Bitter Feast

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.

I have seen one of Joe Maggio's previous films, Virgil Bliss, and his style of story telling appealed to be then as it does now.

Hollywood spends millions, yet Mr. Maggio can put a film together for $6,000 apparently. Wonder what they really spend the money on.

James LeGros is excellent, supported by a strong script and a good story. I liked this from the beginning until almost the end (don't want to spoil it).

Lots of interesting dialog and James LeGros' cool intensity won me over.

I don't like a lot of movies, but I certainly like this one.

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!

First, I am a huge fan on Kitchen Nightmares, Hell's Kitchen, etc. I also consider myself quite the food snob. I love to cook, but would never, ever, consider doing it as a career.

All of that said, this movie is extremely clever. Not terribly original from a revenge and torture perspective, but I love the "challenges".

The low budget nature of the film makes it unlikely to ever get a major viewing; however, anyone that is a fan of food and Gordon Ramsey will truly enjoy this film.

Final thought, for a cost conscious film, the acting is actually quite good.

Unlike some other capture/torture movies which focus more on torture than anything else (like an extremely overrated The Loved Ones), this one is mostly about revenge and capturer making a point. In this case one pretentious rich asshole proving another asshole what he doesn't deserve to call himself a restaraunt critic. Practically all characters in the movie are assholes except the critic's wife, so you just wish both of male leads just kill each other in some assholish 1-vs-1 standout.

It's a decent thriller with the actual story and it's interesting enough to watch it at least once. The ending is not believable, but made so for the quite ironic scene.