Off the Menu (2018)

Santino Fontana as Joel Flanagan and Dania Ramirez as Javiera Torres

Both images are from imdb

8 ways to cycle from Irvine, California to VillaNueva, New Mexico

THE MOVIE

We find love at the most unexpected places, and the reasons vary from the pure, the slightly tainted, sordid, mundane, funniest or whatever else.

An unlikely heir to a Mexican fast-food franchise goes 'cuisine' hunting for the next culinary big thing, and finds himself in a small, dusty New Mexican town where foodies come from all over to salivate over the culinary treats of a local, authentic, and feisty female chef.-imdb

Joel Flanagan(SANTINO FONTANA, the voice of Prince Hans in FROZEN) just broke up with his beautiful girlfriend(JEN LILLEY), so he was kind of a bum, except that he's one of the heirs to the throne of the Kingdom of Tortilla Hut.  He's also a lawyer, but his irregular clients are the golfing buddies of his father.  His sister, the very devious Stacey Flanagan(KRISTEN DALTON), sent him and their employees on a mission and Joel was assigned to the South West...New Mexico to be exact.  Joel scouted around the State until he saw followed a food tour. The rest is history, so to speak.

 Don't we hate it when somebody else takes credit for our ideas? I've seen movies of the same theme, but I'm glad that even if (well, it's not really a spoiler because it's included on the trailer of the movie) the gorgeous Javiera(DANIA RAMIREZ), the woman with magical powers discovers he left out some details about himself, I'm just glad they didn't dwell too much on it.

There are many pretty exciting scenes, and the little girl played by MACKENZIE MOSS named Sophia is a very brilliant girl, even if her school celebrates a lot of Feast Days and gets flooded from time to time. She's quite adorable and precocious at the same time.

MARIA CONCHITA ALONSO, one of the most beautiful Hispanic women during her time, still has "it". She plays Javiera's mama and Sophia's abuelita.

So it's basically about imperialist land grabbers...Oh, I meant, thieves of family secrets...the pawn that they send to attack the kingdom they want to conquer to be a part of their empire.  Something like that.

It's also about second chances or even more. What else?  Oh, it's about true love.


That's about it.

Hope you get to see it.  I read some of the reviews and it was mixed.  I guess it's an acquired taste.  Those who like it are more than those who don't, so please check it out.  Give it at least fifteen minutes or so.

source

Thanks a bunch for your time!

Santino Fontana, Jay Silverman, Dania Ramirez and Mackenzie Moss

image also from imdb