Stewart Raffill | U | 98 Minutes | 01/01/1988

Mac and Me follows an alien who falls to earth in the 1980’s and befriends a young boy who helps to reunite him with his family. Sound familiar?

The start of this film is promising. Although its blatantly an E.T. rip off, and the aliens in it are haunting to look at- the opening scenes present this film as a fun, 80’s family feature. Low budget perhaps, but charming enough. I enjoyed this film initially, and I tried to maintain this positivity throughout. I think it was about an hour in, when the characters broke out into a choreographed dance routine in a McDonalds when I realised I couldn’t keep it up.

This films first glaring flaw is that its alien lead is terrifying (as is his family). Now sure, I’m looking at this creature work through the eyes of someone living in 2020, who’s seen such wonders as Baby Yoda. However, its important to remember that this film came out six years after E.T. This alien doesn’t even look good by the standards of the time. It was audacious of these filmmakers to try and recreate one of the most beloved characters of the 80’s- to try and recreate the highest grossing film of all time at this point. But with such low production values it was bound to fail.

One early scene, in which Mac steals a toy car and goes for a joyride, really highlights the poor quality of this creature work. As he zooms around the street, mouth permanently open and eyes unblinking, his body jiggles around like an inanimate object, his neck flings from side to side like a rag doll. Now I know its probably pointless to question the realism of a film about an alien who drinks Coke and steals cars, but I think that a basic requirement for a film like this- a film centred around a supposedly lovable creature- is that the central creature should be believable as a living thing. Even by the standards of 1988 MAC is not believable. At most times he looks like a toy- a badly made toy.

I previously mentioned a dance sequence in a McDonalds. This is just one of many references in this 98 minute advert for McDonalds. The amount of product placement here is ridiculous. Within the context of the film MAC stands for ‘mysterious alien creature’, but when the golden arches literally loom ominously over many scenes in this movie, its somewhat hard to believe that the dual meaning is coincidental. The girl who lives next door works at McDonalds and wears her uniform in most scenes, the characters constantly refer to items from the McDonalds menu and a whole birthday party sequence takes place in a McDonalds. The same treatment is given to Coke, which is casually peppered throughout the film. Towards the end of the film, Coke is used as a magic elixir which is the only thing that can nurse Macs family back to health. It’s tough to say which product placement is worse.

This film could perhaps be improved if it committed to one style and stuck to it. The tone shifts all over the place from an earnest attempt to create a good kids film, to a heartless cash grab. The soundtrack alternates between an uplifting, whimsical Spielberg-ian score and inspirational 80’s music, which feels out of place every time it plays. It’s strange outburst into dance could be even acceptable if this was a film that incorporated more dance and musical elements throughout. This feels like a film that can’t decide what it wants to be, and as a result it struggles to be much of anything. It blatantly copies scenarios from E.T., such as a scene in which Mac is dressed up to blend in at a birthday party. Unlike E.T. dressing as a ghost to go trick or treating, Macs disguise as a human sized teddy bear is nonsensical- especially considering that he walks around and dances on tables and no one questions why Eric’s toy is seemingly alive. The whole point of the scene in E.T. is that he looks like a child trick or treating- not a haunted doll.

This film isn’t all bad though. Its somewhat progressive that the protagonist Eric is a child in a wheelchair. This is something that never really draws any negative attention or questions from other characters. Everyone in the film just accepts his disability without any comment. This sensitivity goes out of the window though in action sequences such as the one where he accidentally rolls off a cliff and nearly drowns; but for the most part I suppose its positive representation.

To finish it all off, this film takes an oddly patriotic turn towards the end when Macs family are granted US citizenship and drive away in a Cadillac wearing their Sunday best. Perhaps this is a genuine attempt to promote acceptance and deliver a positive message about immigration. If that’s the case though, that meaning gets a bit lost after the previous 90 minutes of McDonalds worship and using Coca Cola as the elixir of life. It comes across more as a gloomy story of an outsiders assimilation into American capitalist culture.

Its unoriginality is its downfall, and its telling that this film only reenters the public consciousness every couple of years when Paul Rudd uses it to torture Conan O’Brien (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, look up clips of Paul Rudd on Conan). Like Buckaroo Banzai and Masters of the Universe before it, this film teases a never to be made sequel- one which I don’t see coming any time soon.

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