reldnahc98
I didn't know what to expect with this movie. The only reason I watched it was because my family likes it, so I watched it with them. I was interested in the beginning but soon discovered how predictable the story is. I saw almost every major event coming 5-20 minutes before it happened. This, of course, sucked out the enjoyment for me.The shots of food were very appetizing and colorful (despite watching on a DVD player which seems very blurry nowadays). The cinematography was good; there were many shots that looked very good. I can't recall there even being a soundtrack, so take that how you will. I noticed that the pacing wasn't very good. Near the beginning of the second act, I thought it was going to end because the pacing was very slow and there was no more conflict. There was nothing more to continue the story until later on when another predictable event happened. Half an hour before the movie ended, I already knew exactly how it was going to end and got extremely bored.Overall, I wouldn't watch this movie unless you want mindless feel-goodness.
Ian
(Flash Review)A restaurateur from India moves his family to France. They set up shop across (100 feet to be precise) from a critically acclaimed fine dining restaurant with a 2 star Michelin rating. Can fine dining and Indian cuisine maintain friendly relations? That's the overarching plot. The sub plot is the Indian son is a cooking protégé and the fine-dining owner wants to recruit him for her mentorship. Once he experiences the top end, will he begin to miss his downhome Indian ways? The movie was nicely shot, picturesque and well-produced. Serviceable script yet the editing had some abrupt scenes directional changes; didn't blend well together. Toss in a girl/boy romance and you get the picture. The core plot is good; told in a family friendly manner.
rainydaywoman-95930
This is NOT a foodie movie. It is dumbed down Hollywood crap. It is full of dull clichés. It had so much potential, and wasted all of it trying to appeal to all and sundry. A genuine movie would have had French people speaking French, Indian speaking Indian, with subtitles and only English when they speak to each other. The setting and the light is beautiful, the rest is completely forgettable.
cwaters80
(Spoilers) This is a sumptuous banquet of beautiful locations, good acting, a lovely soundtrack by the legendary A.R. Rahman, and it plays out more-or-less the way you would expect and want it to. The actors know exactly what they are doing, particularly Helen Mirren and Om Puri, who both start out bombastic and brutal but let their guards down convincingly.However, as some people have noted, the most surprising thing in 'Hundred-Foot Journey' is its very great resemblance to the 2007 animation 'Ratatouille', with many themes, scenes and even one or two lines bearing an uncanny resemblance. For example, Hassan is basically a composite of Ratatouille's two main characters, awkwardly falling in love with the rival female sous-chef while also becoming a rising star of the kitchen with his unorthodox cooking style, delivering a dish for a critic which is vital to preserving their good rating. On a personal level, the scene where Hassan tastes the sea urchin in the market in India is very similar to Remy's tasting of the various cheeses, both finding a moment of clarity and epiphany, suddenly knowing for sure that their destiny lies with food.Other themes too, such as outsiders feeling they should never mix in each other's worlds, then discovering and accepting the advantages of integration, are present in both films. (It is perhaps possible that the writer of Ratatouille wanted to explore immigration, integration and racism metaphorically, whereas Hundred-foot was more willing to deal with it directly.)While many children's films are adapted from serious grown-up works, it is downright bizarre to see this happening in the other direction. It isn't a bad thing though, Ratatouille is good and worthy of influencing others.(And before anyone mentions it, the novel that 'Hundred-Foot' was based on was published in 2010, three years after Ratatouille's release in 2007, so Ratatouille definitely came first.)On the downside, though they're not carbon copies, it is very hard to shake the feeling that this is a live-action remake, and consequently anyone who has watched Ratatouille is going to find very few surprises or twists in Hundred-foot.
AD
