Verbraten & verkauft

This is one of those movies that you watch waiting and hoping for it to get better. And the good news is Grilled gets better. The movie was s-l-o-w for first 35 minutes; and after that Grilled is fast, suspenseful, clever, and funny. Don't skip the slow part though or you'll be lost in the last half of the film. The actors excellent performances compensate for the bland story line.

This movie is like a bag of potato chips. Its junk food, not gourmet, but some times we all like a little junk food.

The movie's irregular pace explains why Grilled was released straight to DVD. Its a B movie worth a rent, but not worthy of any home shelf space.

You would think that a movie starring both Ray Romano and Kevin James (each extremely funny on their sitcoms) couldn't possibly fail. This movie doesn't necessarily fail, but with the talents of these two great comedians, it definitely falls short. Romano and James show that they're both good actors, and can play characters different from the ones on their sitcoms. Hopefully, next time they'll be working with a better script. Other than the novelty of the main characters being door-to-door meat salesman, the movie doesn't contain much originality. I chuckled quite a few times throughout the course of the film, but there are no big laughs. I can see why "Grilled" went straight-to-video, despite the popularity of the two actors. If it played in theaters, it would probably have a worse box office performance than "Welcome to Mooseport." To be fair, the plot does thicken in the second half, and I found myself pretty intrigued. However, being a big fan of both "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "The King of Queens," I couldn't help but feel disappointed. And I'm sure other fans will be disappointed as well.

When I heard that Ray Romano, Kevin James and Sofía Vergara are in a movie I was expecting laugh-out-loud entertainment. Sadly, 'Grilled' is not that. This is by no means the fault of the actors. The fault mainly lies in the script. The plot is very weak and the relationship between between the main characters and the supporting ones are underdeveloped. Romano and James's characters are quite well-written. They work very well off one another (even though sometimes they're given terrible lines). Sophia Vergara oozes heat and she's funny at the same time even though her character is halfbaked. Juliette Lewis is a little over the top at times but otherwise she's hilarious. While the characters are funny and the story lacks focused, 'Grilled' may have worked as a silly comedy if only it was funnier. It tries to be wacky but mostly falls flat. The actors are the ones who bring humour to their characters and because of that 'Grilled' is average at best.

"Grilled" was a pretty funny and suspenseful dark comedy. Ray Romano and Kevin James play meat salesman who are in a slump. If they don't make at least two sales, they're going to be fired.

Ray Romano was really good in this. He doesn't have to wait for a laugh track this time. Kevin James is his usual bumbling self, but he showed that he can be serious also and he pulled it off. You care about their problems. Jon Polito, Juilette Lewis and Michael Rapaport put in funny performances. The two stand-outs are Burt Reynolds and Kim Coates. They take one-dimensional characters and make them interesting.

This is a pretty big straight to video release. It doesn't deserve a quick death. It's worth watching.

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Ray Romano and Kevin James are certainly two of the top comic talents in the past several years. Ray, as the cornerstone of his series, and with reruns appearing frequently and in multiple airings - he has to be adding to the financial benefits from his creation - already well into 9 figures, and probably approaching 10.

I don't know if Kevin had the equity in his program equivalent to Romano, but if he hasn't made as much, it's very considerable nonetheless.

Many big TV stars have had an overall rough time in gaining anything even close in translating their talents to the big screen. Sometimes the films seem to be bad choices - or just "bad."

Bill Cosby's TV show was top-rated, and I believe he led all entertainers in earnings at least one year, and was near the top during others - but what he provided on the big screen was neither memorable initially nor provided anything one would seek to view again.

Even where not only due to movie quality, it seems difficult for audiences to accept characterizations different from those which made their television programs so popular.

This movie wasn't of "blockbuster" proportions, but certainly worthy of better than direct-to-video release. The two leads have worked well together before - James regularly on "Raymond," and while I didn't and don't watch "King of Queens" a lot, I do recall seeing Romano at least once in a cameo-type appearance.

But this flick was humorous with a plot which balanced its humor and a modicum of believability and drama. I thought both leads did well, and the supporting cast, too..

Worth a viewing - and much better than, say, the Pesci/Glover offering, "Gone Fishin'," where even big-screen performers with successful track records can produce a real flop.

Again, this film seems to deserve better than it got.