The Billiken's Bluff

Flying back from London on Wednesday night I watched Around the Bend (2004). The in-flight entertainment guide called it a "hidden gem". I was ready to agree with the review because the chronically underutilized Christopher Walken (always the bridesmaid, never the bride) stars in the film. Walken plays a criminal/drug addict returning home after walking out on his newborn son 30 years earlier. Walken comes back to visit his ailing father. Four generations of men from the Lair family reunited under one roof. The movie also stars Michael Caine, Josh Lucas, Glenne Headly, and Kentucky Fried Chicken.



Henry’s (Caine) well-planned Last Will and Testament, written just before his demise at his favorite booth at the local KFC, instructs the Lair men to make a road trip. They must follow post-it directions Henry has placed inside several KFC bags. And must only read the directions while sitting down to a meal at a KFC franchise in whatever city they are in at the moment. After eating at a KFC they will dispose of a spoonful of his ashes.

As Caine dies in the booth Lucas runs in slow motion into the KFC (presumably it isn’t the deep-fried chicken that led to his demise). The camera pans over to a KFC employee (employee-of-the-month if you ask me) consoling Lucas’s son, who was there when Caine died.

At the first stop in this KFC road trip, Walken announces he is a vegetarian. However, by the 3rd KFC stop he is mowing down a chicken leg. By the 4th KFC they are looking over the menu, what haven’t we tried yet? The extra crispy? They arrive at one KFC a few minutes after closing. Lucas (Walken’s estranged son) suggests that they just read the instruction anyway. Walken says, "that’s not what Henry would have wanted!!! He wanted us to sit down together for a meal as a family, at the KFC!!! Lucas is annoyed and yells, "it’s just a stupid fast food joint!!! Walken (deadpan, eccentric as always) corrects him and says, "KFC actually refers to their franchises as restaurants."

All of this sounds like it should be funny, a screwball comedy, something along the lines of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle – and yet it wasn’t. It was supposed to be a heart-warming male-bonding movie. I’ve seen product placement in movies before, but never has it been so distracting, or so intertwined with the plot. I watched another movie on the flight I, Robot, which also had some product placement. The movie takes places in 2040 and Will Smith pulls out a pair of vintage Converse All Stars. Someone in the film comments on what a snazzy pair of sneakers they are. It’s fairly obviously product placement, but it stops there. I wasn’t distracted for the entire movie by the shoes.

Not to say that it didn’t work in Around the Bend, I was fiending for a KFC Twister for the remainder of the flight.