Grilled
Meat connoisseurs will adoreGrilled, possibly the only film dedicated exclusively to high quality beef. Maurice (Ray Romano) and Dave (Kevin James) are meat salesmen roving the San Fernando Valley, armpit of America, for clients to buy their line of prime-cut steaks. Once they get a hold of the hottest leads in town, Maurice and Dave embark on a comedic adventure spiked with danger and sexual innuendo involving transvestites, gangsters, and even Burt Reynolds, playing the macho beef lover hosting his son’s Bar Mitzvah. As soon asGrilledstarts feeling like a carbon copy ofGlengarry Glen Ross, some hip actors, like Juliette Lewis cast as the drunken, suicidal girlfriend of a mob ringleader, make the film cooler likePulp Fiction. Sales made under ridiculously dire circumstances are sometimes corny, sometimes funny, odd, and surprising. Director Jason Ensler, known mostly for his work on television shows such asWest Wing,South Beach, andScrubs, has taken the formulaic salesman flick and remade it into something almost original, were it not so similar to the abovementioned two movies. Still, there are many entertaining moments inGrilled, especially when scenes of gang-related crime overlap with scenes proving these gangsters’ devotion to red meat. Eventually, carnage prevails, as Dave and Maurice teach us that the sale must be made at all costs.--Trinie Dalton