Pizza & Amore

This unrelentingly adorbs retelling of "Romeo and Juliet" imagines Shakespeare's play as a story of two Italian-American families with competing pizza places.

The Prestolanis and the Montebellos of Verona, N.J. (wink, wink), whose pizza places are inexplicably side by side and separated by a tall, brick wall like in "The Fantasticks," have hated each other's guts for centuries.

One family makes a pizza known for its wonderful cheese combination, the other for its delicious sauce.

When a Frenchman (!) comes to town looking to franchise a pizza place for no good reason other than it services the plot, Joe (Romeo) Montebello and Gina (Juliet) Prestolani must overcome their relatives' feud to save the family businesses and their star-crossed romance, too.

Populated with scenery-chewing character actors famous for portraying bombastic Italians, including Michael Badalucco (best known as lawyer Jimmy Berlutti in TV's "The Practice") and perpetually flustered Dan Hedaya (Carla's husband on "Cheers" and "The Tortellis"), the stupidly titled "Pizza My Heart" is actually quite delightful.

The blend of romance, genuine comedy, and Shakespeare references so subtle they might even get past your high school English teacher really, really works for some crazy reason.

I'm a sap for "Romeo and Juliet" adaptations, whether it's the '60s musical "West Side Story," '80s grindhouse sleaze "China Girl," the Jet Li chopsocky actioner "Romeo Must Die" or DTV kiddie fare "Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss," the latter of which tells the story with, not kidding, animated sea lions.

This one's more like the sea lions one than Abel Ferrara's grim "China Girl," in that it foregoes the "tragedy" part of Shakespeare's tragedy and focuses more on a "love conquers all" theme that would have made the Bard throw the heck up, but is totally befitting of ABC Family, on which "Pizza My Heart" premiered about a decade ago.

And as such, it's a lovely way to spend an evening with your spouse.

I'm a sucker for these types of movies; so to me, this modern take on Romeo and Juliet was an absolute joy to watch.

It's not only a perfect romantic movie, but there are some elements of comedy within it. (Take for instance, the mice being released in the Montebello's restaurant.) The characters themselves were very believable... I even started to FEEL the resentment of the two families! My only regret has to do with the people that didn't watch this... I say to them one of two things: for the uncultured, grow up; and to the ones that didn't get it, stop over-analyzing everything and enjoy the movie.

10/10

The acting by all cast members was superb. Shiri Appleby is absolutely beautiful. She's one of those girls next door who you'd love to settle down with and get married to one day. While the plot was quite predictable (possibly a result of it being an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet) i still found myself interested throughout the movie. The writing was fresh and barely cliché. And by the end of the movie i did find myself with the strangest craving for good pizza (though it is kinda hard to find the authentic stuff here in Hawaii). All in all, definitely a recommended movie if you're into the whole romantic comedy thing.

I don't usually take time to watch TV movies with commercials, but this was on at a good time, featured actors I like, and had a catchy title. Never mind that this story has been made many times over (Romeo & Juliet, if you didn't already know)...familiarity with the plot in this case adds to its charm, even though one knows in advance that there will be few, if any, surprises.

In this version, competing restaurants/recipes provide fuel for the families' feud, adding a new twist to an old tale. Although I knew half way through how the feud would resolve from the pizza perspective (one knows from the outset how the romance will resolve), I must admit without giving anything away that I had not foretold the catalyst, despite several clues.

One thing that not all R&J adaptations have is a romantic subplot in addition to the main one; but the one here was just as touching, if not more so, due perhaps to its unexpectedness, than the main one. I'm a sucker for a warm-hearted love story, especially when presented in the context of strong, close-knit families; and these two love stories together had me making my way to the kitchen for tissues more than once toward the end.

I rate this movie based on its context in addition to traditional factors; thus, for a TV movie, it scores well in my book.

This movie was not the worst movie of all time. It was a movie that at the end I wasn't sure whether I loved it or hated it. I have decided I loved it. It was a T.V movie so parts of it were cheesy but the plot was good, and it kept moving. It wasn't slow and most of the dialogue was clever. The acting was great. I think the actors portrayed the characters quite well. The downside to the movie was that it was very predictable. I didn't think it was necessarily a bad thing because it was a modern day Romeo and Juliet. There were some unexpected twists to the movie which kept it interesting and kept you guessing. Overall this was a great T.V-made movie.