Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is so much like Drew Barrymore in the sense of: even if their movie's terrible, they're always so cute, adorable and has so much charisma and talent, you want to rate the movie even higher.Sadly, she was the only bright spot on this lousy 90s rom-com. While there are multiple problems here, the main one involves magic and earning nothing. I had no problem the movie was centered around some magic spells from some actor they only paid for an hour's worth of scenes until he mysteriously turns into a crab, but since the entire romance and a restaurant owner's success is only built around said magic, no one earned anything that should've come on its own.Basically, as Amanda's (Gellar) restaurant is about to fold, she meets a Crab-man who uses some kind of off-screen spell to make her cooking excel and her and a shallow man fall in love. No real explanation is given or accepted by anyone and when unexplained events occur, Amanda just brushes them off. Only her man, Tom, thinks things are odd.Since no one learns any kind of lesson, improves themselves on their own or feeds the crab that strangely stays alive for weeks without food or water, it's hard to get behind our characters we're supposed to care about.Again, Gellar gives her all. She's talented, charming and even she can't save this. No reason to see this, even if you're a Gellar fan. I have a strong feeling she'd agree with me on this one.***Final thoughts: Haven't heard of this movie? Well, neither have I and I study movies like I'm always trying to pass the movie bar. Since the fantastic How Did This Get Made? podcast covered this, I had to watch it so their show would make more sense. And speaking of which, I hope they do make sense out of this mess.

Amanda Shelton (Sarah Michelle Gellar) inherits her late mother's restaurant but not her skills. The rent is raised and they are about to close. A mystery man sells her a magical crab. Tom Bartlett (Sean Patrick Flanery) runs a high-end department store and he's adding a new expensive restaurant. He and his unstable girlfriend Chris (Amanda Peet) are going to check out a high class chef when the mystery man drives his cab and drop them off in front of Amanda's restaurant. Amanda's food starts effecting her patrons in unusual ways.This is more on the level of a lesser Lifetime movie. Flanery doesn't have enough charisma which limits the romantic chemistry. Despite having some great supporting actors, the material is nowhere good enough. Also, I'm uncertain about how the magic works on the food and its effects on the people. I don't understand Tom and Chris acting up after eating her food. The comedy doesn't really work. There is a possible food-porn movie but it's not filmed well. The elements of better movies are here but none of it really works.

was just that for me...simply irresistible! i couldn't help myself...i am a sucker for romance combined with magic...mix in the overlay of the sublime, and add a dash of the ethereal and you have the ingredients for a sumptuous recipe. the cast was excellent, the settings of the southern cross and the tom restaurant/creation were colorful and mystical. everyone waiting with baited breath in anticipation of amandas awakening and inspiration (to meet or supersede her dearly departed mother's expectations)to explode into full blossom...magic that runs in the female lineage of the family at least. it was time to for tom to stop stalling and sabotaging a relationship destined to be divine. amanda was determined to follow her hearts desire with or without tom, but as we all know the dynamics of a divine couple (as in soulmates), loving in harmony, can have an exponential impact on the changes necessary to restore the love and the light to the universe! it was evident to me this was a love that truly was meant to transcend time!

The direction was bad.The script was bad.The actors tried. They failed to make up for it.There could've been a few things in the movie that could have been explored more, and they weren't, which leaves you feeling, "what the hell is that about?" *SPOILER* There was one running joke made that was funny. That's it. The friend character says when men put their hands in their pockets they're thinking about sex. When she's getting ready for a date and tries different outfits he does that and she says, "Really?" He looks down and takes his hands out. Ha ha ha, very funny. And she sees various men with their hands in their pockets and looks disgusted, etc.