Flamin' Hot

This movie is "based on a true story" but it's not entirely true. Richard Montanez rose from the bottom to white collar marketing without a formal education and was involved in the Los Angeles marketing of Sabrositas in the 1990s several years after Flamin' Hot Cheetos were invented by people with MBAs in the Midwest. There is only one former employee who agrees with Montanez' exaggerated version of events, saying that there were competing ideas for Flamin' Hots in different parts of the country as portrayed at one point in the film. But the film is utter fiction. Richard Montanez was actually promoted to machinist fairly quickly by Frito-Lay and was not a janitor for over a dozen years as portrayed in the film. Eva Longoria is guilty of overstating the oppression and racism that Montenez experienced in his first couple of decades at Frito-Lay.

In fact the movie seems weirdly determined to present Southern Californian Mexican culture as the bottom rung on the ladder, when anyone who actually lives in the Southwestern U. S. and/or is affiliated in any way with the Latinx community knows that there were successful middle-class Mexican and South American immigrants in the L. A. area as far back as the 1950s and 60s. They certainly weren't all barely literate gangsters as late as 1992.

However, Flamin' Hot is fun and light-hearted to watch, and I guess it sends a good message to underprivileged kids living in poor Mexican communities about believing in themselves and giving an example of a successful member of their own community. Your mileage may vary.

Great little flick about one of the worlds most popular snack. Hot Cheetos popped up one day out of nowhere while I was in the 5th grade. They were everywhere and everyone was eating them. Leaving the familiar red stains everywhere unless you used the chop sticks but that was much later? Anyway, Eva Longoria did a great job making the movie flow. Keeping things light and entertaining. She did a great job with balancing the whole story with knowing when the scene had to be serious and when it could take those liberties to have some fun. Cast played well off of each other. Jesse García and Annie Gonzales were great together. Fun to see Tony Shalhoub, Dennis Haysbert, Matt Walsh, and Peter Diseth in this. Movie clocks in at 98 minutes but it really felt like not a single second was wasted. I did enjoy this flick with my very own bag of hot Cheetos cos why not? Good flick!

Flamin' Hot is a 2023 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Eva Longoria, about a Frito Lay janitor named Richard Montañez, who came up with the idea for Flaming Hot Cheetos.

This year has definitely been the year for inspirational biopics such as Tetris, Air and Blackberry and now this latest story - Flaming Hot is captivating, funny and heart warming.

The movie tells us about Montañez's life, his determination to make something of himself, his love and support for his neighbourhood and his family and the struggles along the way he faced.

The story is fresh and enjoyable with just enough drama to pull the viewer in. The cast was well chosen and the acting was spot on.

Does the fact that the story is not entirely true takes away the enjoyment of the movie?

Not in my opinion.

Could we truly call it a Biographical movie if its based on lies?

I leave this question to you.

I needed to watch a feel-good, and it does its job as well as could be expected. Unfortunately, what I only discovered afterwards was that although the movie aspires to be a true story of going from being the underdog to the top, the entire thing is a fabrication, as documented by The Los Angeles Times. Montañes has publicly changed important details of the story over his lifetime, and even PepsiCo itself disputes that he had anything to do with Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Most importantly, Enrico was not even with the company at the time this happened, and Montañes was actually promoted to a machinist shortly after starting as a janitor.

Did I love this movie ? Yes . I love a good underdog , I love chips , I love Mexican culture , I love Spanish , I love spicy food , I love a strong female character BUT!

Too many inaccuracies to make it work . If this had been all true - easy 9-10. Even following in his own story they took too many liberties and that bothers me . I know it is disputed and honestly I want to believe this guy that it is all legit - and maybe it is BUT prove it some way or at least make the timeline make sense in terms of documented events at the company .

Truth aside - it was funny , entertaining , happy and inspiring .

Worth the watch but still too mad about the fact check situation to give it a higher score .