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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 2837
Released: February 12, 2008 |
| Our Price: $1.91 |
| Used Price: $1.04 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
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.
Description of No Reservations:
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
No Reservations Reviews:
Excellent movie 
2009-11-06 - excellent movie
I had seen it before buying it
good actors in the parts
chfancier
I've would not keep it in my collection 
2009-10-25 - It was a good for a sunday's afternoon but it's not a keeper for me.
Great Friday Night Flick
2009-10-01 - If you love to cook and enjoy watching romance movies, then you'll like this one. Just watching Catherine Zeta-Jone's character make scallops, creme brulee,cheesecake, and pomme frites with steak, warmed my heart. The part where they eat tiramisu by the fireside made me melt. As I love to cook a great gourmet meal every now and then, watching people cook in this film reminded me of watching The Food Network.
As for the movie itself, in the beginning Catherine Zeta-Jone's character is real control freak. She's a talented chef but is extremely anti-social, rude, and arrogant. But then she starts working with a fun and unconventional sous chef who gets her to come out of her shell. Sure they bump heads not to mention ruin a few dinner orders, but in the end it all works out. In addition a wonderful relationship between the main character and her orphan niece develops beautifully. A great film to enjoy with a bottle of wine on a Friday night.
Missing ingredients 
2009-09-28 - I remembered this being marketed as a feel-good romantic comedy--the trailer I remember was very misleading, because even though it had a happy ending, it was definitely more of a drama (in the way "Return to Me" with Minnie Driver was), and somewhat humorless (not to say there weren't a few lighthearted parts). I got the impression when Kate (why are so many leading women named Kate, just like so all the men are called Jack?) was interviewing people to replace Nick (who would give up a job as a sous chef at an exclusive restaurant just because Kate the Great wanted him to--what a pansy!), it was supposed to be funny, and it so could have been, but it wasn't.
The main problem with this film is that it lacked character development. I felt the director was telling us Kate had changed rather than showing her changing. Suddenly, she just can't take the crabby customers anymore and she walks off the job (which I thought was a sorry way of paying back the owner, who'd kept her employed despite the many times she'd driven away paying customers because she's so vain, she couldn't take criticism. For instance, I don't care if Kate thinks a hamburger is supposed to be eaten rare, I like my meat well done and if I'm paying good money for something, I wanted it cooked my way, as I will be the one eating it--Kate was a Howard Roark type (the protagonist in Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead").
The therapy sessions added nothing to the story, and I thought it was pretty pathetic that Kate's sister didn't even know who the father of her daughter was (or, if she did know, had never bothered telling Zoe). I did appreciate the tasteful love scenes, though I could have gone without that harridan in the cooler using the Lord's name in vain for some play. Do they have to throw that in every movie?
I did have to wonder, where were all the hairnets?
The ending was dull. So, they open up their own bistro, but Kate is still going to have to deal with challenging customers. She has the stereotypical temperament of a chef, but lacks the business acumen to run her own restaurant. I guess her husband (if they ever got around to marrying) took care of handling the customers.
I never felt we got to know enough of Kate to understand why she was the way she was, and her niece just seemed thrown in there--not as a catalyst, but as a subplot who just happens to come when Nick enters her kitchen, who I thought she treated shabbily. That's what's wrong with America--it's not just people who are very beautiful who make their own rules, the same goes for the very talented (think football players), and Kate believed just because she had the skill, that gave her license to do whatever she wanted, which, it seemed to be, it did. I believe civility still counts for more than any of those things.
It didn't help that Nick and Kate didn't have any chemistry either. This could have been a delightful cream puff of a souffle, which unfortunately fell flat (but was nice to look at though). And what kind of dingaling serves a fish with it's head still on to a child?
No Reservations
2009-09-24 - We received the DVD, No Reservations in a very timely manner and the DVD was in really good shape and practically brand new. Great!
