The Founder

2017 • 115 minutes
4.3
1.58K reviews
81%
Tomatometer
PG-13
Rating
Eligible
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About this movie

Directed by John Lee Hancock (SAVING MR. BANKS), THE FOUNDER features the true story of how Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a struggling salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers' speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. Writer Robert Siegel (THE WRESTLER) details how Kroc maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire. The film also stars Laura Dern as Ray Kroc’s first wife, Ethel; John Carroll Lynch as Mac McDonald; and Nick Offerman as Dick McDonald.
Rating
PG-13

Ratings and reviews

4.3
1.58K reviews
Cidney Grady
June 27, 2020
It is so crazy to look at how McDonald's was legitimately stolen, but it also does an amazing job at highlighting what can happen when you aren't fully prepared for the success of your venture, or to create a sustainable business. Analyzing the qualities both sides had serves a great purpose for understanding what it takes to create and maintain a fully successful venture idea. One side was all business, although it was very sleazy and sneaky, making money is how a business survives, Ray did just that, and from what the movie shows us the brothers just weren't ready to be in the business world at that level. It would have been wonderful to see what success could have come from the proper merge between the two identities, and I'm definitely questioning the McDouble I just ate while watching this, but it's wild to think that if McDonalds hadn't been stolen would we have actually ever known McDonalds or the other chains that came along with it as future competition. Of course it would've happened eventually but what would it have looked like.
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Yashdhar Vyas
May 11, 2017
I was captivated by this account of how the world's best-known fast food franchise got its start. Ray Kroc is portrayed as a cutthroat, take-no-prisoners businessman, yet one with a vision. We witness the inevitable clash between the big thinker and the small thinker as Kroc's grand designs come to loggerheads with the McDonald brothers' concerns about their reputation and the quality of their food. Kroc, of course, ends up winning. Although Kroc's tactics do appear to be less-than-holy, they did succeed in growing the franchise exponentially and turning it into what it is today. Without Ray Kroc, McDonald's would just be one unheard-of restaurant in San Bernardino, California.
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Poor Man Collectibles
May 1, 2017
Sad story how evil an greed can cheat an steal a burger chain from good people who started it. Success is NOT from persistance, its finding ways to LIE, CHEAT, AN STEAL IT. I dont think I will be eating at another McDonalds now knowing it was STOLEN. Find someone with a good idea...THEN STEAL IT AN MAKE IT YOUR OWN. Sad very sad story. Not only did this evil man steal McDonalds, he also stole another man's wife, an broke his word on a Contract. This guy is one sick evil man Lesson from this movie...DONT TRUST SALESMEN. That is why it says in the Bible it will be very hard for the rich men to make it to heaven. It would be easier to stick a camel through the head of a needle. Very sad movie. I wish I didnt see it.
87 people found this review helpful
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