Review of The Coca-Cola Kid

The Coca-Cola Kid is not a perfect movie but it is guaranteed to elicit a strong response from you, one way or the other. The promising premise of taking a Southwestern Coca Cola marketing guru to the Outback to sell the locals his universally beloved liquid nectar leads to an intriguing and entertaining culture clash. Less successful, but still whimsically charming, is the pairing of Greta Sacchi and Eric Roberts. While Sacchi and Roberts actually do have some chemistry once they get involved, one is still left wondering exactly what Sacchi sees in the rude and self-centered Roberts initially. The movie comes up with an out-of-left-field explanation which is both jarring and silly; it is one of several missteps in the third act. Another unhappy development is the violent response of the local distributor, which abruptly shifts the tone from oddball romantic comedy to dark drama. The movie goes out of its way to be offbeat, inserting non-sequiturs like the nutjob concierge seeking CIA employment and the homoerotic transvestite interlude. The entirely nonsensical epilogue announcement tops off these "quirky for quirky's sake" calculations and leaves the viewer rolling his eyes a bit.

Still, despite the warts above, The Coca-Cola Kid is a unique and mostly entertaining look at American Capitalism morphing into Imperialism overseas.

Roberts is up and down, but ultimately a decent choice as the charismatic and driven capitalist charged with conquering the Aussie Cola industry. Go in realizing this is more a satire than a social commentary and you'll likely come away refreshed, if not entirely quenched. 7.5 / 10