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The Movie: "What's Cooking" is a cute little film about families that is good-natured, but isn't anything we haven't seen a hundred times before, mostly on cable channel Lifetime - which is probably where this film would have played better than in its limited theatrical engagements. Starring a massive ensemble cast Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Ann Weldon, Mercedes Ruehl, Maria Carmen, Victor Rivers, Douglas Spain, A Martinez, Lainie Kazan, Maury Chaykin, Kyra Sedgwick, Julianna Margulies, Estelle Harris, Joan Chen, Will Yun Lee, Kristy Wu and Jimmy Pham (and others), the film centers around several Los Angeles families sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner and working out their problems. The families come from different backgrounds: Vietnamese, Latino, African American, and Jewish, but they all share similar goals, problems and feelings. The problem is that, for all of the characters that have to parade across the screen, there's simply not enough time to get to know each one of them - or begin to even care about them. In a film like this one, that's a definite flaw. If nothing else, the film is often all about the food. The film lingers on several shots of the food being prepared in different ways by the families - it's not the best food photography I've seen in a picture lately (see "Soul Food", "Big Night"), but it still did get me hungry by the time it was all over and done with. The twangy score also didn't seem to be a particularly good fit with the film, in my opinion. With a ensemble piece like this one, the most important thing is, do I care enough about these characters to devote two hours of my time to them? In the case of "What's Cooking?" I found myself hooked in for about the first half hour; after that, the film didn't say anything new and tried to force feed some melodrama. It's a good concept - I'll give it that, but it just doesn't go about things in the best possible way. The DVD VIDEO: Trimark gives "What's Cooking?" a respectable non-anamorphic transfer, offered in the film's 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Although it's unfortunate that this isn't anamorphic, the picture quality is still halfway decent - sharpness and detail are actually quite good, although there are a few exceptions where the film waivers into softness. Flaws occasionally pop up, but aren't hugely irritating. Light pixelation, some print flaws and a couple of traces of edge enhancement are all that's really to deal with. Colors appeared especially bright and vibrant throughout the movie, looking well-saturated and without problems. A watchable, although unremarkable, transfer. SOUND: "What's Cooking" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1; it's dialogue-driven all the way, with the score being the only element of the audio that expands outwards - it fills the surrounds occasionally, but that's about all the use the surrounds get. The dialogue sounded a bit rough at times, but otherwise came through clearly and cleanly. MENUS:: Menus are non-animated, with recipe notecards serving as backgrounds. EXTRAS: Director's commentary, cast/crew interviews, recipes and trailer. Final Thoughts: "What's Cooking" wasn't without some charming moments, but it simply devotes too little time to too many characters and sub-plots, bringing nothing particularly new to the table. Trimark's DVD provides fair audio/video quality and a few decent extras. 
Film Grade The Film ** DVD Grades Video 83/B = (332/400 possible points) Audio: 84/B = (336/400 possible points) Extras: 80/B- = (240/300 possible points) Menus: 70/C- = (140/200 possible points) Value: 80/B- = (240/300 possible points) TOTAL POINTS:1288/1600 DVD GRADE:B-/80% FILM GRADE: ** DVD GRADE: B- |