We've all encountered those films that your friends joke about and tell you that "you HAVE to see". Often times these turn out to be long forgotten throw-away films from the 1980s. (Why the 80s turned out so many of these types of films will forever remain a mystery) This is the case with
The Coca-Cola Kid, from the director who brought you
Montenegro (not surprisingly, also an 80s film that you've never heard of).
I had more than a few friends tell me wild stories about The Coca-Cola Kid, resulting in it taking on almost mythical status. Finally, they showed it to me. It was crazy they told me. I would certainly find out.
The first thing one needs to know is that the star of this picture is none other than Eric Roberts. There is bad acting and then there is the Eric Roberts School of Acting. I’ve seen plenty of poorly delivered lines in my years of watching movies (“Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo”) and not surprisingly it turns out that the majority of them were in The Coca-Cola Kid. Granted, the cast had very little to work with but damn, it was borderline criminal at times. The most shocking thing to me is the fact that Eric Roberts can actually use the title Academy Award Nominee (Runaway Train (1985)) Ugh.
The second thing one needs to know is that in no way was Coca-Cola actually associated with this film. An opening text crawl made sure to get that point across; it practically trumped the FBI WARNING. I’d say that was a good move on the part of Coke. Even so, the product placement put today’s worst offenders to shame, not surprising given the title of the film.
The plot of this film centers on the work of Becker (Roberts), an American marketing “wiz kid” that Coke sends to their Australian branch office. The film opens with a cryptic fax that precedes Becker’s arrival, directing the office to simply “listen closely to him” even though he may seem strange. Enter Roberts. This guy is not crazy, but his behavior and demeanor is nothing short of bizarre made all the worse by the culture gap between Aussies and American’s, the wholly overlooked or rather MISSED actual point of the film.
We are quickly introduced to a Coke staffer named Terri (Greta Scacchi) who it turns out happens to possess knowledge about a backwoods (or rather Outback) town where Coca-Cola has absolutely no market presence. As it turns out, no one has ever been able to penetrate the locality. Becker becomes obsessed with finding out why and adventure ensues.
Long story short, this small community has a local brand of cola produced by a mysterious and equally quirky American ex-patriot named T George McDowell who just so happens to be Terri’s estranged father. Becker ends up getting a face to face with T. George and a plant tour after almost being killed in an attempt to scare him off. He becomes enamored with the small, simple operation and seeks partnership. Well, sort of. Having fallen in love with Terri (shocker there!) he arranges a deal to partner, but really its just a ploy to get Coke a chance to break into the tiny town. How the story ends, I will not spoil.
This movie has charm in its quirkiness, but it is undeniably strange. In the director’s cut that I got to watch (yes, someone pony-ed up money to make a director’s cut) there was an added shower scene which is literally nothing more than Terri and her 7 year old daughter showering together and having an otherwise normal conversation. How they are allowed to show full frontal child nudity is one question the group I was with had along with why the hell they decided to add the scene in the first place?! No one knows.
There are attempts at humor in this film that I’m sure appeal to someone out there but most of them fell flat with me; we were laughing more at the film than with it. There was dialogue that came across with the grace of a bear trap and was only made worse by Robert and co’s inept acting. The editing, too, raised questions. Stuff would just happen in a very stream of consciousness manner raising questions as to whether David Lynch was an understudy.
The crown jewel of The Coca-Cola Kid is, without a doubt, the very final scene of the film just before the credits roll. Something happens that is seemingly so bizarre that it is in fact the biggest reason I was shown this film. I will defend it as not being entirely crazy, however, because if you *gulp* look at this film with a deeper focus, it does make sense. Still, pleading the case is not worth the effort. I know that it is not.
I have no idea where films like this come from, but as previously stated, the 80s seemed to spontaneously spawn this kind of stuff. This film is quirky enough to make for a great group viewing experience, but I really can’t recommend it for the solitary viewer. That is unless, of course, you are a big fan of Dusan Makavejev’s stuff. Chances are, you’ve never heard of him… or this movie. 4/10
We've all encountered those films that your friends joke about and tell you that "you HAVE to see". Often times these turn out to be long forgotten throw-away films from the 1980s. (Why the 80s turned out so many of these types of films will forever remain a mystery) This is the case with The Coca-Cola Kid, from the director who brought you 
2 comments:
Does Eric Roberts turn out to be an alien/angel/robot/all of the above?
The shower scene was not an extra; it was always part of the film, even when I used to see it on the old Z-Channel in Southern California in the 1980's.
That shower scene caused an uproar in the Reagan Administration, and they actually tried to ban the film as a result. They may have removed that scene in some prints, but I remember it clearly when I first saw the film in 1986, long before there were "Director's Cut" DVD's.
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