Waffle Street (2015)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Excellent but underrated film

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Blistering performances.

This movie seemed like a good way to spend 90 minutes. The description on Netflix sounded interesting. However, the movie comes off as a higher end Hallmark Channel film than something that strives to be innovative.James Lafferty is James Adams, a recently fired financier who is lost for what to do with himself. He wanders into a Waffle House-style diner and gets a job. There he meets several characters who both work at, and frequent, the diner. Danny Glover lends some weight to the proceedings as a cook. The rest of the cast as unknowns or character actors who have done better things. Julie Gonzalo as Mark's wife barely rises above cookie cutter wife from every other movie about a man who has to change his life. She frets about bills, starting a family, questioning his choice of jobs and or ideas for a new career, etc. (It took me a second to recognize Ms. Gonzalo as Amber from Dodgeball. Has it really been fourteen years?).Lafferty has a nice easy going personality, but that was my issue with it. He was so laid back and lackadaisical for someone who just got canned from his career that he came off as comatose. The closest comparison I can make is Peter from Office Space, who was hypnotized not to care. James takes his firing and his lack of direction in stride. I guess he's just a better man than me.At 86 minutes, the movie has a pretty crisp pace. It felt like it needed some more depth and I think some better editing would have worked wonders. Even the supporting characters who are usually nutty and lovable in these types of movies, came off really bland.The movie is based on a book by the real James Adams.

Shallow, superficial cliché' fest that could be enjoyed by the simplest audience out there. Sat through it just to see how pathetic it would get. It did not disappoint. I was hoping at some point he would hire a personal injury lawyer or file a grievance with the NLRB to enforce company handbook guidelines. How would any evil Wall Street firm hire such a thin skinned, spoiled, clueless child to bilk investors out of millions of dollars? After stealing billions of dollars, this dolt cannot fill out a job application. This financial genius, who has got to be carrying a $5,000 a month mortgage, decides to take a job paying $400 per week before taxes. After an uplifting afternoon of serving pancakes, he decides to sell his car and house to buy the joint without consulting his wife. With such a grasp on economics I would not be surprised to find out that the writer of this film went on to write other hits like Dodd-Frank and the Affordable Care Act. I think Jonathan Grubber definitely deserves a co-credit for this masterpiece.

Serviceable at best. You have to wonder why some movies are made. They don't have any stars or new up-'n-comers, so to speak. They aren't that entertaining, original, or well acted. The characters are bland and blase, acting to boot, of course. However, you may have one well-known actor who's looking for a paycheck late in his career. Well, that's what you've got here, isn't it?We find out that Wall Street is shallow and all about the money. Wow! that's a shocker. We also find out that there are good people eaten up by this nastiness (of course that's what we've got here, thus the movie). And that there are spouses who will support these good people through thick and thin, and that there's minor self- revelations discovered on the down side of all that corrupt success, and we also learn that some good people without money come along and can teach us lessons, lessons that can only be found at the school of hard knocks, not in your local college library. And so on. Anything you haven't seen here before? Story, acting, dialogue, all rather average. Nothing to see here, folks. Same ol' same ol'. Just might want to get your waffles to go. Move along. Next!

The story is about greed, loss, and redemption. And that should strike a positive chord in many of us. But this film took a wrong turn from the beginning, as the greedy simply chewed up and spit out one of their own, James Adams, and apparently went on it's merry way. Seeing their fall guy lose a few of his expensive assets didn't garner sympathy from me. It should have brought about cheers from working class folks.....the ones who lost the most in the mortgage schemes exemplified in the opening scenes of the movie.Instead, when he lands in the middle of a Waffle House rip-off on Main Street, America, they welcome the fallen Adams into their midsts. And the working men and women he meets fit a neat paint-by-numbers stereotype of "We are po', but we are happy". It seems the only person suffering more than a squabble with their wife is our protagonist. He is suffering through a scheme to finance another big deal that could save his way of life. How awful for him.I took this movie as an excuse for greed. I saw it as a marginalization of working America. Adams' fall was a tiny bit of comeuppance for a small player in a system that stole a massive amount of wealth from the world and got away with it. I am happy for Mr. Adams' real life turnaround and redemption. We are all entitled to redemption. But I am angered by the financial fiasco that was...and still is. I was annoyed at the treatment of working class folks. The film did manage to pull together a relatively cohesive story with nothing more than an endless string of clichés. That takes some skill. And that is why I gave this movie more than a 1.We are introduced to the main protagonist, James Adams, as a driven, focused man. Every attempt is made to portray him as afflicted with some Aspergers-like, Autistic Spectrum disorder. He is focused. He is blank. He responds inappropriately to social cues. And in that, he is well suited to his original corporate role of legally conning people into bad mortgage investments. These affectations may have been offered up as a reason or excuse for what he did in the financial world, but they do little to bring him to life or to win our hearts as the story goes forward.The character of Becky Adams, his wife, is portrayed as a spoiled, narcissistic and selfish woman who only seems to offer up real emotions when threatened with losing something she wants. She is also a very unsympathetic character.It is very difficult to feel their loss. More to the point, I found myself resenting them in their entitlement.As we go forward, we meet a short list of empty and false characterizations. From businessmen to Realtors to buyers.....the movie failed to miss one stereotypical portrayal. And I am dismayed about the smiling, happy portrayals of cooks, waitresses, and ex-cons. The film's denial of the reality of working class issues shows that it is still rooted in the culture of wealth and greed and the American dream....for those who are privileged enough to still find it.Danny Glover's portrayal of grill man, Edward Collins was workmanlike, but the character was bogged down with too many tired clichés. Glover tried, but the character was unsalvageable.The bright spot in the whole movie was Crazy Kathy, portrayed by Dale Dickey. Seemingly outrageous, Crazy Kathy was the most real, most human of them all. But credit also has to go to Adam Johnson for a fine acting job playing the manager, Mathew Linslow. He was very believable and added a hint of humor.....something the film really needed.We all know adversity and we all hope we can emerge from it as better people. The enlightenment that is found at the end of some personal trial is only a small part of the story. It's the journey that makes up the substance of the tale. That is the meat on the bones. The journey of self discovery lends credibility and validates the big payoff at the end.This is where Waffle Street fails. Redemption comes. But it's built on a foundation of characterizations that I can only describe as empty, derogatory, and in many cases, insulting. It was as if the "manual on racial and social stereotypes" was used by the writers. The last third of the movie tries to breathe a little depth into a few of the characters, but was too little....too late. This film lost me early on. It never got me back.