MAC AND ME: On Earth 30 Years Later
Lots of questions can arise when you revisit older films. Anything from costume decisions, music choices, and plot lines can all be reminisced with various layers of nostalgia that range from horror to comedy. Regardless, films that you watched sitting cross-legged on the floor as a kid tend to take on a starkly fresh perspective when viewed through the eyes of a more cultured adult lense. Everyone has their guilty pleasures and sometimes the most outlandish songs, fashion trends, and of course films, are ultimately the best because of their apparent shortcomings. Director Stewart Raffill’s 1988 Mac and Me is one of these movies - endlessly flawed but to an endearing fault.
If you grew up in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, there were two pop culture components that invaded your life: aliens and McDonald’s. The horror/sci-fi genre lit up screens with John Carpenter’s The Thing, Sigourney Weaver fiercely fighting off extraterrestrials in Aliens, and the ever-so-traumatic abductions courtesy of Fire in the Sky. All of these alien movies provided ample nightmare fuel for kids, yet we couldn’t stop watching. However, the more innocent and child-friendly movies served a therapeutic reminder that aliens could be amiable creatures that for some reason would want to go on adventures with us unremarkable humans. Films like Flight of the Navigator, The Last Starfighter, and E.T. all presented a youthfully energetic escapism that made intergalactic friendships a really attractive plotline. This was also the golden age of the golden arches complete with tasty food and the cutest collectible toys. What kid wasn’t excited about their gender-stereotyped toy choices of either a Barbie doll or Hot Wheels car? It was the kind of marketing scheme that explains why McDonald’s sells 3.2 million happy meals every day. We're currently situated within the trends of non GMO, veganism, and paleo diets but in the ‘80s and ‘90s, we ate purple colored ketchup and packaged snacks with a shelf-life of at least ten years. Needless to say, we didn’t really view quality in the same way, which made movies and McDonald’s go hand-in-hand. So, when the billion dollar burger enterprise wanted in on the film business, people didn’t think twice.
Producer R.J. Louis conjured up the concept of Mac and Me. Having worked with McDonald’s advertising in the past and affiliated with their charity, he pitched a cross-promotional film that would advertise the restaurant but also supply funds to their philanthropic endeavors. Riding the massive success of Spielberg's E.T., Louis thought the next generation needed their own version. The only premise necessitating the plot of his film pitch was that the star needed to be handicapped and bound to a wheelchair. British screenwriter/director Stewart Raffill (whose professional background resided in training animals for Hollywood) was contacted to write and direct the film. McDonald’s funded the production and yes, brought on Coca-Cola as a sponsor. The narrative consists of a young boy who moves to a new town with his family and eventually befriends a “Mysterious Alien Creature” aka Mac (supposedly the name had no intended allusion to the tasty burger) who is separated from his family. The two misfits develop an otherworldly friendship while evading government agents hot on their trail. Doesn’t sound like a familiar plot at all, right? Aside from the recycled storyline that took Raffill only a couple of weeks to write, there are several reasons why this little martian movie is revered as one of the worst movies ever made and champions a 0% tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Let’s start from the beginning. The aliens' unknown planet from was shot in a desert outside of Palm Springs, and the family of extraterrestrials were created with a combination of professional mimes donning suits and a team of animators controlling their facial expressions in close-up shots. It took five people to maneuver the animatronics in Mac’s face alone and fourteen total when the family was all on camera together. Like highly intoxicated marionnettes, their movements are confusingly languid and appear out of control. Mac discovers Coke (which turns out to be the nectar of life apparently) once he sneaks into the Cruise family van where young Eric (Jade Calegory), his brother Michael (Jonathan Ward), and mother (Christine Ebersole) are all en route to their new suburban home in the hills. Used to holding his hands up in a cupped V-shape and whistling to communicate, Mac struggles to connect with the family and instead drills holes in the wall and decorates the entire house with ferns, taxidermy, and a surplus of foraged rocks to enhance the already overly lavish wooden interior design. Trying to catch a glimpse of Mac, Eric ventures outside-- and unfortunately discovers the cliff that his mother surprisingly forgot to warn him about--resulting in a famous scene where he loses control and flies into the water while his neighbor Debbie (Lauren Stanley) runs after him. The rest of the movie is essentially spent trying to reunite Mac with his family.
Some of the most prominent criticism Mac and Me receives is for its stereotypical tropes, blatant rip-off of E.T., extremely comical and unrealistic events, and excessive product placement. For example, Debbie’s older sister works at McDonald’s, the aliens survive off of Coke, and the alien family obtains not only US citizenship at the end but also a pretty sweet bubblegum pink Cadillac. How did they study for their immigration status and a driver’s license? How did they obtain the money to buy a beautiful vintage car? How is everyone just blindly bypassing the fact that they are STILL aliens? Why did the creators assume there would be a sequel to this madness? There are perpetual instances that make viewers wonder how this film ever got made. Although, that’s kind of why it strangely works. There’s a reason why people freak out if someone says they haven’t seen it before and why it has been elevated to cult status on par with other gems like Troll 2.
It may not seem like it, but there is a lot of talent and positive, heartfelt intentions behind Mac and Me. Jade Calegory did a pretty damn good job for never acting before and impressingly performed the majority of his own stunts. Despite having spina bifida which confined him to a wheelchair, his positive outlook after having a whopping sixteen surgeries before he was thirteen years old is quite inspirational. I’d call that a win, especially since the profits of $6.4 million from the film went to The Ronald McDonald House charity. The film’s soundtrack and Alan Silvestri’s score is also noteworthy. Two-time Oscar nominee and three-time Saturn Award winner, Silvestri has composed films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Back to the Future trilogy, and The Avengers. One of the film’s theme songs, “Take Me, I’ll Follow You”, was performed by Bobby Caldwell whose songs have been sampled by Tupac and John Legend. Even the spectacular dance sequence song, “Down to Earth” was produced by Hall of Fame songwriter Allee Willis (known for her collaborations with Earth, Wind, and Fire) and performed by Ashford & Simpson best known for their hit “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”.
Mac and Me is a guilty pleasure that has been remembered over the years for too many absurd reasons to name. As Scott says, this movie is most definitely a “trashterpiece”, but its flaws are what make it memorable and enjoyable decades later. And in a way, that’s sometimes the beauty of movies, right? Not all films are going to be masterpieces and part of the fun of being a cinephile is revisiting ones that make you wonder what the fuck people were thinking when they made it. So, for all of these reasons, thirty years later the people of Earth are thankfully still embracing this mysterious alien creature, and I have to say (in true McDonald’s fashion), I’m lovin’ it.
