The Coca-Cola Kid (1985)

Makavejev's recipe for finally making some money. And it works! This is in the same time his worst and most famous movie. The stupid Hollywood comedy part and casting attracts random public and secures watchability for everyone, and the other art part was fun to make in his own surrealist style and observe the reactions, including the one from the coca cola company. How did a Serbian avanguard director get to organize such a team and set (action star Eric Roberts as an American marketing guru sent to Australia) remains a funny mystery to me. Every Makavejev movie is completely different so even here it was hard to imagine where will the movie go, this is the first one that made me laugh. Eric is actually very good, Greta Scacchi even better(!), and i also liked the guy with pipe, all the acting is decent, but i think the real star is the little girl (Rebecca Smart), she's just brilliant. So this is basically a crossroad: if you liked the part that made "no" sense google Makavejev, otherwise keep with Eric Roberts.

This is a marginal movie, easily forgettable among a large string of low budget movies trying to cash in on the early American interest in Australia in the mid-1980's. If it has a true failing, it is in being considered a comedy, which I feel it isn't. It is closer to a drama, a story of a supremely confident man being thrust into a world he has no real understanding of.The acting is actually quite good, and the odd little twists that his journey takes are truly enjoyable, but it gets bogged down in clashes of dueling pride, of a lack of even the most minimal attempts to understand the Australian culture, and a penchant for using nudity to move the movie along. There are numerous questionable characters, people that seem to be in the movie simply to provide a momentary diversion from a real plot. It does manage to steer around several bits of stereotyping, such as presenting an Aborigine musician who never flinches at being patronized, even flippantly handing over a business card advertising his services.The visuals are wonderful, including one of the most spectacular sunrise shots across the Outback. The movie does a wonderful job of showing bits of the mixture that Australia is, including a roving patrolman riding a camel, and trying to address the great question - "What is the pure Australian experience?". If they had found a way to fill the movie with more of these moments, it might have been far better.I'd recommend this movie for one of those nights when nothing else seems right. It's a decent time passer, but shouldn't be taken too seriously.

I started watching The Coca-Cola Kid with the assumption that it would be like other Australian comedies I have seen in which a gung-ho businessman of some sort wants to change a rather dogmatic, traditional industrialist like 'Spotswood' or, in reference to homeowners, 'The Castle.' And true, that is the initial plot in 'The Coca-Cola Kid.' Eric Roberts plays an efficient Southern businessman who plays a key role for the Australian marketing department for the Australian headquarters for the Coca-Cola Company. While trying to assess the markets and potential successful marketing ploys, he learns that there is a large portion of a rural section of Australia that has no Coca-Cola distribution whatsoever and he wants to know why. Enter lovable and genuine old-timer, T. George McDowell, who has his own successful and self-sufficient coke company which monopolizes the area. It is the last of its kind and Becker, who cannot simply fathom any section of the world that has no option of Coca-Cola beverages (he even goes so far to say that freedom cannot be established without global presence of Coca-Cola) intends to compete with McDowell. But, McDowell, used to the frequent visits from Coca-Cola marketing executives who try to make deals (and offer to buy him out?), figures that Becker is another lightweight (at least, initially) and is not ready to give in without a fight. This is essentially the crux of the story, the global company versus the independent.But, the movie takes both an odd and confusing turn at about the time that Becker tries to rain on Mr. McDowell's parade when he shows up at the Rotary Dance with Santa's offering the audience free samples of Coca-Cola. Because, this is about the same time that the story shifts it focus from the main plot to the subplot involving Becker and his eccentric former secretary (played by Gretta Scacchi). Although, I can understand that this is no less essential to the story because Becker, in his involvement with the secretary, is finally pulled from his impersonal role as marketing executive and forced to eventually take on a more humanistic role. But getting there was so weird, and this is especially evident from the sequences where Becker gets drunk and shows up at the drag queen club. And, it is probably Becker's exceedingly weird emptiness that creates such an odd atmosphere and, at least for me, some of the confusion. I don't know if this is how we are supposed to view Becker, or if Eric Robert's strange performance just leads to this. Nonetheless, after slagging through this rather strange and abrupt shift in mood and, eventually, focus, the rest of the film pulls through rather nicely with a somewhat humorous (especially the events involving the hotel bellhop who is convinced that Becker is in the CIA) and ultimately sad ending that makes Becker rethink his situation. The filmmakers offer both a mix of the happy ending and not-so-happy ending (you have to watch it to see what I mean). A pleasant, but unusual Aussie comedy/drama that may be worth your time if you can find it. Just don't go into it with the expectations that it is yet another steadily simple narrative or a typical feel-good Australian comedy.

A film more remembered for Greta Scacchi than Eric Roberts. The Coca Cola salesman discovers that not everything goes with Coke. A very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours and if it comes your way, be sure and catch it. It will be worth the time!!