1st Bite (2006) Reviews

• Embarrassingly disappointing

  chicken_marengo12006-10-06

  I had the distinct displeasure of seeing this movie at the 2006 Vancouver International Film Festival. I have been attending this festival for over 5 years, and I have certainly seen some poor movies on occasion. However, 'First Bite' has reached a brand new low in film. In spite of being shot in beautiful locations, with the occasional, exquisite close up of fabulous food, the movie contorts an excessive number of plot twists and stilted characters until I was practically begging for it to end. The lead actor, David La Haye, completely failed to show any character development throughout the movie, portraying a pompous chef from beginning to end. Additional sub-plots, such as eating disorders, were developed so poorly and completely did not fit within any context that the movie had shown up to that point. A theme of mysticism was used as a poor attempt to conceal a movie that achieves nothing, goes nowhere, and completely disappoints.

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• Bon Appetite

  sirdigo2007-04-22

  This is a most refreshing movie. It's cross-genres style might turn off a few conventional viewers but for those seeking something different, they are in for a fun ride. The fable style film is well directed and acted. The Indian actor Dr Mohan Agashe ( as the new age guru ) and Thai actress "Mamee" ( as the diabolical seductress ) are fascinating to watch. And it's also refreshing to see Michael Ironside in a thinking man role than those that he plays so often in thrillers and sci-fi flicks. The art direction of the film is breathtaking - from locations to the designed sets. And also the soundtrack is noteworthy- from the kiss-ass Thai rap to Arabi-Indian chants to haunting classical string pieces that resemble those of the old vampire movies... It goes to show that a lot could be achieved with ingenuity, without a Hollywood mega budget. It's an inspiring use of food as a metaphor of spirituality for love and life. The mythological element is quite haunting and the voodoo serves as a black humour link throughout the film. I personally find using the usually typecast Asian woman as a diabolical antagonist daring and thought provoking. To be fair, my friends and I agreed, after the screening made, that the filmmaker might have been too generous in his offerings - a bit overwhelming with all the details and senses overloads.. But in the end, after all the spices saturated, what we get is a spiritual tale that make you think about love, love, life... and yes, food.... Admit it, no matter if we are lovers, haters, winners or losers, we all eat food. And we all love good food. Take the 1st Bite. Bon Appetite!

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• innovative

  inlinda012007-04-24

  Like the film a lot. Don't know what to expect at first. It switches from comedy to action to horror to drama... That's the fun of watching this kind of film. But at the end, I totally love the roller-coaster. It's very different in its approaches to many basic themes like love, food and soul-mates... and even Buddhism. The mythology element is pretty cool and though I'm not from Thailand, I find it very special. My friend from Taiwan told me about the Lovers Rock story which is quite similar to this. The "Full Moon" Party scenes are dazzling... One should let go of the conventional expectation with "1st Bite"... Then you'll really see what the film can take you... Bravo!!!!

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• Interesting idea, poor execution

  trailofdead2006-10-06

  I just saw this at the 2006 Vancouver international film festival. The synopsis in the festival guide sounded pretty good so we decided to check this one out. I'm sorry to say I was very disappointed. Besides being poorly written, it was boring. I won't take away from the actors as there is not much they could do with this bad script. First bite was cliché without being ironic, over the top seriousness without being funny. The movie would have been better had Hunt Hoe went with a campy horror feel. Instead he took himself to seriously and this resulted with a boring film. I can't recommend this film. It felt too long and all in all just plain weak.

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• Avoid !!!

  msoleil962008-04-26

  This film is so bad I can't believe it was actually shot. People who voted 10 or 9, 8 and even 7, are you insane? Did we really watch the same movie? Or the same sh** should I say. Everything is bad in this film. The story (is there a story?) is going nowhere, completely incoherent, the acting (some dialogs are simply just ridiculous), the music score (what the **** is that?), the editing, and especially the artistic direction, a pure disaster. Reminds me the old Macist movies... To give you an example of the amateurism of the production, the mermaid's costume is a sleeping bag with spangles sticked on it. I'm not joking, that's exactly what it is. Another example of the enormous mistakes we find here: you see in a scene an extra, a fat woman of about 200 pounds, who's talking on her cell phone. The next shot, which is in a complete different location, you can see this same woman, still talking on her cell phone (!) Yes, it goes that far. A big, huge, waste of money. Useless.

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