Chef

Every summer, the masses are bombarded with star-studded big budget projects. Mind you, during these months of high heat, people will probably see anything just to stay in an air-conditioned room for a couple of hours. But what if they want to see something on a quieter scale?

Thankfully, Jon Favreau is happy to oblige with his film Chef. A step away from his last few films, Favreau keeps everything on a smaller scale. (Quite honestly, I think I prefer his indie films more.)

As the title very much implies, food is the forefront of the film. It should come as no surprise that Favreau looked at other food-focused films like Eat Drink Man Woman and Big Night as inspirations. While not as great as those two films, Chef does make you not want to watch the film on an empty stomach.

Favreau also managed to enlist some choice actors for his film. Among some of the actors in Chef are Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt and Bobby Cannavale. (He also got A-listers like Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Downey, Jr. in smaller roles.) They all do very well in their roles and varied screentimes.

Chef isn't great but it certainly has its moments. However, if I had to choose between this and a mindless blockbuster, I'd go with this. Again, you can only handle so much when it comes to stuff blowing up in movies.

My Rating: ****