MovieAlien

Lions Gate Entertainment are something of an oddity. Formerly "Artisan Entertainment", the company is known for distributing 2 kinds of cinema: Films by well-known "Indy" directors, or B-grade Hollywood fodder that the larger studios turned down because of financial risk.

"Waiting" strangely doesn't fall in either category.

Supposedly based on a true experience, this misfire follows employee exploits at a casual dining establishment from the lunch to dinner hour. These characters don't like their jobs or the customers, and each one has their own way expressing it - either by contaminating a patron's food, insulting a patron, playing a bizarre exhibitionist game in the kitchen or using vulgarity in every sentence. Oh yeah, there are also two employees who dream about setting their manager on fire. Considering they don't do anything on the job but talk trash and steal whipped cream, I wouldn't be surprised if their boss felt the same way about them.

Humor has to be unpredictable to be funny. Even the "gross out"-kind has fair competition. Look at John Belushi in "Animal House". Pluto belched, spat mashed potatoes on people and urinated on someone's shoes, among other things. But the late SNL star had something future "Lampoon" actor/writers do not - comic timing. In fact, 'Waiting' is not so different from the recent NL movies. If there was a fair share of female nudity, "National Lampoon's Night At The Diner" would be a more apt title for this winner.

At one point in life I had worked at a restaurant, but never saw antics like those portrayed in the movie. Rude customers were laughed off after they left, and there were only 1-2 employees who didn't wash their hands before handling the food. But it was out of laziness, not vindication. Perhaps this "depiction" will ring true for some, but the movie is so repetitive, so juvenile and so predictable that even the most disgruntled food service worker will be bored to tears.

Avoid "Waiting" at all costs.

Spanning from Germany's coup of Poland, to the end of WWII, "The Pianist" follows late pianist Wlad Szpilman's (Adrien Brody) struggle to survive in the Warsaw ghetto with no help, other than sympathetic friends and those who knew him from the radio. In the film we see him get permanently separated from his family and even witness his brief brush with death as Germans flamed and bombed down buildings during the Uprising.

Indeed, not the most easy film to watch (very blunt violence, including slaughter of young children) and clocking nearly 3 hours, but superb direction and attention to period detail make it a very rewarding viewing. Adrien Brody won a well deserved Oscar, portraying a man whose love and skill for music was never strained despite extraordinary odds. A truly memorable film.