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No Reservations

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Director: Scott Hicks
Actors: Catherine Zeta-jones, Aaron Eckhart, Abigail Breslin, Patricia Clarkson, Jenny Wade
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD

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Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

71 reviews
Sales Rank: 2274

Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 104
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6

MPN: 113907
UPC: 085391139072
EAN: 0085391139072
ASIN: B00005JPSM

Theatrical Release Date: July 27, 2007
Release Date: February 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: ex-library item

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
A perfectionist chef addicted to her work struggles to adjust when her sister passes away leaving her with a little girl to raise and a new soup-chef threatens to take over her kitchen with his high-spirited and free-wheeling ways.Running Time: 104 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/ROMANTIC COMEDY UPC: 085391139072 Manufacturer No: 113907

Amazon.com
Achieving balance in one's life can be a difficult process, but master chef Kate Armstrong (Catherine Zeta-Jones) leads a regimented, very ordered existence running the kitchen of an exclusive restaurant and revels in the sense of power and control her career affords. When Kate's sister is unexpectedly killed in an automobile accident and her 9-year old niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin) comes to live with Kate, Kate's life is turned completely upside down and she is suddenly forced to split her focus between work and family. Enter a newly hired, fun-loving, opera-singing sous chef Nick Palmer (Aaron Eckhart), whom Kate perceives as a serious rival, and thus begins an impassioned struggle on Kate's part to rein in Nick's exuberance and maintain control over her kitchen staff. Even as they clash, Kate is inexplicably drawn toward Nick, eventually coming to the realization that Nick offers something that she needs both in her restaurant kitchen and her new life with Zoe. Based on the screenplay for Mostly Martha, Catherine Zeta-Jones carries the lead well in this romantic comedy and there's a nice chemistry between herself and Aaron Eckhart as well as a poignant performance by Abigail Breslin. And, of course, and the food looks simply scrumptious. --Tami Horiuchi

Customer Reviews: Read 66 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

great I love this film October 7, 2008
this is a film about a woman (Kate) who is the head chef at this fancy restaurant. She is completely engulfed in her career. That she barely took time to sleep, much less stopping to smell the roses. That is until her sister and niece come to visit. But on their way there is a horrible car crash and the only survivor is her niece Zoe. Zoe, helps Kate learn to stop and smell the roses that life has to offer. And Kate helps Zoe learn to live with out her mother. And by never forgetting her mother Zoe realizes that life goes on.

5 out of 5 stars

Sweet Version Of "Hell's Kitchen." Poignant, Touching And Heartwarming. October 3, 2008
From director Scott Hicks comes a sweet story about love, loss and fire in the kitchen. "No Reservations" starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin is a family version of the FOX TV hit "Hell's Kitchen." I half expected Chef Ramsay to come out and begin cussing everyone out. I loved this tender romance film. Coincidence that I saw this movie a week or two before "Waitress," a similarly-themed movie? I don't think so. While "Waitress" had some rougher language, this movie has a mild use of "Hell." The scene where Nick was singing "Nessun Dorma" from Giacomo Puccini's final (and unfinished) opera "Turandot" brought back vague memories for me. Great film. Rated PG for thematic elements.

1 out of 5 stars

What a sad copy of a tasteful original September 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The original - Bella Martha - is a very tasteful (not superior but touching) German movie with actual people, somewhat melancholic but still a comedy (the soft, melancholic humor suits the story so much better than slapstick humor). Don't watch this, get the original. When comparing these two versions of the same story (in every detail), you can see a vast difference which, for me, lies mostly in the "reality" of the movie. In "Bella Martha" I "buy" it, the characters, the plot, the setting. In "No Reservations" it's all fake and funny, funny, funny.

3 out of 5 stars

Lugubrious Hybrid of the Food Network and Lifetime Makes for an Attractive But Bland Movie September 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Despite what I recall of the advertising campaign last year, this soft-hearted 2007 film is far less a Food Network-derived romantic comedy than a Lifetime-oriented drama about grief and work/life balance. Directed by Scott Hicks (Shine) and written by first-timer Carol Fuchs, this film offers the most insightful peek into the workings of an upscale Manhattan restaurant since 2000's Dinner Rush (i.e., if you don't count last year's CGI-generated, French food-fest, Ratatouille), but it also seems intent in splintering the story between the romantic sparks between the co-stars and the unexpected relationship that a single aunt forms with her orphaned niece. The result is heartwarming but rather diluted considering the potential inherent in the material presented. Hicks and Fuchs also seem intent on inserting predictable clich�s along the way to reinforce the formulaic approach taken with the story.

Basically a remake of the 2001 German comedy, Mostly Martha, the plot centers on perfectionist chef Kate who runs a tightly efficient kitchen in a chic SoHo bistro. As a resolute overachiever, she is able to get up before dawn to get to the fish market and stay late at the restaurant making her impeccably presented dishes until closing. So tightly wound is Kate that restaurant owner Paula forces her to see a therapist to address her supposedly difficult personality. This is the first of several disconnects I had with the film as Kate strikes me as demanding but not particularly abusive to her staff. Regardless, her life is turned upside down by the sudden death of her sister and the addition of her niece Zoe to her structured life. As if that wasn't enough, Paula has hired Nick, a rowdy opera-loving sous-chef, to partner with Kate as she struggles with her personal transition at home. Taking a number from the Tracy-Hepburn manual for romantic comedy, tempers flare as do sparks. Zoe's recovery from her mother's death becomes a complicating factor, but the rest of the story plays out basically how you would presume.

More interesting in edgier, less sympathetic roles, Catherine Zeta-Jones plays the icier aspects of her role well, but she is markedly less arresting when her character turns warm and gooey. The script also doesn't really respect her character much since she is made to look overly foolish and insensitive in her early scenes as a struggling mother figure. Aaron Eckhart seems to be playing more of a plot device as Nick, but he does it well, and the requisite sparks occur with Zeta-Jones. Cornering the market on playing put-upon children, Abigail Breslin is fine as Zoe, even though she has to be glumly depressed for much of the film. The usually more dimensional Patricia Clarkson plays Paula as a surprisingly brittle, opportunistic character, while Bob Balaban isn't given much to do at all as Kate's therapist but act as a bromide. Stuart Dryburgh's autumnal cinematography makes all the food look good, the stars as well, and minimalist composer Philip Glass, of all people, provided the unobtrusive soundtrack dominated by Puccini, Verdi, and Flotow arias. The most significant bonus item on the 2008 DVD is a twenty-minute episode of the Food Network's Unwrapped which includes interviews with the film's stars and the real chefs who concocted the dishes in the movie.

2 out of 5 stars

Lacklustre September 12, 2008
I like both Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart but they don't come across well in this film. She's stiff and unlikable, and he just doesn't fit the role of a passionate, opera-loving chef. Neither actor is helped by the fact that this movie isn't quite sure what it wants to be. It jumps haphazardly from drama to cliched scenes of pillow fighting and a particularly banal clip of a desperate Zeta-Jones interviewing a quick succession of odd looking people for a chef's job, which I assume was meant to be funny. Frankly I'm surprised it's tagged as a romantic comedy as there was very little to laugh about or find lovey dovey, although I did I cringe a few times.

I watched this movie on cable and I'm glad I never paid for the privilege. It's predictable Hollywood guff.

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