Customer Reviews

Tortilla Soup (Full Screen)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

One of my favorite movies. I had to purchase after I used to rent it all the time and now there are really no Rental stores to help me out or would have it in stock

This DVD is the greatest! It has the whole enchalada! (sp?) I sent this DVD's to my daughters, friends and family - I love it so much! Such a Wonderful, real-life movie, so down-to-earth, it is funny, sad, enjoyable, just plain wonderful!

Love this movie! Good twist at the end that makes this movie even better. I use this in my Food and nutrition class to show the importance of Family, Food, Culture and the importance of eating together as a family.

A great feel good movie with food as a leitmotiv. I will watch it again for sure.

After giving it a good rating the first time, and viewing the DVD we noticed that it has blank spots all over the DVD. We were not able to watch the DVD in full without it going blank every few minutes. Poor quality, I don't know how this happened since it looked like it was new. Oh Well I guess you get what you pay for. I will go out and buy it from Walmart at least I know that it will work. Buyer be ware of this seller.

This tremendously entertaining, funny, and enjoyable film is based on the original Ang Lee production, "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman" which came out in 1994. While "Tortilla Soup" stays within the boundaries of the original screen play as written by Hui-Ling Want, Ang Lee, and James Schamus ... the differences are palpable and obvious. First, "Tortilla Soup" is set in California and the cultural background of the family is Mexican-American. Martin Naranjo (played to perfection by Hector Elizondo) is the retired chef and widowed father who chops, cooks, and creates the most magnificent, delicious, and spicey *Mexican* meals this side of the Rio Grande. He is the loving father of three adult daughters whom he single-handedly raised after his wife died fifteen years ago. Carmen, his oldest daughter who wanted to walk in her father's footsteps and become a chef but she ended up earning an M.B.A. in order to please him (secretly she loves to create new meals and dishes). Leticia ("Letty"), the middle daughter is more plain looking and a high school teacher whose subject is chemistry. She teaches at a public high school. Maribella, the youngest daughter is more modern and does not have a job yet. She has been accepted to the local University but is contemplating "finding herself" and discovering her interests .. especially after she meets André, a handsome young Brazilian, living in a studio apartment, who seems to live a care-free existence in the USA.

Martin loves to prepare the weekly Sunday meal where the family tradition is to gather around the table and talk. Occasionally, Yolanda, a young lady next door and her school-aged daughter April join this family feast. Yolanda's mother Hortensia arrived to help while Yolanda's divorce is finalized. Raquel Welch plays Hortensia, the sexy mature siren who notices Martin's fine qualities. She attempts to endear herself to him through her feminine wiles.The story proceeds to show how Carmen plays the ultimate free-spirited career woman, who engages in fulfilling herself on many levels but is really dissatisfied and restless. Letty is a devoted teacher whose life seems unfulfilled, so she changed religions and joined a charismatic Christian church but seems doomed to remain a single "old maid". Maribella, the rebellious teenager dares to announce at one of the family dinners she wants to postpone college. She even shocks her boyfriend André when she says her plans are to move in with him (they had not discussed this ahead of time).

Martin is called in to his former restaurant to fix a crisis because someone burned so much food, they don't know if the situation can be turned around to save the banquet. Luckily, he gets the bright idea to convert the burnt carmelized apples into a French dessert. The viewer is introduced to his good friend Gomez with whom he shares his personal feelings about life. Unfortunately, Gomez has health problems - and passes out in the kitchen of the restaurant. This situation gets Martin to think about his own health and to get his priorities in order. Carmen is contemplating moving to Barcelona, Spain to accept a dream job, even though she just bought a condo locally, with plans to live out on her own. Letty receives poetic cards left on her desk, believing they are from Orlanda Castillo, the new baseball coach at the high school. Marbella finds living with her boyfriend is not the ideal situation she had hoped it would be. All the subplots within the main story line develop unexpected twists and turns which hold the viewer's interest from start to finish. Even Martin pulls a huge surprise and makes a grand announcement at one of the family dinners, creating such a commotion that Hortensia faints. Unlike in the original film, Carmen makes one of her passionate dreams become reality. Letty's story unfolds pretty well as expected but with some new flairs and funny moments. Marbella's teenage rebellion phase passes and luckily, André comes around to seeing things her way. Overall, this is a great remake of the original, with unique embellishments and cultural differences to satisfy most viewers. I was very pleased to have discovered this film. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

An EXACT copy of Ang Lee's wonderful "Eat Drink Man Woman". Frankly what annoyed me here was I watched this one first.. I just finished watching Eat Drink.. it took me about 15 minutes to realize I was watching an exact copy of something I'd already seen a couple years ago. Anyway, I was annoyed because while I could predict events in Eat Drink because I'd seen Tortilla Soup, Eat Drink was clearly the better movie -- so unfortunately it spoiled some of the pleasure of Eat Drink for me. If you haven't seen either, see the better of the two (exact same stories): Eat Drink Man Woman.

On accident I rented "Eat Drink Man Woman" and "Tortilla Soup" almost back to back. I didn't know that "Tortilla Soup" was a remake of "Eat Drink Man Woman" but I enjoyed it a lot more. I still liked EDMW but found that TS was much more entertaining and approachable. The humor and culture were more familiar and as a result it was easier to identify with the characters. The Japanese culture in EDMW was interesting as a study in itself but prevented me from feeling involved in the movie.

The cooking sequences in both are a pleasure to watch and both make you appreciate the art of cooking. Both films join "Babbette's Feast" as landmark "cooking" movies, celebrating food's ability to bring people together and provide meaningful social interaction.

If your in the mood for a funny, romantic, uplifting film I highly recommend it.

Tortilla Soup is a wonderful duplication of Ang Lee's classic Eat Drink Man Woman. From beginning to end, it pretty much sticks to the original, with faithful copying down to the last detail. The director shows a stroke of genius in carefully subsituting Asian characters with Latino ones.

Tortilla Soup is an amazing movie filled with not only hilarious scenes, but brilliant acting and real and down to earth characters. Hector Elizondo gives a brilliant performance as the father, Martin in the movie, Constance Marie is amazing as Yolanda as well as Raquel Welch as the overbearing mother of Yolanda. Their are also great supporting performances from Elizabeth Pena as the middle child Leticia, Jaqueline Obradors as the oldest Carmen, Tamara Mello as the youngest Maribel and Paul Rodriguez as a baseball coach and the object of Leticia's affection. This is a beautiful movie about family, losing the ones we love, having to deal with living a life of your own, love, heartbreak, everything that we deal with in our everyday lives. This movie made me laugh and cry and it is just another example of amazing acting by brilliant Latino and Latina actors and actresses.