Mac and Me is one of those few movies that truly fly below the radar of most peoples' memories. I'm thinking that this is selective memory, because this movie makes such a crappy impression that it's hard to forget.
This movie's first strike is that it's a blatant rip-off of E.T, and they couldn't even wait till the next decade to try and capitalize on it. E.T. at least was a good movie that kids and adults alike could enjoy, if for different reasons. Mac and Me is clearly aimed at kids, but it falls woefully short by virtue of the fact that it's no fun for kids and the aliens are very disturbing in appearance. There are no jokes or scenarios that adults (or kids for that matter) would find funny. As noted by other reviewers, there are numerous product placements made in such an obvious way that it's laughable any ad exec would want to take part. In fact, most people that do remember this film remember most vividly the McDonald's break-dance scene. A pack of perfectly choreographed kids manage to fend off government thugs trying to get "Mac" by busting into an 80's break dance. In McDonalds. What? The most irritating part is the alien family. They live on some moon that US spacecrafts can visit and return to earth from (this is set in the present day of 1988, mind you). They drink a dark liquid (Coke, evidently) out of the ground. Throughout the film, they never show any sign of thought above the level of sea slug, they just mope around looking dumb, drunk, and without genitals. They waddle when they walk. They have some sort of mystical power by which they can resurrect the dead (huh?). Then, at the end of the movie, when you think that surely they go away, NO, they are naturalized as US citizens and given driver's licenses so they can drive a pink Cadillac convertible around. The government thugs have reversed the short-sightedness of their plan to study the aliens, and decide that they will allow space aliens to live among us, so long as they wear clothes from now on. This movie is just so random.
Thank god they never made a sequel to this (it appears that they wanted to - "We'll be back!") and thank God that this movie will sink to the bowels of society's collective consciousness. What makes this movie so bad is that it almost defies logic that such a bad film of total incoherence would come from a big budget release and a reputable studio.
This movie's first strike is that it's a blatant rip-off of E.T, and they couldn't even wait till the next decade to try and capitalize on it. E.T. at least was a good movie that kids and adults alike could enjoy, if for different reasons. Mac and Me is clearly aimed at kids, but it falls woefully short by virtue of the fact that it's no fun for kids and the aliens are very disturbing in appearance. There are no jokes or scenarios that adults (or kids for that matter) would find funny. As noted by other reviewers, there are numerous product placements made in such an obvious way that it's laughable any ad exec would want to take part. In fact, most people that do remember this film remember most vividly the McDonald's break-dance scene. A pack of perfectly choreographed kids manage to fend off government thugs trying to get "Mac" by busting into an 80's break dance. In McDonalds. What? The most irritating part is the alien family. They live on some moon that US spacecrafts can visit and return to earth from (this is set in the present day of 1988, mind you). They drink a dark liquid (Coke, evidently) out of the ground. Throughout the film, they never show any sign of thought above the level of sea slug, they just mope around looking dumb, drunk, and without genitals. They waddle when they walk. They have some sort of mystical power by which they can resurrect the dead (huh?). Then, at the end of the movie, when you think that surely they go away, NO, they are naturalized as US citizens and given driver's licenses so they can drive a pink Cadillac convertible around. The government thugs have reversed the short-sightedness of their plan to study the aliens, and decide that they will allow space aliens to live among us, so long as they wear clothes from now on. This movie is just so random.
Thank god they never made a sequel to this (it appears that they wanted to - "We'll be back!") and thank God that this movie will sink to the bowels of society's collective consciousness. What makes this movie so bad is that it almost defies logic that such a bad film of total incoherence would come from a big budget release and a reputable studio.