Pizza My Heart

Pizza My Heart

While it's not widely known, Christopher Columbus' voyage to America was initially a pizza delivery.

And while that factoid has been lost to history, this comedy assures America's obsession with pizza hasn't.

In fair Verona, New Jersey is where we lay our scene: two families, The Prestolanis (Michael Badalucco, Natalija Nogulich) and The Montebellos (Dan Hedaya, Gina Hecht), war with each other over who sells the best pie in town. But their long-standing feud is about to be turned on its head when Gina (Shiri Appleby) falls in love with her sworn enemy Joe. (Eyal Podell). The lovers must now bring peace to their pizzerias.

ABC Family's modern retelling of Shakespeare's tragedy, this 2005 movie-of-the-week is a goofy but guilty pleasure that tones down the calamity of the play and gives way to zaniness.

Lastly, when ordering from a Romeo and Juliet themed pizzeria, get them to hold the poison. Yellow Light

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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

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.

In a modern variation of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, the old tale of forbidden love is set in present day Verona, New Jersey where two Italian-American families, the Montebellos and the Prestolanis, run rivaling pizzerias and hold a grudge against each other. Naturally Joe, the son of the Montebellos (Eyal Podell), meets Gina, the daughter of the Prestolanis (Shiri Appleby), and warm feelings develop between them. In addition to the long-running mutual hatred between their families, Joe and Gina's romance is also hindered by their sense of responsibility to their folks: both are being pressured for pre-set careers despite longing to see more in life.

I guess you shouldn't expect much from a made-for-TV rom-com drama; but still, would just a hint of fresh ideas be too much to ask? The story advances exactly, and I mean exactly, as can be predicted right from the beginning. I actually suspected the laughably clichéd plot might be some kind of sarcastic parody of all the lame romance flicks that get churned out each year, but no, there's nothing to suggest that we aren't supposed to take it all at face value.

Besides the dull story, the other aspects don't provide much to enjoy either, even if technically the movie is not totally incompetent. The music further adds to the sea of clichés and the actors are just pretty faces with little charisma. The only exception would be the sturdy Michael Badalucco as Gina's father, but he isn't really given much decent material to work with, so it is difficult to find any reason to recommend Pizza My Heart to anyone but the biggest and most undemanding romance fans. All those tasty pizzas got me really hungry though; I guess that's a positive reaction.

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.