Box office
Mac and Me grossed $6,424,112 in the United States on a $13 million budget, rendering the film a box office failure. It had a profit-sharing arrangement with Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Critical response
Upon release, Mac and Me was widely panned as a duplication of Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Los Angeles Times critic Michael Wilmington wrote: "It's an amazingly bald-faced copy of E.T., even though this is E.T. in a sticky wrapper, left under the heater two hours too long. Almost everything in the earlier movie has a double here." Richard Harrington of The Washington Post amended the famed "E.T., phone home" phrase to "E.T., call lawyer", and said: "Why is it so hard to like this film? Having seen it done so much better by Spielberg doesn't help, of course."
The contrivance of the "Mysterious Alien Creature" being referred to by the acronym "MAC" (the McDonald's Corporation's signature product is the Big Mac), a dance number in a McDonald's restaurant featuring Ronald McDonald, and characters' wearing of McDonald's clothing, prompted Deseret News journalist Chris Hicks to declare: "I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie that is as crass a 90-minute commercial as Mac and Me." Hicks, along with Caryn James of The New York Times, observed additional promotion of Coca-Cola, and department store Sears, which carried the McDonald's line of children's clothing. James also took exception to the "awfully irresponsible" treatment of wheelchair-using main character Eric Cruise, who is placed in potentially dangerous situations before MAC intervenes. Calegory's lead performance, however, was named as a highlight by several critics, and the filmmakers garnered some praise for their use of a disabled protagonist.
Common Sense Media's Brian Costello, in a retrospective review, noted the film's marketing of Skittles candy, and described its product placement as being "as obnoxious and tacky as you can get". He allowed, however, that Mac and Me is a "so-bad-it's-good E.T. rip-off". Based on 23 critical reviews, the film holds a 0% approval rating at review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with a score of 2.7/10. The site's consensus reads: "Mac and Me is duly infamous: not only is it a pale imitation of E.T., it's also a thinly-veiled feature length commercial for McDonald's and Coca-Cola."
Accolades
- 9th Golden Raspberry Awards
- Worst New Star (Ronald McDonald)
- Worst Director (Stewart Raffill; shared with Blake Edwards for Sunset)
- Worst Picture (R.J. Louis) (nominated; lost to Cocktail)
- Worst Screenplay (Stewart Raffill and Steve Feke) (nominated; lost to Heywood Gould for Cocktail)
- 10th Youth in Film Awards
- Best Family Motion Picture: Animation or Fantasy (nominated; lost to Beetlejuice)
- Best Young Actor in a Motion Picture: Comedy or Fantasy (Jade Calegory) (nominated; lost to The Two Coreys: Corey Feldman and Corey Haim for License to Drive)
- Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture: Comedy or Fantasy (Tina Caspary) (nominated; lost to Mayim Bialik in Beaches)
- Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture: Comedy or Fantasy (Lauren Stanley) (nominated; lost to Mayim Bialik in Beaches)
Legacy
Mac and Me has been named as one of the worst films ever made. The Telegraph noted that it is "frequently pulled out in 'worst film of all time' arguments", while Jonathan Crow of Yahoo! Movies reported that it is "infamous among connoisseurs of cinematic schlock, who rank it alongside the likes of Troll 2 as one of the worst movies ever made". Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock cited it as the most egregious example of product placement in cinema history, as well as the "worst thing you'll ever see in your entire life". The film was also named the worst ever in the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as by broadcaster Simon Mayo and writer/producer Damon Lindelof. Michael Hayden of GQ India referred to it as "hands down the worst family movie in Hollywood history".
Mac and Me has, nevertheless, become a cult film. Lindelof allowed that it is "the fifth-best alien comedy ever made", and the film has appeared in various "so-bad-it's-good" listings. Jim Vorel of Paste ranked it no. 52 in "The 100 Best 'B Movies' of All Time" (noting that it cannot be "enjoyed un-ironically"), while Cracked journalist Jeff Steinbrunner placed the film at no. 1 in "The 10 Most Shameless Product Placements in Movie History", calling it "unintentionally awesome" and "almost genius". Complex wrote: "As an accidentally riotous failure, Mac and Me comes highly recommended, but its real purpose requires a line of shot glasses... everyone must take a shot whenever Raffill's film displays one of its countless product placements."
The film is part of a running gag by actor Paul Rudd. When appearing as a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and O'Brien's later show Conan, Rudd would perform a "bait-and-switch" by routinely showing the same clip from Mac and Me (in which Eric Cruise, watched by MAC, loses control of his wheelchair and falls off a cliff into a lake) instead of showing clips from the actual films he was ostensibly promoting. While giving an interview alongside Captain America: Civil War co-star Chris Evans in 2016, Rudd expressed his appreciation of Mac and Me's "blatant" advertising of McDonald's, "unearned" positioning of Bobby Caldwell ballad "Take Me (I'll Follow You)", and inclusion of a fly landing on MAC's nose, declaring: "I love it... it's so good". Evans also professed to "love" the film, noting that he "grew up on it".
Sequel
Mac and Me ends with the text "We'll be back!", but owing to its unpopularity, a sequel did not materialize. Producer R.J. Louis spoke of the ending in a 2017 interview, and did not rule out a follow-up. He claimed there is public interest in the film because home video sales made it profitable for Orion Pictures, and opined that MAC would resonate with today's young moviegoers.
See also
- My Little Bossings, a 2013 Filipino family comedy film similarly criticized for product placement
References
External links
- Mac and Me on IMDb
- Mac and Me at Box Office Mojo
- Mac and Me at Rotten Tomatoes
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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