Good Burger 2

Although the original 1997 Good Burger film, itself based on a popular sketch from the Nickelodeon series All That, saw commercial success, it would only receive a sequel in the form of a book, Good Burger 2 Go, the following year. 25 years later, however, this book would become non-canon with the formal announcement of Good Burger 2, set for a direct-to-streaming release on Paramount+. Even though I had never watched All That, nor had I seen the original “Good Burger” sketch until very recently, I was still a fan of the original film, and so was curious to see the sequel after it received a big promotional push at San Diego Comic-Con, including a building wrap-around ad and an interactive Good Burger section of the larger Nickelodeon booth. After managing to watch the sequel through Paramount+ on its release day, in the midst of preparing for a Thanksgiving trip the next day, while it did induce a few laughs from me, it wasn’t quite as good or funny as the original.

Good Burger

Note: This review contains spoilers for Good Burger.

Back in 1994, Nickelodeon premiered All That, a live-action sketch comedy series that lasted ten seasons prior to its 2019 revival. Of the many sketches that appeared across the show’s nearly 200 episodes, the recurring “Good Burger” sketch, in which the clueless teenager Ed somehow always messes things up, proved popular enough that in January 1997, Paramount fast-tracked production of a feature film based on it. The final product released in July that same year to mixed critical reception, but proved commercially successful, grossing $23.7 million against its $8.5 million budget, and gained a cult following over time.

As someone who didn’t grow up watching All That, despite it airing during my childhood, I first saw Good Burger completely out of context through someone else’s VHS. Although I had no attention span as a child, Good Burger stood out and after sporadically rewatching it through a later DVD release, I could quote the movie even with up to over a decade between viewings. Naturally, with the release of the direct to streaming sequel Good Burger 2, we rewatched Good Burger once again and found that, while not a great movie, it had held up surprisingly well 26 years later.