CHEF DVD (2014)

SYNOPSIS: When Chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) suddenly quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant after refusing to compromise his creative integrity for its controlling owner (Dustin Hoffman), he is left to figure out what's next. Finding himself in Miami, he teams up with his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara), his friend (John Leguizamo) and his son to launch a food truck. Taking to the road, Chef Carl goes back to his roots to reignite his passion for the kitchen - and zest for life and love

MOVIE REVIEW:

Written by Favreau, Chef returns the Iron Man helmer to his indie roots. Independently financed and co-starring Favreau’s many superstar friends, the movie is an eye-opener to the world of food trucks in the States.

Favreau stars as Carl Casper, sort of a celebrity chef in the culinary circle who quits his job in a huff after his boss (Dustin Hoffman in a cameo) wants him to stick to his usual acclaimed dishes. With his desire to branch out and the egging of his ex-wife, Molly (Sofia Vergara) Casper decides to run a food truck with his ex-assistant, Martin (John Leguizamo).

While there’s nothing out of the extraordinary about the premise, Favreau manages to keep things charming, slick and often very funny. It’s a tale about mid-life crisis that generously took swipe at the current state of social media in our life. Casper’s meltdown at his former workplace is captured on YouTube thus questioning his state of mind and his ongoing war with a food critic (played by Oliver Platt) on Twitter only worsen matters.

Food might be the primary theme of the movie and it certainly served up plenty of sizzling, close-up shots of delicious Cuban sandwiches (created by Roy Choi, creator of gourmet Korean taco truck in LA) that makes you want to wash down a couple of those with a cold beer. The secondary message however is about family and relationships. The father-and-son relationship takes center stage when Casper and his son, Percy (Emjay Anthony) embark on an exciting road trip on their food truck across the country. Not forgetting Casper’s on-and-off relationship with his sexy wife who supports him emotionally and financially after he burnt out.

Of course, in addition there’s a minor Avengers gathering with Robert Downey, Jr and Scarlett Johansson appearing in small roles. Most agree that Chef is the movie that sort of revived Jon Favreau’s flagging directing career after the dismal performance of Cowboys and Aliens. It certainly is. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The no-frills DVD comes with serviceable visual output and decent audio track. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee