Too Many Cooks (2014)

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The first time I watched Too Many Cooks on Adult Swim I feared that I had suffered a stroke. I temporarily lost my grip on reality and thought perhaps I'd slipped into an acid flashback. I saved it on the DVR and made my wife watch it to confirm that I was actually seeing this twisted madness. Then I shared it with others via YouTube allowing the creeping insanity to spread far and wide. Like vines crawling up the back of your spine and tapping into your brain linking us all through a maddening vision we see Too Many Cooks as a new horizon..... Okay, maybe not all of that but it's twelve minutes of your life you'll never get back and you'll be a changed person from the experience.

Written and directed by Casper Kelly, this short, parodies the many different types of opening credits sequences of 1980s and 1990s American TV Shows, such as the American situation comedy, the television crime dramas, prime time soap operas, Saturday-morning cartoons, the superhero live-action series, and last, the science fiction television shows, by having a never ending loop song, typing them all, up, together. In the middle of those sequences, is a surreal narrative that includes slasher film elements, in which many of the multitude of stock characters introduced in the opening credits are murdered and eaten by a maniac (William Tokarsky) with a machete. The only way, they can be save is, for one of those character, to push the start button, allow the show to continue, pass the opening credit sequence. Can the characters save themselves by pushing that button or will them, end up, in a never-ending nightmarish loop? Watch the special to find out! Without spoiling the special too much, I have to say, I'm deeply surprised, by how many people have saw this special. Originally aired as a special during Adult Swim's 4 A.M "infomercials" block in 2014. It was made, for a small batch of insomnias, looking for a wake-up call. It wasn't until, it was release by a third party on YouTube; that "Too Many Cooks" became a "instant cult classic" viral phenomenon that reach a million viewers. For me, this sitcom fever dream is more annoying than shocking. Don't get me wrong, I kinda love that long-drawn out meta trolling vague comedies, but the special does, go, a little too long, at times, even for those, looking forward to seeing it. It felt like a double edge sword. I really like what too many cook is trying to say, with its postmodern satire of what happens when studio head start to interference on creatives on television show, but the hardest part about the special is also its repetitive nature. I really doubt, I can watch it, multiply times, without going mad. The special is good for a one time, watch, but not recommended for repeat-viewing. It will spoil the broth, indeed as shown in the special. Often, the special repeat old television treads, to show, that even the media can be somewhat unwatchable, when studios start, feeding the same old stuff, over and over again. I think, this special was create by the creators as an insider jab against Time Warner as well as Adult Swim. The Machete Man in 'Too Many Cooks' represent Time Warner in a way, because it does what normal network executives often does, they kill shows, when they or the viewer lose interest. They are always there in the background, ready to strike on the show, if anything they deem off beam, does go wrong. This is why, the killer is always hidden in the background in Too Many Cooks. The scenes with him, eating the characters is often symbolic of years upon years, of taking in, character types, and rehashing characters with versions of what the executives want to see. This is why, everybody got replace with the Machete Killer, within Too Many Cook timeframe. Adult Swim is often known as counter-alternative programming. Represented here as Smarf, the absurd sock puppet. His name is play upon words, meaning smart. Like Adult Swim, Smarf tries to save television programming, by doing something new, even if it's a bit bizarre or out of context. This is why, after he shows up, in Too Many Cooks, the subject matter often began to mix up with each other. Smarf don't care, if it make sense or not, as long, as it makes people, happy. This is why characters outlandish actions can clearly outlive good solid performances. The scene where the credits that are the size and shape of human beings walking and running around with the actors superimposed horizontally across the credit people shows that. The whole intronitis disease part with Ken DeLozier represented the addicting absurdism of this. It's a sickness that is both cringe worthy and inane in a bad way. If you think, deep about it. It shows, how bad, both over-creativeness and control-programming can kill a show. In the end, media can become a bloated and oversaturated mess. The button pushing scene, represented, the stop of absurdism and going back to basics. It shows how creators can fight back. Still, no matter, what, the creators does to help the show, the show producers always win. At least, that's my theory on what this special means. Other people can believe, whatever they want, like it's just Ken Delozier's losing his mind, or a connection to other shows, but in the end, that's what I saw. Overall: The mundanity of yesterday television is a key to understanding this special. It's often offbeat, bizarre, and holds a peculiar kind of humor that some people might not get. It might seem random, too vague or deliberately unfunny, but once you get a chance to watch it. You might find yourself, overthinking it like myself. I think, that's the best thing to come from this special. A good thought.

This is an 11-minute short film by Adultswim from last year. The writer and director is Casper Kelly and his work here is basically a spoof on intros from all kinds of old television series, all genres included. My favorite part were the first couple minutes as it included parodies of "Family Matters" and "Roseanne", two shows I grew up with. Unfortunately, the longer it goes, the less interesting it becomes. For some reason, the director also included to get in some slasher elements. Completely unfunny. Should have stayed a harmless movie and run for 6 minutes max, maybe only 4-5, then it could have been a success from start to finish. At 11 minutes, it is not and drags occasionally. Thumbs down.

A kaleidoscopic pop-culture send up, Too Many Cooks gets better each time you watch it. At first it appears to be a spot-on parody of a 1980s sitcom, then it slowly morphs into something that moves through TV tropes and genres until it becomes unsettling as a gleeful murderer (William Tokarsky) begins offing the cast. He continues to do so as the genres change - cop show, nighttime soap, action cartoon, space opera. It isn't until the end that we learn that he might have been doing the cast a favor.Watch it again. First, you will not be able to get the outstandingly cheesy theme song out of your head. Second, you will start noticing the killer showing up in weird places far earlier than what seemed to be his initial appearance. Plus, in subsequent viewings his murders become more and more funny.Arguments can be made about the meaning of the entire thing - does it have a plot? Is Tokarsky's murderer a hero or a generic 80s slasher set loose in an 80s sitcom? When will Smarf get his own show? Very few films get better the more often they are watched. This is genius. 10 stars.