‘Good Burger 2’ Review: Sloppy Sequel to Late-’90s Nickelodeon Hit Arrives a Quarter-Century Too Late
23.11.2023 - 05:23
/ variety.com
Murtada Elfadl Arriving a whopping 26 years after 1997’s cult-favorite Nickelodeon comedy, “Good Burger 2” fits the streaming-era trend in which audiences seek a nostalgia bump reconnecting with old favorites, like “Coming to America” or “Hocus Pocus” — not exactly classics so much as modest pleasures from more innocent times. In this obnoxiously unfunny followup from Paramount+, stars Kel Mitchell and Kenan Thompson return as hapless fast food employees.
To update the story to 2023, director Phil Traill and screenwriters Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert add a few new characters and a tiresome AI plot, winding up with a Thanksgiving diversion that functions just fine playing in the background as families gather for their holiday meals. The hook here is presumably a Kenan and Kel reunion, which the movie serves up without delay: Ed (Mitchell) now owns the Good Burger restaurant, where he serves as a benevolent boss, treating his employees with empathy while never losing his enthusiasm or sense of humor.
Dexter (Thompson) is an inventor trying to make ends meet. After the disastrous unveiling of his latest failed device, he’s obliged to return to his teenage job, working alongside Ed.
Even by sequel logic, that setup doesn’t make a lick of sense, but at least it’s swift. Although Mitchell and Thompson are sharing the screen in no time, the audience hardly gets a chance to appreciate their chemistry before tedious new characters are introduced and the film nosedives into a convoluted and humorless plot.
A nefarious businessperson (Jillian Bell) tangentially related to a character from the first movie wants to franchise Good Burger and steal it from Ed. Aided by a shadowy lawyer (Lil Rel Howery), they manage to dupe Dexter
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