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Pop-Tarts were invented over four hectic months in 1964. Jerry Seinfeld has been developing jokes about them for over 10 years<\/a>, first in his stand-up act, and now as a full-fledged, fully ridiculous feature comedy targeted to the audience\u2019s sweet-and-salty dopamine receptors. \u201cUnfrosted,\u201d directed by Seinfeld with a script by him and longtime collaborators Spike Feresten, Andy Robin and Barry Marder, gives the comic his first-ever live action leading film role as Bob Cabana, a fictional cereal flack who revolutionizes the breakfast industry. (William Post, the real-life person who helped create Pop-Tarts, died in February<\/a> at the age of 96.) Cinema has endured branded biopics on everything from Air Jordans<\/a> to the BlackBerry<\/a> to Flamin\u2019 Hot Cheetos<\/a>. This is the only corporate saga whose main ingredient is high-fructose sarcasm.<\/p>\n Should<\/em> we care about the history of the Pop-Tart? Seinfeld postures that the Kellogg\u2019s launch of a mylar-wrapped, shelf-stable, heatable pastry is a technological innovation on the scale of the space race and the Manhattan Project. One pivotal move comes when Cabana hires Donna Stankowski (Melissa McCarthy) away from NASA\u2019s beakers of Tang. As the launch date nears, the cinematographer William Pope shoots close-ups of scorching toaster springs with the drama of a roiling booster rocket.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The film is as estranged from the facts as Pop-Tarts are from genuine fruit. Still, it\u2019s true that Battle Creek, Mich. \u2014 \u201ccereal\u2019s Silicon Valley,\u201d Seinfeld once cracked \u2014 was ground zero of a Cold War rivalry between Kellogg\u2019s and General Foods to sell a breakfast that broke free from the need for a bowl and spoon. Here, the General Foods\u2019 owner Marjorie Post (Amy Schumer), once the richest woman in America, swans about in jewel-toned turbans and jets off to Moscow to enlist Nikita Khrushchev (Dean Norris) in her cause. At the same time, the dimwitted head of Kellogg\u2019s (Jim Gaffigan) allows his company to align with President John F. Kennedy (Bill Burr), Chef Boy Ardee (Bobby Moynihan), the celebrity fitness guru Jack LaLanne (James Marsden), and the early computer Univac who acts up in ways that recall Bing\u2019s sexually charged A.I. chatbot<\/a>. Things take an even darker turn with the entrance of a vengeful milkman (Christian Slater) and a threatening figure named El Sucre (Felix Solis) who\u2019s aware that millions of dollars hinge on access to his addictive white powder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As junk food goes, \u201cUnfrosted\u201d is delightful with a sprinkle of morbidity. Building on last December\u2019s publicity stunt where an anthropomorphic Pop-Tart cooked and served itself to the Kansas State Wildcats, we\u2019re here treated to a funeral where the deceased is given Full Cereal Honors. I will spoil nothing except to say Snap, Crackle and Pop have a ceremonial duty.<\/p>\n The jokes spill forth so fast that there\u2019s no time for the shtick to get soggy. Yet, the film also crams its running time with goofy detours, like a subplot where the voice of Tony the Tiger (Hugh Grant, once again seizing any opportunity to wear a fatuous cravat) leads his fellow mascots in a rebellion. Despite all these famous faces splashing into the frame, the scene stealer is the child actor Eleanor Sweeney making her debut as an opinionated taste tester. She\u2019s g-r-r-reat.<\/p>\n Unfrosted<\/strong>
Rated PG-13 for some suggestive references and language. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. Watch on Netflix.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n