A 'Good Burger' With Humor on It

Movie critic rule of thumb: It’s a pretty good indication that you are not about to see "Les Enfants du Paradis" when the press guide is shaped like a hamburger.

Oddly enough, though, "Good Burger" is about children in paradise -- summer vacation, that is. Not oddly at all, it’s also about hamburgers.

"Good Burger" is an extension of a famous bit from Nickelodeon’s all-kid sketch comedy series "All That," featuring a teen version of Laurel and Hardy played by Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. In fact the whole "All That" team, including director Brian Robbins, producer Mike Tollin and writer Dan Schneider are involved.

But it’s really Kenan and Kel’s show. The endearing two are far more interesting and far funnier than the somewhat lame plot in which they’re anchored. Thompson is Dexter, the one with Ollie’s excess of avoirdupois and guile. His eyes always beam with plots, schemes, scams, shortcuts and pranks.

Naturally, he’s not as smart as he thinks.

Mitchell’s Ed is the Stan figure, innocent of metaphor and guilty of interpreting the universe at the most literal level. Tell him to watch his butt, and of course he spends the next few minutes in desperate pirouettes trying to get a glimpse of that anterior zone, unfazed by the fact that the physiology of the body won’t permit such a vista. Naturally, he’s not as dumb as he thinks.

The plot finds these two teen-aged pilgrims of the service economy in the cross-fire of a war between burger joints. Mondo Burger -- fronted by a scrawny neo-Nazi played by Jan Schwieterman who faces a fine future taking all the roles David Spade turns down -- literally wants to take over the world. First it must take over Good Burger across the street, a funky, down-home, multi-culti kind of place that despite its feckless incompetence is a neighborhood institution.

When the movie goes high tech toward the end -- with frantic plot twists, kidnappings, exploding hamburgers and the fiery destruction of a fast food joint conceived as a museum display of crass consumerism -- it tends to lose contact with the character work that provided its original charm.

But, set in a world lit with primary colors to suggest the elementary quality of the plot logic, it has the kind of weirdness, buzz and edge that kids love, as well as some neat sight jokes. Most adults will find it as tiresome as their younger kids will find it delightful, but when Ed is locked in a room with padded walls and exclaims "Neat!" and begins to throw himself against them in glee, anyone who doesn’t smile is probably either too adult to count or too dead to care.

GOOD BURGER (PG) — Contains mild sexual innuendo.