ThiefHott Too much of everything

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

gainestillinger Imagine sitting in one of New York's up and coming Italian restaurants, sipping an espresso with some cracking jazz music playing, and watching a pretty damned interesting story unfold. At the main table sits Louis Cropa (Danny Aiello) with his personal assistant. Louis owns the joint and is being intimidated by Black and Blue, two highly contrasting gangsters (despite their names) who want a piece of this highly lucrative business, which is only making this much money in the first place because of Udo, Louis' son, played by Edoardo Ballerini, a super-talented fame hungry chef who is waiting to be given ownership by his father. Not only this, but the souschef chef, Duncan (Louis' favourite chef) is a gambler who owes Black and Blue money, lots of it. AND there's a strange guy at the bar who is watching all of this unfold.We float around the restauraunt and share in each of the main characters' plights and observing some spectacular looking food being made by tense and lightening fast cooks. We watch through medium shots as if we are at a number of tables around the place, talking with the waitresses and laughing with the bartender as he plays some fun general knowledge games with punters. In fact, the waitresses' night is just as interesting as the main protagonists'. They get hassle galore from pretentious customers who treat them as second class citizens, one customer actually says 'Doesn't it bother you when they (waitresses) tell you their names?' in full earshot of a waitresses name that now escapes me. Nice. Still, it makes for compelling viewing. And of course, amidst and around all of this we still have Louis and Udo, Black and Blue and Duncan getting through the night in various ways. It is this toing and froing between the main plot and the waitresses' subplot that keeps this film vibrant and interesting. We don't mind being pulled away from the main action as it unfolds and are happy to be patient in waiting for the finale.The end, where a man is shot in the basement toilets makes and nearly breaks the film. It is gratifying and yet badly planned. Considering that it is a professional hit, you would think that they would wait until the mark had left the place and then kill them in an alleyway or something. This does not kill the film by any stretch, but it does leave the end up in the air in more than one way. Still, don't let that stop you from finding out who dies and how and what for; it's a dessert worth waiting for.Not bad for 21 days' filming!

Ed Uyeshima If you like to flip the channel dexterously between "The Sopranos" and the Food Network, this 2000 movie may be for you. Directed by Bob Giraldi, who is still probably most famous for directing a pre-surgery Michael Jackson in his "Beat It" video, the story is set in one evening almost entirely within the confines of a trendy downtown Manhattan restaurant in the trendy TriBeCa neighborhood. Giraldi succeeds in developing and maintaining a sense of combustible energy when it comes to an upscale restaurant's inner workings. He should know since he is part-owner of several such restaurants of which the one featured, Gigino Trattoria, is one. By comparison, the film feels less assured when it comes to the cross currents of its multiple dramatic elements.Although the movie has an omnibus feel about it, the plot primarily focuses on the inevitable conflicts between Louis, the old-school owner and Udo, his ambitious, hotshot chef son. It helps that Danny Aiello plays Louis in such an economical fashion as he can make his character's melodramatic situation convincing - quitting a bookmaking side-business that got his partner killed and handing over the reigns of the eatery to his son. Screenwriters Rick Shaughnessy and Brian Kalata have crafted a tight script, though there is a cursory feel to the film that gives us a Robert Altman-like hodgepodge of eccentric characters. Their lives are shuffled between courses with some odd casting choices that somehow work, for example, Sandra Bernhard as a harpy food critic in a bad wig and John Corbett as a deceptively casual bar regular.Edoardo Ballerini is not particularly interesting as Udo, but Kirk Acevedo provides jumpy energy to Duncan, the sous-chef whose gambling debt has a domino effect on the rest of the characters. The mob angle is played up with stock characters embodied by Mike McGlone and Alex Corrado as two obvious hoods, and there is even a pretentious dinner party headed by a pompous art gallery owner portrayed with obnoxious languor by Mark Margolis. However, it is the hustle of the food preparation in the kitchen when the film really takes off, in particular, when Udo creates a sensational-looking, customized lobster tower for Bernhard's character. It's surprising that Giraldi has not made more films, but at least he sticks with his obvious passion and comes up with an often-interesting dish that I have to believe Anthony Bourdain would love.

ebuhrer-2 Great acting, slice-of-restaurant-life, kind of like THE SOPRANOS OPEN A RESTAURANT MEETS THE FOOD CHANNEL. Excellent acting by Danny Aiella and some little-known actors and the filming must have been done in a real restaurant. It reminded me of a really great Italian restaurant in Clifton, New Jersey and another in Monterey, California. It also made me miss the Italian neighborhood I grew up in in Jersey. And you will definitely NOT guess the ending, I promise you. It will also give you a different and new perspective on people who work on Wall Street. Evidently, they're not all dorks with accounting degrees. But he really SHOULD burn that tie!

noralee "Dinner Rush" will inevitably be compared to "Big Night," and other food preparation/restaurant movies, but I think it holds its own as a delicious slice of one night of New York life. As one character plotzes: "When did eating out become theater?" The wonderful, winsome multi-ethnic ensemble of mostly New York actors --many born in Brooklyn according to the IMDb--who have done a lot of TV work are clearly enjoying making a movie as a coordinated team. Danny Aiello has his best, and somewhat similar, role since "City Hall." Many of the references may go over the heads of those West of the Hudson or East of the East River, whether to Tribeca (as a newly trendy neighborhood) or Danny Meyer (restaurant entrepreneur). Or even the digs at Queens as the home of mobsters, which were greeted by silence by the Queens audience I saw it with.The upstairs/downstairs of the kitchen scrambles vs. the dining pleasures and everyone's personal spices are lots of fun. The actors playing obnoxious customers, like Sandra Bernhard, do so with relish but not overplayed.Keep your palate clear by not looking at the ad campaign or reading the reviews, as I think they give the plot away and I was totally surprised by the ending, er, the dessert.(originally written 9/29/2001)