Before Eric Roberts was just another addict on “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew” he was “The Coca-Cola Kid.”
Roberts, brother of Julia and a one-time Oscar nominee, has fallen on hard times. But in the ’80s he rivaled Mickey Rourke for screen intensity and magnetism. And “The Coca-Cola Kid” proves it.
The film’s unique formula didn’t spark mass market consumption. Roberts makes the movie his own all the same, spinning his innate charisma for an Aussie comedy worth a fresh look.
Roberts stars as Becker, a hotshot Coca Cola executive flown into an Australian Coke plant to increase profits. It’s what he does even with locations already selling plenty of the bubbly brown drink. He gets the job done, even if the employees don’t know there’s a job that needs doing.
Becker discovers a small Australian town where not a drop of Coke product flows. An eccentric soda entrepreneur (Bill Kerr) peddles his own carbonated beverage and won’t let any competitors in.
That’s just the kind of challenge Becker craves. But he doesn’t expect to develop feelings for Terri (Greta Scacchi), one of the Coke plant’s employees, or the hostility his take no prisoners approach fuels with the locals.
“Kid” isn’t your cookie cutter ’80s film comedy. You never know where the story will zig or zag next. That sense of adventure is part of the film’s appeal, embraced with alacrity by director Dusan Makavejev (“Montenegro”). Add an addled waiter who thinks Becker is an American spy and a Coke jingle (by Tim Finn) that’s good enough to sell product by the truck full and you’ve got one atypical comedy.
It’s imperfections are equally bold. Midway through, the film attempts to build a romance between Becker and Terri, and it’s so poorly orchestrated the script requires several characters to quip about the attraction between the two to fill the narrative gap.
Roberts remains a combustible presence. So it’s a shame his character, and the romance at the heart of the movie, proves so exasperating. Becker cannot be trifled with, but during one scene he appears like a statue, letting himself be humiliated to push the story angle along. And his feelings for Scachi simply aren’t given any weight.
The culture clashes in “Kid” prove both original and striking. The story doesn’t demonize the corporate mindset as modern films often do, but it doesn’t let it off the moral hook, either. And the crafty soda maker is far from saintly, giving the film a wicked sense of balance.
You can see why people fussed over Roberts at the time “The Coca-Cola Kid” hit theaters. His hair may be a tad silly dyed an unearthly blond, and his southern accent comes and goes, but in “Kid” he showed he could hang with the A-listers – for a short while.
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