BOILING POINT has some similarities to THE MENU. Both are to some extent about kitchen stress, although the restaurant in BOILING POINT is several status notches below the one in THE MENU. But BOILING POINT has its own points to make. There's a celebrity chef that also seems to be a reviewer, and as a reviewer he gets more recognition than the head chef of the restaurant. And the reviewer is so smug that he not only requests additional seasoning from the kitchen, he throws it on his dining partner's dish as well, without asking and even as she is asking him not to. When Rich did this in THE JOY LUCK CLUB, it was a clear sign that he was a boor.

You know how in HOT SHOTS!, one of the flyers says he'll sign the insurance forms when he gets back from this mission? Well, something like that happens early on in this film and the viewer spends the entire film waiting for the other shoe to fall.

While there are a fair number of unlikable characters, it turns out that almost everything can be blamed on one person, and unfortunately this is a person I think we are supposed to sympathize with, which makes the whole movie a bit problematic.

Released theatrically 19 November 2021. Rating: 0 (-4 to +4), or 4/10.

Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11127680/reference

What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/boiling_point_2021

					Mark R. Leeper
					Copyright 2023 Mark R. Leeper