review: THE COOK

Anchor Bay  //  Buy from Amazon.com It's a long holiday weekend at the Lambda Epsilon Zeta sorority house, and a handful of girls stay behind to indulge in three days of partying, sex games and strangely delicious meals prepared by the weird new chef. But as the sisters begin to disappear one-by-one, the remaining coeds find themselves trapped in a nightmare of graphic slaughter - as they wonder who will wind up next on the menu! Mark Hengst ("Alias," Miss Congeniality 2), Makinna Ridgway and Kit Paquin ("Ugly Betty," "Entourage") star with a bounty of beauties in this blood-spattered black comedy that cuts like a knife, tastes like chicken and serves up a scrumptious feast of carnage whipped up by... The Cook What a strange film. The cover should have told me all I needed to know - a smirking, ruggedly handsome dude with a huge close-up of giant boobs behind him. While I may have been hoping for an attempt to recapture the magic of "Porky's" or even "Hot Dog: The Movie" unfortunately this film doesn't come close to those beloved 80s sex comedies. What it is is clearly a low-budget attempt at creating a dark, sex-filled comedy... with meager talent in front of (and behind) the camera. This ain't no polished Hollywood production, to be sure, but I'm not trying to flush the film down the toilet with this review, because I did enjoy it... mostly. It's not great, but it is fun, and you'll at least chuckle or snort a few times, guaranteed. No Oscars coming this film's way, but if you want to turn off the brain and just giggle, your wish is granted. Video This (apparently DV) film is presented in a wide 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer that is decent, but admittedly not great. No complaints, but nothing beautiful either. Audio The Dolby 5.1 surround mix is quite active, in some scenes too much so (with music drowning out the dialogue.) Extras audio commentary w/ exec producer/editor/writer + 5 actors behind the scenes featurette audition footage trailers Closing Thoughts Amusing, decently entertaining flick + good extras = worth a rental on an otherwise dull evening