Bitter Feast (2010)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Joe Maggio directs this wickedly and somewhat comical story of torture. Peter Gray(James LeGros)is an arrogant, self-absorbed celebrity chef that has had one bad review too many. A pompous influential food blogger JT Franks(Joshua Leonard)writes another scathing review of Gray's show and cooking abilities. Gray finally snaps and his hatred of Franks becomes obsessive. In a way, JT's words will come back to hurt him. The TV chef kidnaps the blogger and shackles him in the basement. On the menu is a full course of witty tortures. But alas, the beaten up JT is far from being helpless. Next up is a tactful battle of gigantic egos. Rounding out the cast: Amy Seimetz, Megan Hilty and Food Network's Mario Betali.

This movie is lame...sooooo lame... The story, even though a bit original, is boring. A chef, that gets angry at a bloguer, for saying bad things about his program, and about his restaurant, kidnaps and tortures him, really bad, in order to make him suffer some regret for the "bad deeds" he has done. Stupid story, stupid actors, with stupid role play... The only good part in this film, is the death of the detective, that the bloguer's wife hired to search for him... Unfortunately this kind of crap is more and more normal, nowadays... Stay away...if you want to see torture movies, try Last House on the Left or I spit on your grave...both versions (72 and the modern one). This one is forgetful...a waste of time...

I really enjoyed this movie, it was entertaining and worth a watch! A celebrity chef gone hell bent on torturing a guy who wrote many bad reviews on his finest cuisine. The story line is simple and the camera work in this movie was awesome!The main characters were all great, the only person I wasn't crazy about was the private investigator who seemed weird and out of place in the movie. He looked like someone who went into a coma in the 80's and woke up 20 years later. Other than that everything was very suspenseful without being too over the top. But for what was an 8/10 movie for me quickly flopped near the end.Before I go on, I say the movie IS worth a watch. I'm not a thriller fan at all but I actually watched this on TV because it was interesting. Below I explain the ending though and why I gave it a negative review. It contains spoilers so I recommend you watch and judge for yourself and unless you really don't care.* SPOILERS BELOW * The ending in my opinion is pretty horrible which killed the movie for me. Near the end the food critics girlfriend gets kidnapped and taken hostage by the insane chef. The movie went downhill from there. First off when he kidnapped her there was the horror movie forced nudity, they just had to show the girl topless in the bathtub! Second he played a silly hunting game with the critic and ended up killing him in the end. The girlfriend breaks free and she ends up killing the insane chef. We don't know how she copes or survives because the credits kick in. I thought it was because they were trying to show things from the chef's perspective but that's not true, the story in the beginning went between both characters and into the girlfriends life a little. It just didn't work.Why did I think this was a bad ending? The whole point of the movie was the chef wanted to bring pain and misery to the food critic for criticizing his food. When he kidnapped the girlfriend, I was expecting him to kill the girl right in front of him to make him upset and then I thought he would make him cook her or something sick like that. It would have tied into the story and showed how sick and twisted he was. Instead he just ties her up and plays a hunting game with the food critic. There were so many better ways to have done the ending, I just didn't like it.

Bitter Feast starts as Peter Grey (James LeGros) the head chef at an up market restaurant called Feast is fired by his partner because of venomous & scathing internet reviews by influential food critic JT Franks (Joshua Leonard), soon after Grey's television cooking series is cancelled by TV bosses who are alarmed at the ratings slide. With his career & reputation in tatters Grey has also suffered great personal tragedy after having lost his son to cancer, having gone past breaking point Grey decides to take revenge on Franks. Grey kidnaps Franks & imprisons him in his country home far from the city & any means of help for Franks who is at Grey's mercy, Grey sets Franks various task's & if he fails the task he is punished. From frying the perfect egg to cooking the perfect steak, Grey taunts & tortures Franks but he has been missed & people are looking for him & Grey soon becomes the prime suspect...Written & directed by Joe Maggio I have to say right away that Bitter Feast is the worst film I have seen in quite some time, I must admit that I have been taking a bit of a break from watching & commenting on so many films & Bitter Feast is a prime example of why I have lost a little bit of love with the genre lately. All I want from a film is for it to entertain me, to have some fun with it, for it to succeed at what it sets out to achieve & come away from it feeling good. Unlike when I watch a film like Bitter Feast which bores me to death, annoys me & has me constantly looking at the counter on my DVD player as I literally count down the seconds until it's finished. I hated Bitter Feast. Plain & simple. The script features nothing but unlikable character's, from the chef Grey to the critic Franks I just hoped everyone would die as soon as possible & put us all out of our misery, Grey has no plan or reason behind what he is doing as far as I could tell. Sure there's the revenge angle but if that's all he wanted why not just kill Franks & be done with it? Why the pointless games? Why make him try to fry an egg & then slap his face when he fails? The film never builds up to anything either, there'#s no great ending or anything & it just sort of fizzles out after a predictable chase & fight. Bitter Feast could have been a lot of fun with a snobbish critic getting his comeuppance in a grisly & fitting way as witnessed in the excellent Theater of Blood (1973) but it takes itself so seriously, is so drawn out & dull & uneventful that I found it really hard to get to the end, I did make it to the end but it more a test of endurance than a fun & entertaining way to pass 100 odd minutes.Reasonably well made there's nothing wrong with the way Bitter Feast looks but it's pretty forgettable, there's not much tension or any scares as such. Forget about any gore as there isn't any really, a knife is stuck into someone's hand & a couple of people have blood spurting neck wounds but otherwise this is really tame.Probably shot on a really low budget this was filmed in New York. The acting is alright but many of the performance's are far too one dimensional & flat. I can't say i cared about anyone or anyone creeped me out or made me laugh or anything really.Bitter Feast is a film that I really disliked & it's films just like Bitter Feast why I just don't watch as many low budget horrors as I used to, I just find them an annoying & frustrating & boring waste of time. Bitter Feast is a film I happily will never have to watch again & be thankful for it.