Saturday, November 19, 2022

Movie Review: The Menu

The new movie "The Menu" succeeds in one very big area. It is far different than any movie most of us will ever see. But trying to be so different will never make any film great or even good. This movie goes from one new strange and weird idea to the next strange and weird scene, then on to the next one. Then finally some insane ending, considering all that came before, makes very little sense.

A group of very rich couples all congregate on some isolated Island, somewhere in the world, to experience a dinner given by one of the most highly respected chefs in the world. Everything is going fine as far as the impressive food until one of the workers commits suicide by shooting himself. Then they all find out that they will be dying at the end of the dinner. Then all the men in the congregation have to run out onto the island, at night, and the workers in the restaurant try to find and capture them. Surprisingly, nothing really comes out of this idea - continuing the strange "trying to fool the audience" theme of this movie.

Ultimately, this movie is far too weird and strange - across the board - to ever recommend. The high rotten Tomatoes rating of 89% makes absolutely no sense. The only upside is the long list of named actors who agreed to make this mostly bad and weird movie, including Ralph Fiennes, Judith Light, John Leguizamo, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Janet McTeer. It is even harder to believe that all of these named actors would agree to make this movie after reading the script.

I cannot recommend a movie that is all about being so different, rather than actually being good and entertaining. I rate The Menu a solid pass.

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