Chef: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
When gifted chef Carl Casper (Jon 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 (Sofía Vergara), best friend (John Leguizamo) and son (Emjay 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.
It had been a while since I had seen a Faverau movie without the words Iron or Man in the title or without any huge special effects, so I couldn’t wait to see this one. Around the time that Swingers initially came out it was him and Kevin Smith that I was a fan of. Mainly because of their ability to make the characters in their films relatable and the dialogue so close to real life and the way real people talk and that’s why I looked forward to this movie in particular. It’s a return to real-life storytelling with lots of heart for Favreau and every bit of it was awesome. It really was a film about a journey. Whether it be the journey of a man trying to follow his passion of being an innovative chef or the journey of a man reconnecting with his son the result will make you smile and you’ll feel fulfilled by the story. The one thing that made me cringe was the way that Carl would keep pushing his son to the side during the first act of the film. Me being a father I just couldn’t fathom the idea of doing that to my kids but I know that it does happen, especially with people that like to choose their careers over their family and that’s exactly what happens with Faverau’s character in the beginning. I thought the road trip aspect of this film was good as well because usually it’s those moments where the most fun happens and there were plenty of those (especially when they get to Guero’s Taco Bar in Austin which is one of my favorite resturants). Leguizamo has always been a favorite of mine because of his range. He can go from comedic all the way to dramatic and he’s very good at it. Here he’s more of the comic relief in the film but the way I look at it he puts the spice (see what I did there?) on every joke and hits the punchlines like nobody else can. Anthony gave such a great performance in the way he was extremely believable and solid. There wasn’t a single moment in the film that you could any sort of lull in his acting. Such a great actor with a bright future ahead of him for sure. The thing that I think everyone will love will be the cameo’s and bit parts in the film. Favreau has been in the business for a long time and has made many friends whom he called in favors from obviously because the list of people in the film was pretty cool. We have Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Platt, Amy Sedaris, and of course Iron Man himself Robert Downey Jr.. You can’t go wrong with a list of actors like that. They all added a bit of a kick to an already fantastic film. If you didn’t get a chance to watch Chef when it made it’s way into theaters then this is a must buy. Bon appetite!
Special Features:
Deleted Scenes – There’s about a good 10 minutes of scenes here that don’t add to much more to the story but are entertaining to watch either way.
