Grilled (2006)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Please don't spend money on this.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

When I heard that Ray Romano, Kevin James and Sofía Vergara are in a movie I was expecting laugh-out-loud entertainment. Sadly, 'Grilled' is not that. This is by no means the fault of the actors. The fault mainly lies in the script. The plot is very weak and the relationship between between the main characters and the supporting ones are underdeveloped. Romano and James's characters are quite well-written. They work very well off one another (even though sometimes they're given terrible lines). Sophia Vergara oozes heat and she's funny at the same time even though her character is halfbaked. Juliette Lewis is a little over the top at times but otherwise she's hilarious. While the characters are funny and the story lacks focused, 'Grilled' may have worked as a silly comedy if only it was funnier. It tries to be wacky but mostly falls flat. The actors are the ones who bring humour to their characters and because of that 'Grilled' is average at best.

Ray Romano and Kevin James have both become beloved through their great sitcoms but sadly both men seem to want to distance themselves from the roles that made them famous and take on darker roles. Sadly this experiment falls flat and Grilled is the result of it.The basic plot outline is good and the actors involved raise expectations but sadly this film is lousy. It's no wonder it went straight to DVD. It tries to be a cool black comedy but then it tries to have moments that pull at the heart strings and in the end fails to fit either genre well enough. In the end the director resorts to the over-usage of expletives, sex and violence.Don't Romano and James understand that there was nothing wrong with their style in their sitcoms and that it is this style that made us as an audience fall in love with them.

Ray Romano and Kevin James are certainly two of the top comic talents in the past several years. Ray, as the cornerstone of his series, and with reruns appearing frequently and in multiple airings - he has to be adding to the financial benefits from his creation - already well into 9 figures, and probably approaching 10.I don't know if Kevin had the equity in his program equivalent to Romano, but if he hasn't made as much, it's very considerable nonetheless.Many big TV stars have had an overall rough time in gaining anything even close in translating their talents to the big screen. Sometimes the films seem to be bad choices - or just "bad."Bill Cosby's TV show was top-rated, and I believe he led all entertainers in earnings at least one year, and was near the top during others - but what he provided on the big screen was neither memorable initially nor provided anything one would seek to view again.Even where not only due to movie quality, it seems difficult for audiences to accept characterizations different from those which made their television programs so popular.This movie wasn't of "blockbuster" proportions, but certainly worthy of better than direct-to-video release. The two leads have worked well together before - James regularly on "Raymond," and while I didn't and don't watch "King of Queens" a lot, I do recall seeing Romano at least once in a cameo-type appearance.But this flick was humorous with a plot which balanced its humor and a modicum of believability and drama. I thought both leads did well, and the supporting cast, too.. Worth a viewing - and much better than, say, the Pesci/Glover offering, "Gone Fishin'," where even big-screen performers with successful track records can produce a real flop.Again, this film seems to deserve better than it got.

GRILLED predictably sat on the shelf for a time before finally being released direct to video. Better it should have stayed buried. TV actors Ray Romano and Kevin James play a pair of underhanded meat salesmen (the movie tagline says it all) who run afoul of gangsters, a smoking hot transsexual and assorted and sundry goofballs and fools. Juliette Lewis plays a suicidal bimbo and Sofia Vergara is Romano's fleeting love interest. Burt Reynolds and Jon Polito are also along for this wildly uneven ride. What a disaster. Everyone involved in this should be ashamed. Unearthly beauty Vergara is the only reason to watch even five minutes of this.