Photo by Pablo Merchán Montes on Unsplash
Nickelodeon cooks up a worthy sequel to the classic Good Burger
By Jayvin Williams
Staff writer
Welcome to Truth from the Youth, home of journalism, may I take your review?
In late November, the sequel to the Nickelodeon original film Good Burger was released on Paramount+. Good Burger 2 came 26 years after the original film. With all the time between the movies, did Good Burger 2 live up to the original, and was it worth the wait?
Even though the sequel did not fully live up to the charm of the original film, it’s still a satisfying movie. Kel Mitchell and Kenan Thompson respectively reprise their roles as Ed and Dex, and their chemistry on screen still works decades later.
As young actors Kenan and Kel before the first Good Burger film had been seen on other Nickelodeon shows such as All That, and their sitcom series Kenan & Kel. They took their silly humor from those two shows and implemented it into Good Burger. The first Good Burger could be seen as a cult classic because of their goofy actions and memorable catch phrases like, “Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, may I take your order?” While some of the jokes were repetitive, the film remained charming.
Good Burger 2 keeps up with the sense of tomfoolery and silliness of the first film. Language jokes such as Ed mistaking the phrase “soup or salad?” with a “super salad!” keep things light and refreshing and are reminders of the humor of the first film.
However, the 26-year difference between the movies changes the way jokes are delivered. Due to Kel’s and Kenan’s ages, some line deliveries couldn’t match up to their lines when they were younger. Some of the jokes seemed forced and didn’t land as they were intended to. But overall, it was still a funny movie.
The first movie introduces the antagonist Kurt Boswell, whose initiative is to put Good Burger out of business and promote his own business, Mondo Burger. But in the end, his plan backfired and he got arrested. In the sequel, it is eventually revealed in a twist that the antagonist is Kurt’s sister, Kat Boswell, who plans to enact revenge on Ed and Dex by taking control of Good Burger. While the first film’s plot was good and intriguing, the sequel’s was superior. The sequel’s plot twist was a better pay-off to the audience than if they had revealed who the villain was in the beginning like the first film.
Altogether, both films give off a relatable and relevant feel due to the chemistry of their casts. Whether you were a kid seeing the first one or an adult taking your kids to see the next, the films will take your order and serve you up some laughs.