Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

JohnnyLee1 I would love to have liked this - a restaurant romcom- but none of the characters is likeable. So much arguing, anger and unkindness. Maybe my funnybone has gone missing! If you're feeling sympathetic and in the right mood you will enjoy it. (Only got through 30 mins. 9/16)

Vonia Soul Kitchen (2009) German comedy Slow start but at midway through, With that jazz and soul, We're whisked away by misfits, Fun, tasty, redemptive ride. Tanka, literally "short poem", is a form of poetry consisting of five lines, unrhymed, with the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format. #Tanka #PoemReview

lasttimeisaw It's a bliss to behold that Faith Akin could return to a IN JULY (2000) route to prepare us for a comedic ratatouille after his tremendously nerve-pressing films HEAD-ON (2004) and THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (2007), prominently known as the fresh blood of the new German film industry, Faith is definitely honing his prowess with multi-genre attempts, though we are still not clear his next feature project (only a documentary called GARBAGE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN is billed under his director helm from IMDb, another genre breakthrough is expected). SOUL KITCHEN connects intimately with a lavish hue of aesthetics with a down-to-earth register aiming towards modern-day generation, for the likes of a desolate factory-reconstructed- restaurant serving as a default location and night disco dizziness as such. The tempo of the story-unfolding is rapid with fairly abundant of gags and the characterization of different roles is smoothly undergoing without too much mind-absence or self-conscious uneasiness. The story has never been out of its predictable safe zone, but is helped out by an intriguing visual plentifulness. Alongside Faith, the film is co-scripted by Adam Boysdoukos, who is also the leading actor here. While the acting at large is lukewarm, funny but no amazing bravura, the sole recommendable saving grace is Faith's old mate Birol Ünel, acting as a short-tempered cook, whose screen time is meager but to my appetite.From an aspect about re-maneuvering his comedic faculty, the most delightful discovery is Faith's multi-faceted flair in exerting a film's audience-friendly mode which assures both its viewers and its financial investors that any work labelled his name tag will not be a reckless train gone amok, if Faith could trawl a potent script and cast (or write one like HEAD-ON, THE EDGE OF HEAVEN), his harvest season by all odds will not be a long shot.

gradyharp Faith Akin is best known for his dark, serious films ('Head On', 'The Edge of Heaven', 'Short Sharp Shock', 'Crossing the Bridge: The Sounds of Istanbul', etc) so it is somewhat surprising to find he has such a deft touch for comedy. SOUL KITCHEN languished for a while before Akin decided that 'life is not only about pain and introspection', and so he turned his rather formidable talents to creating this new film - a comedy about food, family and gentrification. He co-wrote the script with star Adam Bousdoukos in a manner that mirrors his other works: people from other countries (Akin is Turkish raised in Germany, Bousdoukos is Greek raised in Germany) can assimilate without losing the unique treasured aspects of their ethnicity. The setting is Hamburg where Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos) owns a grungy but popular with the locals restaurant, Soul Kitchen, serving quickly prepared frozen foods to a gastronomically unsophisticated clientele. Zinos is also a romantic, struggling with his conflict to join his journalist girlfriend Nadine (Pheline Roggan) who wants Zinos to accompany her to her latest living assignment in Shanghai, but being afraid to leave his beloved restaurant. Zinos decides to stay in Hamburg -opening the door for other factors to enter Zinos' life: he encounters a fired chef Shayn (Birol Ünel) whose cranky disposition can't hide the fact that he is a brilliant chef in need of work (Zinos hires him!), an old friend Thomas Neumann (Wotan Wilke Möhring) who has become a real estate entrepreneur want to buy Zinos' old building, Zinos' ne're-do-well brother Illias (Moritz Bleibtreu) is in prison but can get leaves if Zinos with be his patron for a work-release program, a new crowd of jazz music lovers and partygoers flood the premises, etc. All of these ingredients, including the staff of the restaurant Lucia (Anna Bederke), funky old Sokrates (Demir Gökgöl), and Lutz (Lukas Gregorowicz), blend together to produce harrowing but hilarious results. In the end the transformations of Soul Kitchen emphasize the importance of family and living a dream, and the despite the many pratfalls Zinos encounters, the changes all come out in the wash for the better. This cast manages to exude a love for life that makes the move soar above others, despite the usual at times crude jokes and situations. It just bubbles, and a fine part of that effervescence is from the music score. Grady Harp