Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Food Films Vs. Food Commercials


Food films have become one of the more popular sub-genres and it's easy to see why. The food on screen - whether in Scott Hicks' recent "No Reservaations" or even in an animation such as Brad Bird's "Ratatouille" - is so eye- (in addition to palate-)pleasing.

OK, so why does food look so ghastly on TV commercials, most of them done in ghastly primary coloring so that the food on screen "looks as if Walt Disney threw up" (to quote a line from Burt Reynolds' "The End")?

Really,whether it's Denny's "extreme grand slam breakfast" (dominated by an ugly array of reds, oranges and yellows) or Pizza Hut's new "buffalo chicken pizza," replete with ranch dressing for dipping, it looks pretty, well, inedible.

I mean, who eats this stuff? More to the point, who would watch these commercials and even want to go to these restaurants? For me, they all serve as a good argument for a vegan diet.

These commercials are starving for some good filmmaking. Pun intended.

(Artwork: Aaron Eckhart and Catherine Zita-Jones in Scott Hicks' "No Reervations")

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Anyone interested in perusing some 2060 of my film reviews, dating back to 1994, can do so by simply going to RottenTomatoes.Com

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You're absolutely right! Those TV ads for fast food, which make me sick to my stomach, seem to undermine what they're supposed to do.