Bonus Review: Chef (2014)

It's hard to think of anything that's really wrong with Chef. I tried, I really did, but I just ended up realising that it was almost a perfect little gem of a film. Okay, there's maybe an ending that feels both too tidy and also a bit rushed, but that's about it.

Jon Favreau, who wrote and directed the film, stars as Carl Casper, a chef who has a major meltdown when he locks horns with a food critic/blogger (Oliver Platt). This leads to him reassessing his values, which in turn leads to him getting a van and making the kind of simple, tasty food that he thinks other people will enjoy as much as he does. He takes his son (Emjay Anthony) along with him, and also benefits from the help of his colleague, Martin (John Leguizamo). Perhaps this simpler set-up can help the chef to remember what he loved about cooking in the first place.

Alright, I guess predictability is another flaw I could mention. If I wanted to. Yet I'm not going to. Chef is comfort food, much like the creations made by Carl when he gets his van rolling. The whole movie feels like a perfect blend of form and content, in the same way as The Wolf Of Wall Street, despite the two movies being worlds apart in many other ways. Favreau has spent some time delivering huge, glossy, blockbusters, and with no small amount of success, so it's hard not to see his move back to a smaller, more intimate, movie as an obvious parallel between the man he is behind the camera and the character he portrays onscreen.

The cast are all pretty perfect, and seem to be enjoying the whole experience from start to finish. Favreau is believable and earnest, without ever being far too innocent and wholesome, while Leguizao has one of his best roles in a long, long time. Young Emjay Anthony is a likable kid, and if you can tell me a single occasion when Platt hasn't been worth watching then I will call you a liar and blow raspberries at you. It's just a shame that he doesn't get more screentime here. Sofia Vergara is yet another delight, in a movie full of them, as Casper's ex-wife, and the mother of his son. She still has his best interests at heart because when he does well then it makes life better for their son. But she also just wants him to recapture what used to make him so happy. Bobby Cannavale does well playing a character who could have been all too easy to dislike, and there are small roles for Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr, with the latter on fine form during the entirety of his cameo appearance.

There's a wonderful soundtrack accompanying many scenes, a solid script, so many shots of tasty food that you'll be hungry by the time the credits roll, and lots of sunshine ensuring that this is a light film, in almost every sense of the word. It has a little something for everyone, and I highly recommend it. And chefs, it goes without saying, will probably LOVE it.

9/10

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The Smurfs (2011)

Now, to be fair, I can't remember what The Smurfs were like in their original form. I can't recall the old comics that they appeared in or even the old cartoons. But I do recall enjoying their antics. Having just seen, and been extremely irritated by, The Smurfs, I can only assume that they appealed to me because I was younger and sitting in the target demographic. I may like to stay young at heart but that doesn't always guarantee that I'll enjoy childish things as much as I used to, especially if they're presented in such a poor way.

As well as the little blue folk there is a montage or two, an adult couple all too easily roped in to the proceedings (played by Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays - two people deserving of much better), far too many words replaced by the word "smurf" (e.g. "where the smurf are we?"), an incompetent villain played by Hank Azaria, a number of life lessons and one or two musical moments that are even worse than the usual hits shoehorned into these products. There's also an opening sequence that screams out "look at what we did so that you would be forced to drag the kids to see this in 3D, this is shiny 3D stuff, shiny and 3D and in no way improves the movie in any way but DOES allow everyone to make more money by charging you extra to see it in 3D!!!!!"

The story, as slight as it is, sees the smurfs ending up in New York, pursued by the dastardly Gargamel (Hank Azaria). The little blue folk, inevitably, disrupt the lives of a couple of adults (NPH and Mays) while one half of the couple is also trying to keep his boss (Sofia Vergara) happy and become a better partner for his loved one.

The vocal cast here includes Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, Alan Cumming, Katy Perry as the lone Smurfette, Anton Yelchin, George Lopez and some others. They do their bit, with Cumming providing a comedy Scottish brogue that sounds horribly fake even though he IS Scottish.

The script, by a number of people (J. David Stem, David N. Weiss, Jay Scherick and David Ronn), does have one or two decent lines making it clear that it knows how ridiculous the whole thing is but then everything is undone by the by-the-numbers big moments that audiences have already seen, and seen done 10 x better, in many, many other movies.

Director Raja Gosnell does what is asked of him but it's a shame that he couldn't have done something ever so slightly better with the material. A bit more sly wit wouldn't have gone amiss and the movie feels a bit too long, even at just 103 minutes.

Of course, kids will enjoy this a lot more than I did and any children reading this (why the hell would you read this? get outside and get doing kiddie things like playing football and/or vandalising empty homes) should add two or three to my final rating.

I won't be rushing to see the sequel that's already underway and I don't ever want to see this again but it'll please some people. I'd strongly advise most parents, however, to try and distract the kids with something/anything else instead.

4/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Smurfs-Blu-ray-Region-Free/dp/B003TFDUMI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345713274&sr=8-2