The Coca-Cola Kid

The film is billed as a comedy and will indeed leave you laughing at many of the situations the central characters get themselves in and out of. The movie should be viewed as a satire of the great American sales and marketing force on the global marketplace. A hot shot marketing guru from corporate is assigned to help sales down under. He quickly finds a different pace of life and cultural values that he finds hard to adjust to. He continues on "his way" even down to the music for a new series of commercials. He knows "his way" worked well in the U.S. so it should work well anywhere. Humorous side trips make the journey enjoyable as the guru quickly finds a large area that has no Coca Cola sales. He goes to investigate and finds a local soft drink bottler has the entire area to himself. The guru uses every gorilla marketing trick he knows to bring the local bottler into the Coke family, but the local bottler resists and even offers Coke a deal. Coke invades the local's territory and the local realizes he cannot win against the Coke attack. Coke's decisive win costs the company the guru as he finally begins to understand that other things in life, emotions and cultural values, are more important than business wins. I enjoyed the film and recommend it to you, especially if you want to see a funny version of the 60's novel "The Ugly American."

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.

In some ways "The Coca Cola Kid" may be the weirdest movie famously bizarre Serbian filmmaker Dusan Makavejev ever made. At least with his most out there material such as "WR:Secrets of the Organism" and "Sweet Movie", there was a sense that a sure hand was behind all the strangeness on screen. Even if you didn't get it you knew it meant something or had some purpose. The Coca Cola Kid is a movie without purpose. It is one of those obscure '80s movies that assumes a left-field plot guarantees a worthwhile story. It doesn't. What amazes me is that a filmmaker with such an indelible style as Makavejev was responsible for this yawn-fest. Any filmmaker could have made it. The film stars Eric Roberts as an eccentric, unknowable executive of the Coca Cola company who wants to find out why a town in Australia doesn't use Coke products. So he travels all the way from America to the bush to solve this life altering mystery. There he meets a young lady played by Greta Scacchi who wanders through the movie like a dense Susan Sarandon. She has a daughter played by a pretty bad child actress, and they have a weird bathing scene together which is probably the only reason anyone today would watch this mess. I didn't care at all about anything that happens in this movie. I didn't care about the characters, and some of the comedic subplots or side characters were just boring and stupid, like the hotel busboy who is convinced that the Eric Roberts character is really a secret agent for no reason other than the movie needed comic relief in those scenes. If you are going to have a buffoonish character who the audience should laugh at, it helps to actually have some sense of why or how the character arrived at their misunderstanding. Are they crazy, or stupid, or both? The character appears to be neither, so it seems totally forced and unbearable every time he is on screen. The Coca Cola Kid may be an even bigger mystery than Sweet Movie, but the mystery is not contained in the material, it was there at inception: why did Makavejev make this mess?

Call me strange, call me tasteless, but I found this film to be one of those movies that haunts me. Eric Roberts as the gung-ho Coke executive out to undo T.George McDowell's stranglehold on outback softdrink sales is just amazing. The scene near the beginning where Roberts is scanning an electronic map showing per capita Coke sales throughout Australia is brilliant, especially as they get down into the outback areas and discover that not only are Coke sales slim, but in one area, utterly non-existent. Roberts' growing relationship with Greta Sciacci's character and DMZ, played wonderfully by child actress Rebecca Smart, weaves a romantic thread throughout the film, touching us even as we feel the intense need to thwap him over the head and make him see that this is the woman for him. The scene of Coke trucks driven by Santa Claus costumed drivers pouring into T. George's compound is a killer, especially with that jingle (Sung by Neil Finn of Crowded House fame) roaring in the background. I can't understand why Coke has not purchased the rights to this jingle and used it in its advertising. Like another reviewer, I can't get that jingle out of my mind, even 15 years after seeing the movie.

This film is not without flaws. It is quirky at times, to the point of being disorienting. But it is dotted with poignant moments so profound that I am thoroughly inclined to forgive its minor problems. Eric Roberts is enigmatic, while still being sympathetic. It is an interesting course of development that in the beginning of the film, he is the strangest thing we see and by the end, we find him overwhelmed by the strangeness and complexity of the world he has entered. And in the end, the filmmaker takes perhaps the boldest risk of all, which is to end a film of unrelenting madness, with a simple romantic tie-up (and a strange quip about the end of the world, but whatever...) The comedy works, the characters are appealing, the message is simple yet profound and the music (by the brothers Finn and other ex-members of the Split Enz) is outstanding. What more could you ask for in a movie?

Becker (Eric Roberts) is an eccentric self-possessed sales trouble-shooter sent to Australia from the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta. Terri (Greta Scacchi) is assigned to be his secretary. DMZ is her daughter. He finds one specific area where there is no Coke being sold. It's Anderson valley where Terri comes from. The valley is run by the proud McDowell who makes and sells his own soft drink. He has a history with a Coke advertising girl and together they have a daughter. Becker is looking for the Australian sound. Eric Roberts is terrific. He has a magical moment with a glass of Coke. I'm always surprised at the film's declaration that they have no connection to Coke. His presentation is like a Mamet speech about the love of Coke. Greta Scacchi is funny and super sexy as a Coca Cola Santa. The problem is that the story isn't much in between the fun scenes. Some of the music is catchy and the movie is a bit of fun.

At least the jingle by Tim Finn was melodic. Roberts is the his usual inept self. Characters are inconsistent, dull, purposeless. Roberts changes his accent even within one line.

Dusan Makavejev is a director I admire. Much of his product is completely bonkers. He was never interested in making staid movies or anything generic. He always went for the gusto. It was as if anything could happen in one of his films. If he had been given the reign to direct remakes of any films he would have completely changed everything. I could imagine what he could have done with, say, the remakes of the Steve Martin/Diane Keaton/Martin Short "Father Of The Bride" movies. The Coca-Cola Kid is his most well-known work. The film features Eric Roberts as a whiz kid named Becker who has been sent by Coca-Cola to find out why Coke isn't making any money in the Outback region of Australia. It turns out that a Mom-And-Pop company run by T. George McDowell (Bill Kerr) that has dominated the area. Becker then does whatever he can to buy McDowell out. In the meantime, he strikes up an interesting affair with McDowell's secretary Terri (Greta Scacchi), a single mother who has some ties to Kerr's operations. Much like any Makavejev film, there are some extremely off-the-wall moments. The bedroom scene with the feathers, the drag queen party, the Santa Claus parade and the infamous shower scene where mother and daughter wash up together are some of the crazy things you'll see. Eventually, the movie does lose its focus in favour of its "Crash T.V." content. Still, the movie has some good acting, Scacchi offers up great eye candy and it is truly wacky; even if isn't uproariously funny. It's just so out there. If you want to see Makavejev's unique vision translated on film this should be your first viewing. Montenegro and WR are others worth checking out.

I am an Economics major and may be put through the same things as Eric Roberts (Julia Roberts brother) in the movie. The kid should get all the support and not be framed for being some kind of Judas who wants money. The movie should be watched by everybody who is male with the same problem the kid was born with, if you know what I mean. I had that birth effect for 17 years before having it removed, though I wasn't exactly tied up like the Coca-Cola Kid. My grandmother had the same name Greta like Greta Scacchi. The church yard where she is buried has the shape of Australia. The spilling coffee part in the movie is the most important turning point that makes the viewer understand something else is going on and the drilling in the wall (hope I didn't say too much).I don't even believe my world map, does that make me a master in economics? I have endured just as much as the Coca-cola kid had, only that is a movie and my life is (at least supposed to be) real. I may have just the same internet as he had and I also have the same difficulty to hold the coffee cup steady,....what's that button?.....if you know what I mean. But don't blame me for being aggressive or beating someone. The Coca-cola kid is an example of what the Englishmen did to the aborigians. Maybe many red haired women are racists? The religious aspects of the movie are really important, without saying too much about the end of the movie. And the denying part and threat of using the phone are really important also in the end of the movie, This movie is more important than a movie to me, the lessons to be learned at the end of the movie, when they settle the score so to speak, are soooo important! I hope I conformed to the guidelines because I want my comments to be read by other people.

The Coca-Cola Kid is sort of an Australian version of Local Hero, with the crucial difference that it's much darker. In short, it is about Coca-Cola being brought to the one place on earth where the locals don't already drink it, but it turns out there's a good reason why they don't drink it. This movie should have put Eric Roberts on the map more than it did. It certainly put Greta Scacchi on the map. She plays the daughter of the local softdrink seller, and she's very good, as is Roberts. The scene where he holds a glass of Coke aloft while describing it in near-poetic terms is great satire. For hormonal appeal, the scene where they sleep together on a bed of white feathers is as erotic as anything I've ever seen. At the end, when she smiles at him, suggesting a reprise of that scene, the effect is devastating. This movie is full of good scenes. My personal favorite is the "Waltzing Matilda" scene, which I'd rather not give away. I was surprised at the negative tone of the other comments. This movie deserves a look, so check it out.