“Mac and Me” is a 1988 American science fiction film co-written and directed by Stewart Raffill, featuring a story where a family of aliens, including the character Mac, accidentally ends up on Earth after being sucked into a US space probe. The film follows the heartwarming journey of a wheelchair-bound boy who befriends the alien, helping him return home while discovering magical experiences along the way. Known for its themes of friendship and adventure as we;; as just being a 90 minute McDonalds commercial.
Review by Ben Dover:
Ah yes, the cinematic tour de force that is Mac and Me – a shameless 90-minute McDonald’s commercial masquerading as an E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial rip-off. This 1988 “classic” is a prime example of crass corporate interests fully taking over the artistic process. Let’s get cranky indeed as we tear into this weird amalgamation of product placement and thinly-veiled plagiarism.
Right off the bat, the movie’s title is a dead giveaway that this will be a celebration of capitalism over creativity. Mac and Me? More like Big Mac and a side of Me Wanting My Money Back, am I right? The plot, if you can even call it that, follows a family whose mundane suburban lives are disrupted by the arrival of a bulbous-headed alien creature…and their fortuitous proximity to numerous McDonald’s locations.
What follows is a barrage of not-so-subtle product placements that would make even the sleaziest marketing executives blush. From awkwardly shoehorned McDonald’s dances to lingering shots of those golden arches and Big Mac containers, Mac and Me hammers you over the head with its true intentions. At times it feels less like a movie and more like a particularly aggressive McDonald’s training video.
The laziness doesn’t stop there – huge swaths of the film pretty much just repackage iconic scenes from E.T. with a cheap McDonald’s-inspired veneer. There’s the kids dressing up the alien in dress shirts and ties. There’s the kids constructing an alien communicator out of a coat hanger and beer cans. It’s painfully derivative in the most cynical way possible.
But perhaps the most mind-numbing part is that Mac and Me was actually fairly successful upon its initial release, raking in over $6 million. Let that marinate for a second – people willingly paid money to consume what is essentially a 90-minute McDonald’s commercial awkwardly cribbing from one of the most beloved family films of all time.
In the end, Mac and Me is a cinematic blemish – a crass exercise in corporate greed and utter lack of originality that somehow struck a nerve with the masses in 1988. The fact that it exists at all is an affront to talented filmmakers everywhere just trying to tell a cohesive, brand-free story. A true low point in American cinema’s flirtations with insidious marketing ploys.
Rotten Tomatoes 7%:
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 McDonalds and Coca-Cola. Read critic reviews
Mac and Me Trailer:
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