Bitter Feast

Peter Grey is a pompous, talented chef whose life is about to take a turn for the worse after an unnecessarily horrible review by blogger JT Franks. Grey's already skewed world perspective changes drastically as he resolves to kidnap Franks, torturing him with a series of seemingly simple cooking tasks.

Bitter Feast gets points for originality and gloss. The film looks quite good for an independent effort and the actors really throw themselves into the roles. They actually hired actors, not faces, to flesh out the interesting script. James Le Gros especially never goes over the top but plays the role rather subtly and Josh Lucas is excellent, being sympathetic and unsympathetic all at once. The always reliable Larry Fessenden shows up as a slimy private eye trying to locate Franks.

Don't expect your life to change, but if you're looking for a movie with some originality and panache, then dig in!

Apparently, this movie is low budget, but I couldn't tell. I wish I could say that about every independent movie I see! The other reviews are spot on: this is a very good movie, with a tasteful, somewhat fresh spin on the revenge movie, bucking the recent trend of gross-out, "torture porn" films. There's no actual torture in this movie, though it's implied and almost certainly is happening, off-camera. Some might be disappointed by this. Myself, I find it somewhat refreshing to watch a revenge movie that focuses more on psychological horror, story, and pacing, rather than buckets of fake blood. Don't get me wrong; I like buckets of fake blood as much as the next guy (I liked the first Saw movie, for instance), but much of that genre is based on titillating people who get off on graphic displays of violence, frequently with a strong misogynist subtext. I'm glad that the genre horror has more life to it than that.

Everything in this movie was quite good, though I might have tweaked the story here and there, to highlight certain themes a little stronger and to give a little more time to the very interesting conflict between the two leads. Overall, though, I liked it quite a lot, and I recommend it to anyone who likes darker dramas, revenge movies, and/or independent cinema. There's so much to like here, that you'll easily overlook any flaws.

This is a tough sell. A movie where both hero and antagonist are despicable (but not in that cute animated movie you may know). Of course some might have trouble choosing who the protagonist is for them. But it doesn't matter who you choose, you will have a hard time rooting or really feeling for one of them.

Of course, the movie will wake up feelings in most of the viewers. Because we all have been mistreated in one way or another. And most would have wished to get back at those who don't respect them or the work they've done. This concept can be put on many other section of life or art. Even commenting on movies, you could go like: well do it better, if you can.

The actors do their best (with an interesting cameo by chameleon Larry Fassenden), but the story does not seem to know where it is heading or what it really wants to tell us (a "side" story being part of that and the alternate ending confirming, that the test audience might have been confused too). The basic idea is stronger than the end product, it still might satisfy you, if you like small budgeted movies

It's nice to see a horror movie that is not a hollowed out skeleton of mass produced clichés; and how many can boast Mario Batali as a cast member (I'm not saying he was awesome).

James LeGros had his acting mojo going on many years ago. If he was in it then I was fairly confident that I would like the movie or could at the very least depend on a good performance from him. Somewhere along, he seemed to have hit a rough patch and each movie was a crap shoot.

I am happy to say that he is back. I had a warm fuzzy feeling in a cold bloody horror movie.

Bitter Feast is more psychological than the average horror flick, but it has nice undercurrents and satirical commentary on society today.

It's a good day when you turn off the movie and wonder if you can find another one just like it...not perfection, but very satisfying.

An uptight cooking show host and head restaurant chef (LeGros)loses his jobs and takes his revenge on the critic (Leonard)that caused his downfall. After a scathing review from food critic JT Franks causes chef Peter Grey to lose his job at his restaurant, and the cancellation of his show, Grey kidnaps Franks and the torture begins. It sounds pretty cheesy but Grey reads reviews Franks has given and forces him to do better in order to eat the food he is preparing. The movie is slow moving in parts but overall a pretty good movie to watch. I was going to give it a B- mainly because the torture movie genre is all the same, but the last 20 minutes strayed away from the aspects that made this seem different and into "really, they are doing this??!".The ending brought the grade down, it could have been so much better. I give it a C.