Dinner Rush
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Movie Reviews of Dinner Rush
Movie Review: Great Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
It is an interesting look at a night in a busy and popular New York restaurant. Everything goes right and wrong at the same time. The acting is top notch.Movie Review: Bang Bang for the buck
Summary: 5 Stars
Food, crime, atmosphere, it's all here. Danny Aiello is at once in the mix and on top of the game here. A great crime and food drama. Just buy it.Movie Review: Definitely a favorite.
Summary: 5 Stars
We never get tired of watching this movie. This is the 3rd copy purchased for friends and family.Movie Review: When did eating dinner become a Broadway show?
Summary: 4 Stars
"Dinner Rush" is about one night at a fancy Italian restaurant in TriBeCa, although the prologue sets the stage for the proceedings when an old man is gunned down by gangsters. This film might be about food, but it is also about life and death, although clearly in this case they are pretty much the same thing. The restaurant in question is owned by Louis Cropa (Danny Aiello), while the superstar chef is his son, Udo (Edoardo Ballerini), and the two having been butting heads over the menu for quite some time. The place is apparently booked solid, with people waiting in line for a table, but Lou dispairs over the nuovo cuisine and wants something that tastes good and fills him up. The good news is that back in the kitchen a guy named Duncan (Kirk Acevedo) can make the "salsiccia e peproni" that Lou loves, but the bad news is Duncan cannot stop gambling.
Duncan's gambling puts the restaurant at risk. Lou is also a bookie and while he has cut Duncan off the kid has gone and found another bookie: the same one who had Lou's friend gunned down at the start of the movie. The competition (Mike McGlone)has shown up, sat down at a prime table, and informed Lou that they are not leaving until they have a partnership. Lou is not thrilled by the idea. Meanwhile, the restaurant is having a very busy night and Udo has already started firing people in the kitchen. This is going to be a long night.
Among those trying to eat in peace are a snobby art gallery owner (Mark Margolis) who is entertaining a visiting Greek artist and miffed that he had to wait 45 minutes for his table and a restaurant critic (Sandra Bernhard) who shows up in a disguise that fools no one. Watching the proceedings at the bar with a wry sense of detachment is Ken (John Corbett), where the bar tender apparently knows everything about anything. The waitress Marti (Summer Phoenix) and the maitresse 'd Nicole (Vivian Wu) are trying to keep everybody happy, but things are slowly building to a climax.
Aiello's character is the calm center of the storm and the question is how strong he really is when push comes to shove. Lou might seem like a gangster, but all he has his his restaurant, his book, his son and his friends. As he admits at one point, he has never held a real gun in his life, but in all that time nobody ever got killed. Now those days are over and his insistence that he will never give up the restaurant rings hollow.
Director Bob Giraldi made "Dinner Rush" in 21 days, but he had a big advantage since it was shot at his own restaurant, Gigino's. It has the look of a Robert Altman theme, but which much more of a sense of warmth and intimacy. He also covers the preparation of the meals in the kitchen with as much care and consideration as he gives his characters. Of course, once you find out that this film was shot in Giraldi's restaurant you are tempted to rethink "Dinner Rush" as a long commercial for the place. But getting to eat some of the food we see prepared and consumed in this film is not the worst of all possible fates and a good reason to put "Dinner Rush" on the menu with "Eat Drink Man Woman," "Like Water for Chocolate," "Babette's Feast" and other films that make you hungry, even if it does belong more with the appetizers than the entrées.
Movie Review: Great Emsemble Drama; Frenzied Night in New York Restaurant
Summary: 4 Stars
Director Bob Giraldi, born in 1939, comes back to feature film after 14 years hietus, but his fame has already been firmly established as an acclaimed music video creator (responsible for Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and many, many others). So, you may think that "Dinner Rush" is just another MTV-influenced nonsense to cash in on his name. No, the film is actually an exciting experience that only Bob Giraldi can provide. And it is shot in his own restraunt "Gigino" in Tribeca, New York.The film starts with a hideous crime on the snowy street of cold New York City, but don't be worried. "Dinner Rush", never betraying our expectations we would have from the title, soon introduces us to the hot world inside of a popular restaurant run by Louis Cropa (perfectly cast Danny Aiello), where desire of people is smouldering. But Louis, it seems, has many things to be worried about. His son Udo, the star chef and master of "new cuisine" of the place, repeatedly urges his father Louis to give the ownership of the restaurant to him. The sous-chef Duncan, not a bad fellow at all, is stuck deep in debt as a result of his gambling, and today Louis, to his dismay, finds that there are two unwelcome guests at the best table, who are here to require some money. And those terrifying guys seem aiming at the "partnership" of the place, to eventually take over this popular spot.
The film features comparatively unknown but talented cast. Among them, you will definitely remember the acid-tongued critic (Sandra Bernhard); the very mean-spirited guest (Mark Margolis); and the patient waitress aspiring to be an artist (Summer Phoenix). There is also a bartender (and quiz-master) and a mystrious guest who is supposed to come from the Wall Street (but really?). However, by the time the film ends, you will see that it is Danny Aiello who is the real master of the place.
The story is almost buried among the fast pace of editing, and the middle part of the film might make you feel disoriented with too many characters. The film is certainly weak there, apparently not knowing where to go. But wait for a while. Everything fits in its place in the end, you will be not a little surprised to see the conclusion of the film.
The power of "Dinner Rush" lies in its atmosphere Bob Giraldi creates with a handy-type camera, and the realistic images of those "rush"ing characters in the kitchen and the narrow stairs leading there are always fascinating, realizing the hectic pace of cooking. As I said, Giraldi, owner of the place where the film is shot, knows this world very well, and there are also amusing (but uncomfortably real) portraits of people involved in this industry. Aiello's character, half distressed to witness the changes done to the place since the good old days, clearly shares the feeling of the director himself, and these satrical viewpoints are also delicious treats for those interested in this ever-popular business.
"Dinner Rush" is not just a film about food; it is a tight-knit emsemble drama with solid cast, and even peppered with a surprising element of gangster films. I enjoyed it, and hope you do, too.