Everyone has those movies that are less a work of art, and more of a guilty obsession. Some people call it a "cult following" and some call it a waste of time and money, but for others, it's love. A good-bad, wonderfully awful, so-terrible-it's-fantastic work of genius movie. To you, it is the best-worst movie that ever existed.
One surefire way to know you have a good-bad movie on your hands is by trying to describe it to someone who has never seen it before. You will sound insane, and the person you're trying to impart the awesomeness of this movie to will judge you. Hard.
For instance, "Good Burger" is probably one of the most memorable movies of the ‘90s, and why? Because it was the best-worst movie out there. Keenan and Kel, Nickelodeon's comedic duo, decided to do a movie that epitomized the good-bad genre.
Dexter (Kenan Thompson) steals his mother's car to go joyriding and hits his teacher Sinbad's (who is the ultimate good-bad movie actor — remember the Disney movie "First Kid?") car. After the wreck, Dexter is forced to get a job at a fast food restaurant to pay the damages. There, he meets Ed (Kel Mitchell) and the two work together to keep Good Burger in business after the new-and-improved evil corporate burger joint Mondo Burger opens across the street.
Ed develops a special sauce that becomes an instant hit, and since they're evil like that, Mondo Burger tries to contaminate it with shark poison. Mondo Burger also fails in their attempt to use Carmen Electra as the evil temptress who tries to steal the recipe from Ed.
Ed and Dexter sneak into Mondo Burger and find out they are pumping up their burger patties with a weird chemical that makes them grow three times their normal size. The manager of Mondo Burger then somehow has them committed to a mental hospital so they can't spill the beans to anyone. They escape, and when they go back to Mondo Burger, they accidentally spill the chemical in the meat grinder, which causes a huge explosion that finally brings down the evil empire. Classic American heroes.
Seriously though, try to read that to someone who has never heard of the movie and watch their face scrunch up in confusion as they try to figure out if you are messing with them. Once they've seen it though, how could they not fall in love with these two characters? Mostly Ed. Dear, sweet, dimwitted, yet oh-so-wise Ed.
"Welcome to Good Burger home of the Good Burger can I take your order?" is probably the most repeated phrase of 1997, as it should be.
"Good Burger" isn't on Netflix, but you can watch it in 10 parts on YouTube, and it is completely worth sacrificing the homework you would otherwise do. Also, weirdly enough, in my studious researching, I figured out there is actually a restaurant called Good Burger in New York City. Mass field trip?
With just the right amount of cross-dressing and Ed driving around in a bright burger car (fries on the side), you get a deliciously terrible movie that the 90s generation will never forget.
The views in this column are those of the author and are not necessarily those of The Observer. Contact Courtney Eckerle at cecker01@saintmarys.edu.
