Cook Off! Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Cook Off! Blu-ray Movie Review

Be their (Christopher) Guest.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 15, 2018

There have been any number of films that encountered significant delays between their shoot and their ultimate release, with a couple of them, Jerry Lewis’ semi-legendary The Day the Clown Cried and Orson Welles’ elegiac The Other Side of the Wind, still awaiting release literally decades after they were supposedly (more or less) completed, at least in terms of the actual filming. There are a number of online “list” sites that have rather interesting groupings of films which encountered release delays of anywhere between a month or two and several years, but none of the lists I personally perused included Cook Off!, a film that was reportedly shot in 2007 but is only now seeing the theatrical and home video lights of day, making it one of the longest "gestation" periods in film history, at least going by many of those aforementioned lists, where maybe five years was the top end of the spectrum (for film that ultimately actually got released, that is). It’s kind of an odd situation, since there’s nothing that screams “disaster” about this film, even if its attempts to mimic a Christopher Guest approach toward mockumentaries never really delivers the same kind of consistent laughs that Guest’s offerings typically tend to do. As might be expected from its title Cook Off! details the “adventures” of several applicants trying to win a cooking contest sponsored by a company called Van Rookle Farms, an organization which seems to have a rather unfocused selection of foodstuffs as its merchandise, but one which has evidently been successful enough to offer a grand prize of one million dollars (to temporarily channel Dr. Evil). It’s therefore perhaps most akin to Guest’s Best in Show , another film which posited a bunch of patently outré “everyday” types competing for a prize in a field that many will already find instrinsically humorous. The film features a couple of Reno 911! alums, including Wendi McClendon-Covey (who also co-wrote) and Niecy Nash, but some cynics might conclude that the film is finally being released due to what was evidently originally the rather minor participation of Melissa McCarthy.

If one takes 2007 to be the actual year of Cook Off!’s shoot, that places it after many of the best loved Guest offerings which have clearly influenced this film, and there are any number of at least tangential links in terms of characters and backgrounds to some of those Guest mockumentaries. Sisters Sharon (Cathryn Michon, who also co-wrote, actually adapting her own novel in what is kind of an interesting aside for a largely improvised film) and Pauline (Wendi McClendon Covey) may in fact remind some viewers of Laurie Bohner, Jane Lynch’s character in A Mighty Wind, in that apparently sweet and innocent “middle American” types have a somewhat salacious aspect. In the sisters’ case, it’s not a history in adult films but a side business hawking “Lutheran marital aids”, which are in fact briefly demonstrated early in the film.

There are certainly laughs to be had in Cook Off!, as evidenced by that very skewering of “proper” Lutheran conduct, and many of the vignettes scattered throughout the film reap at least baseline comedic dividends. But where I think this offering perhaps goes off the rails more than the standard Guest film is in its attempt to stuff so much material into a rather flimsy framework. There are all sorts of potentially interesting contestants competing for the huge prize monies, but the film’s scattershot approach means that at least some of the characters feel like they get lost by the wayside. Among the many contestants in the film are a realtor mother and daughter named Victoria (Cristine Rose) and Cassandra (Jennifer Elise Cox), a newly pregnant housewife named Patty (Romy Rosemount) whose nerdy husband oozes passive aggression, and Ladybug (Niecy Nash), whose two dimwitted sons vie for her attention. Marauding into the maelstrom late is Amber (Melissa McCarthy), a character whose part was increased due to reedits, as reported by my colleague Brian Orndorf in his review, something that may have led to the jettisoning of more fulsome information about some of the other characters.

There are even more characters at play, including Gavin MacLeod of The Love Boat and The Mary Tyler Moore Show playing himself as the judge and apparent resident therapist for some contestants, as well as the wonderful late Marcia Wallace of The Bob Newhart Show and The Simpsons as another judge. Night Court’s Markie Post is on hand as a correspondent for the Nosh Network who is covering the event. Several other accomplished comedic actors pop up in various supporting roles, just one indication that perhaps the biggest problem confront this particular Cook Off! was an overabundance of “ingredients”.

Cook Off! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cook Off! is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. With an understanding that parts of this presentation are deliberate lo-fi, or at least lower fi, in some cases due to the conceit of the contest being captured "on the fly" for the supposed documentary, this is an often bright and rather appealing presentation. Fine detail levels are often hilariously high on some of the pretty unappetizing food concoctions on display, moments that are offered in more of less "still life" where textures can be readily observed, but due to some of the chaotic framings in the actual interplay between characters, some shots can look fairly soft and ill defined, at least relatively speaking. Some individual scenes, like an early get together for all the contestants, look like they may have been deliberately captured at lower resolutions than the bulk of the film, and there's some obviously ragged looking footage that seeks to recreate the Nosh Network live coverage. The palette pops quite winningly throughout the presentation, with nice saturation and a wide array of rather bold primaries.

Cook Off! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cook Off! features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that nicely splays sonic information through the surround channels in some of the cacophonous competition sequences where several characters are in frame simultaneously. A lot of the film tends to be the mockumentary staple of one or two characters speaking directly to the camera, often without even much in the way of ambient environmental sounds to fill out the surround channels. That said, fidelity is always fine and there are no issues of any kind to report in terms of distortion or dropouts and the like.

Cook Off! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Cook Off!: The Ultimate Food Fight (1080p; 14:27) features Jordan Black, Paul Willson, Cristine Rose Gary Anthony Williams (who is about one third of the man he used to be, so to speak) and Cathryn Michon in what appear to be at least relatively recent interviews where they reminisce about the film.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 13:16)


• Outtakes (1080p; 3:10)

Cook Off! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While Cook Off! is perhaps too firmly in the Christopher Guest (jello?) mold, it's actually a rather sweet piece (no pun intended), with several solid comedic performances and a kind of gonzo overall ambience that helps it surmount its less effective moments. Technical merits are generally strong, and especially for fans of its wide ranging cast, Cook Off! comes Recommended.