Good Burger is zany fun. While it lacks interesting forward momentum for those looking for anything substantial, Ed (Kel Mitchell) and Dexter Reed’s (Kenan Thompson) budding chemistry and unique star power, combined with Mitchell’s then-known Nickelodeon program-starring crass idiocy, make Good Burger live up to its name through sheer tomfoolery. Good Burger, a highly popular but rundown fast food burger joint, is cashiered by stupid-but-sweet Ed, a man so dedicated to his work that he showers in his uniform and memorizes his standard customer service lines—”Welcome to Good Burger, home of the good burger! Can I take your order?” he repeats often with in a goofily upkeyed tone—because it’s simply part of the job. One day, while rollerskating to work, Ed gets into a car accident with a summer ecstatic Dexter, who swerves around Ed and hits the car of his teacher, Mr. Wheat (Sinbad). To pay off Mr. Wheat’s damages, he promises to get a summer job and ends up going to Mondo Burger, Good Burger’s closest competitor. Located across the street from Ed’s joint, Mondo Burger is a heavily financed burger joint run by narcissistic popstar wannabe Kurt Bozwell (Jan Schweiterman) that succeeds on selling oversized burgers. After finding Mondo Burger’s fiercely competitive and vain working environment to be overly toxic, he gets himself hired at Good Burger, before he and Ed become good friends. Together, they must stop Kurt and his goons and ensure that Good Burger comes out the tastiest and most profitable.

Good Burger should not be watched as anything beyond a lightly socially aware display of idiocy winning out. Thompson and Mitchell elegantly bounce off each other’s posed sluggishness, with the former’s witty banter enhancing the latter’s lack of intelligence to a boisterous appeal. While the story around them is flatly predictable, their dynamic and individual quirks keep Burger, well, Good. “Ah! A clock!” a blank-eyed, pretty-faced Ed hollers upon waking up to his alarm, before singing about how everyone’s a dude fully clothed in the shower. With Thompson poised as the sassy comedic straight man, and with the pair thrown into a world of dazzlingly LA-orange grit, colorful street signs, and ’90s jumpsuits, their humorous priorities keep viewers at least entertained. That’s not to say the pair doesn’t experience hardship and proper bonding, though. While their characters, like much of the rest of Good Burger, are vastly limited by the film’s consistently dumb overtone, there are some good moments. For example, in the only time Ed and Dexter hang out, Dexter reveals how his deadbeat father got him a light-up yo-yo before that eventually stopped working. Later on, Ed shows up still idiotically bumbling, but with such a colorful yo-yo for Dexter. Dexter asks why, to which Ed gives the most genuine answer anyone would want: “because we’re buds!” Such loyalty and companionship form Good Burger‘s backbone, because without each other and the rest of their co-workers, Good Burger stood no chance against Mondo. But together, friends and/or co-workers can do anything, as Dexter and Ed incidentally demonstrate.

Thus, while Good Burger offers little in terms of fundamental cinematic value (good characters, profound themes, memorable writing, etc.), its central duo and their comedic timing amidst all the zany humor make Good Burger a tasty treat to mindlessly cackle at. For Nickolodeon fans, cast fans, and mindless comedy fans, Good Burger‘s delicious at its core, even if the condiments are missing or expired.

Screens outdoors for free Wednesday, 6/18, 8:00 p.m. @ Charles River Speedway via Coolidge Corner Theatre
Part of the ongoing repertory series: Coolidge at the Speedway & Outdoors