The Founder 2016

     The setting of this film is 1954.  Ray Kroc has been a salesman all his life.  His wife Ethel has stood by him during all his schemes to get rich.  He’s always looking for that next best thing that blows everyone out of the water.  Right now he’s peddling the five-spindle milkshake maker for the company Prince Castle.  He’s on the road a lot and it’s hard on both Ray and Ethel.  Ray complains a lot about the food on the road.  Bad food, bad service and messed up orders.  When Ray hears about a drive-in ordering 7 of the milkshake makers, he gives them a call to make sure it’s not a mistake?  The McDonald’s Restaurant in San Bernadino, California confirms it’s not a mistake and they want to up the order to 8 makers!!  Ray drives to San Bernardino to look at this place.  The MacDonald’s is doing a great business with a different concept.  They make everything in quantity and they only serve burgers, cheeseburgers, fries, soda and shakes.  Customers walk up to the counter, place their orders, the food is given to them right away.  Everything is packaged in throwaway materials.  Ray has to get involved with this miracle business!! 

     Ray is the ultimate salesman, it's all he thinks about and he will sell anything he can to make a profit!!  He will sell you the socks off of his feet including the holes.  He might not even give you the socks after he’s got your money?  He’ll just give you the holes and call it a deal at any price!!  The original founders of McDonalds, Richard and Maurice McDonald didn’t know what kind of man they were dealing with and what he was capable of doing.  They liked everything the way it was and didn’t see a reason to change until they were pushed into a deal with a LOT of convincing!!  3 ½* (I liked this movie)  

115 min, Bio directed by John Lee Hancock with Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch, Linda Cardellini, B.J. Novak, Laura Dern, Justin Randell Brooke, Kate Kneeland, Patrick Wilson, Griff Furst.

Note:  Imdb 7.2 out of 10, 83% critic 82% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Metacritic 66 out of 100 with 47 critics 7.4 out of 10 with 118 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Newman, Atlanta, Douglasville and Canton, Georgia; Albuquerque and Belen, New Mexico.  Prince Castle still exists and supplies McDonalds with much of their equipment.  The McDonalds shown in the film were built from scratch in parking lots.  The flies attracted to the smell at McDonalds were actually Cocoa Krispies.  They were poured in front of a powerful fan to look like a swarm.  Most movie shoots are 12+ hours a day but this film was 8-10 hours a day and filmed in 22 days.  Tom Hanks was originally cast in the role of Ray Kroc.  Michael Keaton took piano lessons to prepare for his scenes because the real Ray Kroc liked to play piano.  Keaton rented 2 ice cream trucks for the film crew after he saw their exhaustion.