Chef

2014 • 115 minutes

About this movie

Jon Favreau (writer, director and producer) leads a hilarious all-star cast including Sofía Vergara, Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Platt, Robert Downey Jr. and young actor Emjay Anthony in this deliciously entertaining comedy about starting from scratch. When gifted chef Carl Casper (Favreau) suddenly quits his demanding job at a trendy LA restaurant, he's on his own to pick up the pieces of his once promising career. Finding himself in Miami, he decides to team up with his successful ex-wife (Vergara), best friend (Leguizamo) and son (Anthony) to launch a no-frills food truck business. Taking to the road, Carl reignites his passion for the kitchen and, along the way, discovers a renewed zest for life and love. (Original Title - Chef)

Ratings and reviews

If you're looking for a funny movie, look elsewhere. If anything, this movie made me sadder than I was before watching it. This is the type of movie that you'd expect to see on your old distant relative's TV when you are forced to go for an unwanted holiday visit. You're glad it's not golf, but still wish it were something more entertaining.

Exactly that. The plot is really the same old thing and the acting is just "good." If you want to see something that has been done many, many time in the past. And I mean many - take a gander. I really was hoping for something fresh and new in the "foodie makes good" category but I admit I turned it off about 3/4 of the way through. Perhaps there was some amazing twist but I highly doubt it after reading other reviews. If we're talking about movies as types of food, this is semi-OK comfort food. Like a Denny's breakfast. You'd prefer to eat at the scrumptious, creative mom & pop breakfast joint at 2am if possible, but Denny's is open.

There are many excellent pieces to this movie, especially the food prep shots. It is entertaining and uplifting and pretty light overall. It tries to tackle the good and bad effects of social media, but that part just ends up feeling like a big advertisement for Twitter. It's cute and hits all the "feel good" buttons, but in the end falls victim to the very criticism that the food critic in the film accuses the chef of: "pandering to the audience."