There are a range of obvious reasons why you've never heard of Foodfight!. It's low-budget, badly made and doesn't star any names you recognise.
But Foodfight! is none of those things. Well, maybe the second one.
We refuse to let it go under your rader for any longer. Here are ten things you need to know about it right now:
It was produced by Threshold Entertainment, a production company that's made films about Lego, Star Trek and Bob the Builder
Can we fix it? No we can't...
Someone compared it to Pixar
"The movie looks wonderful. Threshold will be considered the new and upcoming Pixar," said the president of a Californian product placement company, who we're betting contributed a hearty portion of that $65 mil.
It was directed by Larry Kasanoff, the man behind such films as C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D. and a load of Mortal Kombat stuff
Said "stuff" includes Mortal Combot movies, live action and animated television series and even a live tour.
But in fairness, he did help finance Platoon
It's one of the only things we ever liked about Charlie Sheen.
Kasanoff later drew on this relationship to get Sheen to star in Foodfight!
He also pulled in Hilary Duff, Christopher Lloyd, Eva Longoria Parker and Jerry Stiller, Ben Stiller's dad. SO much chemistry here.
Foodfight! features product placements for more than 80 brands, from big names like Coca Cola right down to obscure mascots like Twinkie the Kid and Mr. Clean
Ah, so that explains the $65 million.
Actually, none of the companies featured paid to have their product promoted
Kasanoff said that the film "largely relegated well-known real-world corporate mascots to the margins so that it could focus on riveting new characters like Dex Dogtective, his love interest Sunshine Goodness, and sidekick Daredevil Dan". Lovely.
It's "filled with nazi and sexual overtones"
So says one reviewer from the AV Club: "(It's) filled with Nazi overtones and iconography even more egregiously unfit for children than the script’s wall-to-wall gauntlet of crude double entendres and weird intimations of interspecies sex."
It was originally supposed to be released for Christmas 2003
Someone stole the hard drives the film was stored on and it had to be pushed back till 2005. Did someone say "backup"?
It also missed its 2005 release date and was eventually auctioned off for $2.5 million in 2011.
It was finally given a limited release in the UK in 2012, but made just £13,003 on its opening weekend. It's since been released on DVD and VOD (that's Video on Demand - yeah, we were stumped as well) to similarly woeful results.
The trailer is spectacular
...ly bad.
Images: © Wikimedia Commons, Boston.com, Mubi.com, MoviePosterdb.com, Threshold Entertainment.
