Mac and Me is one of those movies that makes you wonder, “Who thought this was a good idea?” Released in 1988, it’s a shameless attempt to cash in on the success of E.T., but instead of capturing the magic, it serves up something so bizarre that you can’t help but be amazed—though maybe not in the way the filmmakers intended.
Let’s talk about the title. Mac and Me sounds like it should be a cute, heartwarming tale, but don’t be fooled. This movie should really be called McNugget and Me, based on the over-the-top product placement and insane character design, but we’ll come back to that later. The plot is a blatant knockoff of E.T., but instead of delivering a touching story about friendship, we get a weird, awkward mess that somehow manages to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.
McCrispy and his alien family look like someone tried to make E.T. out of Play-Doh, set it on fire and put out with a baseball bat. Their design is both unsettling and unintentionally funny, especially since they spend the entire movie with wide-eyed expressions, as if even they can’t believe what’s happening. They have special abilities like levitation and healing, but the real kicker is their strange method of communication, which involves what looks like gang signs and whistling. It’s so odd, it almost feels like the filmmakers were playing a joke on the audience.
The plot is where the real absurdity kicks in. Instead of a sweet, secret mission like in E.T., McRib and his family get sucked up by a vacuum cleaner hose on a space rover. Yes, you read that right. The special effects are so cheap, it’s like they ran out of money and finished the film off in PowerPoint. The story then follows the same beats as E.T., except that McChicken gets separated from his family because they just go in a different direction. It’s lazy, it’s ridiculous, and yet, it’s kind of fascinating in its awfulness.
But the ending is where the film really goes off the deep end. In a twist that no one could have seen coming, McDouble and his family become U.S. citizens. They dress up in human clothes, take the oath, and then drive off in a convertible, with McMuffin blowing a bubblegum bubble that pops to say, “We’ll be back soon.” It’s the kind of ending that leaves you questioning what you just watched, and it’s a shame we never got a sequel to see where this madness would have gone next, like how McFeast and his family dealt with buying a house, keeping up with the Kardashians, or McBites’ spiral into substance abuse from his Coca Cola addiction.
There are also a few standout scenes that have become legendary in their own right. The most famous is probably when Eric, the kid in the wheelchair, rolls off a cliff in pursuit of McSpicy. The special effects are so terrible, it’s no surprise that Paul Rudd has been trolling talk shows with this clip for years. Then there’s the inexplicable McDonald’s dance scene, where everyone in the restaurant suddenly starts dancing like they’re in a music video. It’s pure product placement, but it’s so random and unnecessary that it ends up being one of the most memorable parts of the film.
Conclusion
McFlurry and Me is a terrible movie, but it’s so terrible that it’s kind of amazing. It’s the kind of film that’s fun to watch just to see how bizarre and bad it can get. If you’re in the mood for a good-bad movie, this one definitely delivers. Just don’t expect anything resembling quality filmmaking.
