Cook Off! will give you heartburn that no amount of Tums could fix.
The cover of Cook Off! reads “A Half Baked Comedy with lots of cheese.” This statement accurately represents Cook Off!, a comedy that starts off lackluster and slowly begins to spiral into a intolerable mess that isn’t appetizing no matter how much cheese is put on it. Starring Melissa McCarthy alongside a myriad of cast members such as Abraham Kenarban( ( Malcolm in the Middle), Gary Anthony Williams, and Cathryn Michon. Cook Off! is about a national cooking competition with a grand prize of a million dollars. A quirky ensemble of characters competes against each other in order to win the grand prize.
Cook Off! struggles with trying to mimic a certain sense of awkward centric humor found in the “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation”. Throughout the movie there are moments where Cook Off! tries to deliver deadpan humor in order to convey that these people are who truly represent America but the only problem is none of the characters are realistic and it begins to create a dissonance for the viewer. The beginning of the movie introduces characters that are from the all over America such as Idaho and Kansas but they are so outlandish accompanied with cringe worthy dialogue comes together to form a disappointing movie. The very beginning of the movie you are introduced to so many characters you begin to get worn out, especially since none of the characters particularly stand out. It is hard to figure out who will be the main storyline in the movie and that confusion never dissipates throughout. It becomes clear later in the movie that a lot of these characters never contributed anything of substance and are only there to advance the plot from one filler to the next. This can be seen prominently in the character of Lars (Abraham Kenarban). He started off as the happy go lucky husband and halfway through the movie it was decided he was going to form a gay relationship with another character. He proceeds to then come out in a surreal gay bar scene that was so off-putting and left field that it resembled a scene from a Harmony Korine film. It is clear that Cook Off! had characters that were never going to bring any depth.
The biggest issue is none of these characters do anything to make you remember or connect with them. The beginning of this movie opens up with two sisters Sharon (Catherine Michon) and Pauline (Wendi McLendon-Covey). Two Midwest ladies who are trying to win the contest money to have a better life. They’re interactions with each other are not believable and the scene opens up with them trying to sell Christian dildos to older ladies, a joke job that is never referenced throughout the movie. Pauline throughout this scene stares at Sharon with a scared confused look and acts like she has no idea what is going on. This shows two major themes that are prevalent in Cook Off!, the actors rehearse lines in such a way that everything seems to be improvised and Cook Off! is not afraid to have lifeless jokes that are crude and not funny.
The movie on the front cover makes it known that Melissa McCarthy is the star of the movie but this is very misleading. Melissa Mccarthy doesn’t come in till halfway through the movie in a jumbled mess that seemed that the writers shoehorned her in there at the last second. She proceeds to repeat the same lines for about fifteen minutes in a frantic rush that make it look like she had no idea she was going to be in the movie till five minutes ago. Her performance is weak and did nothing to help the movie it just added to the rollercoaster of robotic dialogue.
“This is America, anything can happen anyone can make it and this is one girls dream come true.” This was one of the ending quotes for the movie and it fits the movie perfectly albeit a bit ironically. Cook off! Should never of been made, with a roster of unbelievable cringe characters, a storyline that doesn’t seem to know where it’s going half the time, and jokes that don’t land but instead come off as mean quips, it’s a surprise to me that Cook Off! got green lit. Do not watch Cook Off! It will give you heartburn that no amount of Tums could fix.
