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231. Mac and Me (-#83)

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Niall Glynn and Richard Drumm, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, Stewart Raffill’s Mac and Me.

Following a move to California, young Eric is feeling a little alienated and disconnected. However, the young boy’s life is quickly turned upside down following a chance encounter with a creature from another world that has a strange hunger for Coca-Cola and Skittles.

At time of recording, it was ranked 83rd on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: alan silvestri, alien, aliens, brand, e.t., eighties, fifties, ice pirates, mac and me, McDonalds, niall glynn, nostalgia, podcast, product placement, richard drumm, stewart raffill, The 250, throwback, vhs | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Talladega Nights – The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Darren

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is not as good as Anchorman. That said, this reunion of Will Ferrell with Adam McKay has its charm – helped along by the fact that its comedy is framed inside a wonderful little story, and acted out by all manner of skilled performers. I think, if anything, the movie stands as a testament to the huge difference that a sympathetic and engaging protagonist and strong supporting cast can make to a comedy.

A breath of fresh air...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: adam mckay, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, business, gary cole, john c. reilly, Leslie Bibb, Nashville Superspeedway, non-review review, Pat Benatar, product placement, review, Step Brothers (film), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, will ferrell | 4 Comments »

Policing Product Placement…

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Darren

Product placement. Sponsorship. Payola. Image branding. Advertising. Astroturfing. The use of media – old and new – to sell products to people – whether they know you’re selling it to them or not. It has always been a bit of a thorny issue – with laws popping up against the legendary, but ultimately unproven, “subliminal advertising” – the flashing of words and images between the stills of a movie so fast that the audience couldn’t actually see them (though some would claim that these images made a subconscious impression, it has been difficult to consistently reproduce – but it was still banned). The last few decades in particular have seen a flurry of rules and regulations attempting to regulate what you can sell to who and how. But is advertising that easy to regulate?