Totally impressed! The opening music is very Tarantino-esque, which is a great mood setter while you watch the credits run over images of delicious Mexican food.
I was surprised at how many times I laughed out loud - and that's not hyperbole. Joaquin Perea and his cast & crew have made cool, funny little movie full of offbeat, quirky, and in some cases downright weird characters, very reminiscent of the cast of wacky characters in Office Space. The impressive cast of Taco Shop breathes very real life into these way-out characters. The two leads, Smokes and Susie (played by Tyler Posey and Veronica Diaz Carranza) are the straight characters, and I loved the genuine and sincere chemistry they had - they were truly believable and are both great actors. The rest of the cast is wacky and funny and really inhabit their characters with gusto and zaniness. It was also great to see Eric Roberts not shooting and killing people but being a nice guy even if his character was an ex-con who admits he was guilty ("I hope they never run my DNA" - LOL).
I don't know where the casting department found the guys who play Bruce and Nate, but they are hilarious! And I love Eve - well done to the filmmakers for casting Paula Jai Parker in a role that was written for a Latina (I saw her say that in the bonus features) - she was well cast - she sort of reminded me of a young Whoopee Goldberg, but much better-looking. All the actors playing the quirky characters were riotously funny! Sox was hilarious!
The script is clever, and the many laugh-out-loud one-liners are surprisingly intellectual as well as hilarious. "You're not a serial-killer, are you?" "Well, that's more than one, right?" "I love Ghandi, he's one of the greatest people that ever died" I laughed out loud at those lines. And the homage to Jaws "We're gonna need a bigger broom" - loved it! Love the "wet taco" scene and the weird Indian investor - he was a blast. The whole Eve telling him she's part Indian and not getting that he's not Native American! And Rick Najera is funny too - that random-seeming scene where the hottie porn princess walks in to try and win him back was reminiscent of the scene where Daisy Duke woos Deputy Enos - and the "You chose music, I chose tacos, I'm a taco man" conversation was hysterical. This is up there now with my faves like American Pie, Harold & Kumar, Super Troopers, Dude, Where's My Car - this is Dude, Where's My Taco, and Employee of the Month (the Jessica Simpson one not the Matt Dillon one). Taco Shop has the sort random craziness in it that I enjoy in comedy movies.
Well done and congratulations to Joaquin Perea and his team.
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