“Burnt” (Weinstein)
Ego-driven culinary drama in which a Paris-trained chef (Bradley Cooper) whose alcohol and drug addictions caused his promising career to crash returns from professional exile, takes over the kitchen of a prestigious London restaurant (led by maitre d’ Daniel Bruhl) and obsessively pursues a three-star rating from France’s Michelin Guides.
Among the colleagues he berates with obscenity-laden lectures in his drive for perfection are an old friend (Omar Sy) whose enmity he earned on his way down, but with whom he has reconciled, and a newcomer (Sienna Miller) who becomes both his sous chef and true love.
There’s a pleasant enough dessert awaiting audiences toward the end of director John Wells’ predictable conversion story. But the bad-boy protagonist’s tantrums make for an entree that many will find over-spiced, while the undisguised, but unrequited love Bruhl’s character entertains for him, although discreetly dealt with, will certainly not be to every taste.
As for yet another instance of the big-screen maneuver whereby any group of people can form a “family” based on shared interests and mutual support, it’s long since lost whatever doubtful savor it may originally have possessed.
Cohabitation, mature themes, including homosexuality, a same-sex kiss, about a half-dozen uses of profanity, constant rough and occasional crude language.
The Catholic News Service classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R – restricted.
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“Rock the Kasbah” (Open Road)
A fast-talking, down-on-his-luck music manager from Southern California (Bill Murray) quips his way through war-torn Afghanistan as he attempts to propel a village girl (Leem Lubany) to fame and fortune on the local version of “American Idol.”
Director Barry Levinson takes as his theme the idea that show-business survival skills can work in any setting, no matter how dangerous. But a jaundiced portrayal of Afghan society and a trivialization of violence are jarring potholes for the audience, while the one-liners in Mitch Glazer’s script land like dud shells. Scenes of drug use, references to sexual activity, profanities, crude and crass language.
The Catholic News Service classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R – restricted.