Mac and Me (1988)

Movie Info

Get the rush and see Mac and Me!

A NASA ship accidentally sucks in an alien family and rockets them back to Earth.  When the family is split up and their youngest child becomes lost, he finds the Cruise family as they move to California.  Eric (Jade Calegory) discovers Mac and now must keep Mac out of the hands of the government who is hunting him.  Teamed with his brother Michael (Jonathan Ward) and his neighbors Debbie (Lauren Stanley) and Courtney (Tina Caspary), Eric and Mac are on the adventure of their lives…if Eric and Michael’s mother Janet (Christine Ebersole) doesn’t ground them.

Directed by Stewart Raffill, Mac and Me is a family science-fiction adventure film.  The movie was a critical and financial failure.  The movie gained a cult following over the years.  The film won Razzies for Worst New Star (Ronald McDonald) and Worst Director with nominations for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay and was also featured in Mystery Science Theater—Season 12 (called MST3K:  The Gauntlet) on Netflix.

Ain’t no party like a McDonalds dance party…and the fact no one is concerned that there is someone dancing on the now completely un-sterile counter

I saw Mac and Me not long after it came out on video.  I didn’t choose to see the movie and saw it at a sleepover…where my friend started sobbing uncontrollably during the film.  It was a weird night.  He said it reminded him of something…I don’t know what police shooting at aliens could remind a middle schooler of, but it was a memorable experience.  Rewatching Mac and Me reminds me of what a terrible (but so-bad-it-is-good) movie it is.

The movie started out as trying to be a positive film for disabilities and family friendly.  It ended up an E.T. rip-off that hocked McDonalds and Coke.  The story clunks along with no originality, humor, or fun and often feels like the actors, and the cast don’t really know what they are supposed to be doing.  While E.T. was a nice story that captured childhood and the wonder of secrets children keep, Mac and Me is soulless.

The story largely surrounds Jade Calegory who is in a wheelchair in real life due to spina bifida, but Calegory is too shiny and happy as Mac’s friend.  The movie even has the other “E.T.” characters with a best friend Lauren Stanley and a brother who is even named Michael (like the older brother in E.T.).  Christine Ebersole is the “veteran” actor of the bunch but even she is rather weak as the mother…the whole cast looks like it is struggling to determine what they are doing.

Oddly enough, this is exactly how I expected the movie to end

The movie is total ’80s.  The movie’s main feature point is Mac and his family who are quite hideous, but unlike E.T. (who isn’t that much of a looker), they don’t have the spirit of E.T.  The movie’s high point is the McDonald’s dance party which has Mac dancing on the counter in a bear costume (which is very sanitary).  Jennifer Aniston makes her screen “debut” as one of the people watching the dancers.

Mac and Me is just bad, but it must be seen to even understand.  It is like E.T. phoned home and scammed you into taking a collect call.  I might recommend the MST3K version simply because they say everything you are probably thinking while watching it.  The movie promises Mac and his family will be back.  Oddly enough, I could see it happening as a parody of this film…aka what happened to the new aliens on Earth (maybe Alf can cameo).