AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

SnoopyStyle Greek-German Zinos Kazantsakis operates the rundown working-class Wilhelmsburg restaurant Soul Kitchen. He has money struggles. Sokrates works on his boat in the adjacent storage but never seems to pay Zinos rent. During a family dinner at a high-class restaurant, he sees arrogant chef Shayn getting fired and hires him on the spot. His girlfriend Nadine leaves for China and later he decides to go to her. His convict brother Illias gets leave from prison and convinces Zinos to sign off on work release. Zinos hurts his back trying to move in a replacement dishwasher. With no health insurance, he gets help from physical therapist Anna. Tax collectors confiscate his sound system. Shayn changes the menu driving away the regulars. Former classmate and sleazy developer Thomas Neumann wants to buy the restaurant and secretly calls in the health department. New customers love the food and soon it becomes a gastronomical success. Waitress Lucia hates Illias until she finds out that he's a bad boy criminal. He's a degenerate gambler but Zinos gives him power of attorney.The story is a bit rambling with a lot of turns. It's got a jazzy rocking feel. It works well enough. It's got its fun. The jam-packed story may work even better as a TV show. As for the food porn aspect, the most memorable scene is Shayn taking apart fish sticks and french fries to create a high-class plate.

moviescriticnet Awared with Special Jury Award in Venice Film Vestival "Soul Kitchen" is one of the best Faith Akin movies (2nd best after "Gegen die Wand" in my book) and an excellent mixture of comedy and drama. The German/Turkish well known director features in Soul Kitchen a story filmed in Hamburg with a strong Greek element. The film depicts excellently life in Hamburg (which is one of the most different and great German cities) in a story that unlike most of Faith Akin's films is not too sad and is in fact quite funny. Moritz Bleibtreu is as always a safe and good choice and in few words this film will probably (if you have some sense of humor) leave you with a big smile in your face.Grade: A-

Cinish Narayanan The reason I picked this up was that I had read/heard somewhere that this had inspired the movie 'Ustad Hotel' in 'malayalam' which I had enjoyed.Having seen excellent movies like The Trap/Troubled Water/L' Infante recently, I was not extremely impressed by this one but at the same time the movie is young and lovable.There are some original humor sequences.You may like the movie a whole lot or the movie may not touch you at all - depending on your frame of mind while you watch this.I liked the main protagonist of the movie. The back ache that he carries through out movie somehow aches your back as well while you watch the movie!. He goes easy on various people - letting his employees practice music in his dying restaurant , letting his tenant stay off rent , letting his brother run the business etc.That is how the main protagonist has been built.The movie is filled with short easy sequences - a nice watch.

kosmasp You could be excused, if by hearing the title, you'd thought this is yet another "urban" comedy, starring Martin Lawrence or Ice Cube or Queen Latifah. It ain't so. While the title might be misleading (in quite a few ways), the characters in this aren't. You have finely structured people (with a cliché here and there), who seem to have their everyday problems and find a way to live with them.Our main character has quite a few struggles to go through this movie, some of them come "back" at him (no pun intended). And while quite a few things are more than cliché (the brother and what he does towards the end, is borderline believable, even with the setup through the movie), it has quite a few nice touches to it. All in all, a warm comedy, that goes more for the heart than the brain. A nice change of pace by Faith Akin and a movie, whose flaws shouldn't hinder you enjoying it.