Title: The Kitchen
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Andrea Berloff
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, Elisabeth Moss, Domhnall Gleeson, James Badge Dale, Brian d’Arcy James, Margo Martindale, Common, and Bill Camp.
Movie length: 1 hour 43 minutes
What It Is: An action-crime movie based on the Vertigo comic book mini-series of the same name by Ollie Masters, Ming Doyle, and Jordie Bellaire. The movie is about three housewives (Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss) in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen area who take on the Irish Mafia after their husbands are sent to jail.
PHOTO CREDIT: Alison Cohen Rosa 
PHOTO CREDIT: Myles Aronowitz
What I Thought: When you have a movie that stars McCarthy and Haddish you expect it to be more of a comedy type movie, this is definitely not that type of movie. The movie has quite a little bit of action mixed in with the drama aspect of the movie as the three leads attempt to take over the Irish Mafia portion of Hell’s Kitchen.
While the movie does move at a good pace, there were a couple times where it slowly drags to the next portion of the movie. There is a decent amount of violence (as one would expect from a mafia type movie), and one death that I saw coming before it happened.
The three female leads I felt did a good job with the script they were given. The supporting cast including the always terrific Margo Martindale, and the steadily improving Common were good in their roles.
Since the movie is set in New York City in the 1970s, there were a few shots of the skyline as it would have appeared then. Also there was a mention of a convention center being built soon, which as attendee of New York Comic Con can probably tell you, was the Javits Center.
The soundtrack was terrific with some hits from Kansas, Fleetwood Mac, Heart, and more.
My Grade: B. I enjoyed the movie, and there was a swerve towards the end that caught me off guard. If you’re looking for a comedy because McCarthy and Haddish are starring, you’ll be disappointed. If you want a decent mafia type story set in the 1970s, you may like this movie.
The Kitchen opens August 9th in the United States.
