Feels like ages since we last covered a DCOM here, with last month's Disney Week choice; Mr Boogedy technically not being a Disney Channel movie, I had to scroll back through to remind myself that it was Teen Beach Movie; a film I genuinely had severe reservations about going in, but it transpired to be an actual pleasant surprise. Coming as no surprise however, is that same feeling again about this week's pick: Eddie's Million Dollar Cook-Off - a movie where the worlds of cooking and baseball finally collide and I feel like I can already predict how this is going to go; Eddie somehow manages to walk the delicate balancing act between the 2 by staying true to himself by taking part in the cooking contest but not letting his baseball team down in the process. Prove me wrong movie.
Eddie Ogden (Taylor Ball) is probably the only decent baseball player for the Junior College team; the Groundhogs, but after his mum cuts her finger in a kitchen accident, Eddie takes up the mantle of cooking dinner for him and his pals, Frankie (Orlando Brown) and D.B. (Reiley McClendon) and does these odd... southern fried chicken drumsticks with cereal loops on them and a mash potato volcano... but it goes down pretty well apparently, despite his family teasing him because - reading between the lines here - they think cooking is for girls... y'know despite most celebrity chefs being male... anyway, something clicks inside Eddie and discovering he suddenly as a passion for cooking, he accidentally-on-purpose signs him and his 2 pals up for Home Economics! Hooking up with their other friend and fellow baseball player; Hannah (Rose McIver) who I guess enrols because she's a girl or something? Initially Eddie is too embarrassed to enter the "Million Dollar Cook Off" competition in front of his friends, but does so behind their back and sets about coming up with an original recipe. But to begin with he completely sucks at it, although his dog seems to enjoy the experimenting... Gravitating towards the head of the class; Bridget (Kylie Leydon) Eddie tries to pick her brains for advice but when he is confronted by D.B., teasing him, trying to save face in front of his friends and keep up the illusion that he "hates the class" he starts a food fight... and it's from the result of the food fight that Eddie discovers 'purple sauce'! Managing to re-create it at home, Eddie almost gets found out in front of his Coach and Dad, Hank (Mark L. Taylor) and the whole baseball team, when another player steals his jar of sauce, but Hannah quickly covers for him. Later on in the day when trying to perfect the recipe for "Eddie's incredible edible barbeque sauce" - great name, he does get found out by his mum; Sarah (Susan Brady), but promising to keep Eddie's secret she instead offers to help. Meanwhile, the Groundhogs are suddenly sucking a whole lot less and may even make the playoff finals, just as Eddie and Bridget both find out they are in the Cook Off finals; Eddie's success being far more popular amongst the class, but not very popular with his Dad, who frankly is being a bit of a bellend about things, and secretly thinks Eddie should focus more on his baseball game than cooking. As the news breaks around the rest of the school it's pretty clear that most of everyone else is feeling the same way as Eddie is ridiculed and isolated by pretty much everyone in the school, but Eddie doesn't let that get to him and instead ploughs all his available time into classes with his teacher; Mrs Hadley (Nancy Lenehan) whilst catching up on The Food Channel, which begins to interfere with his baseball game and drive a wedge between him and his friends. As Eddie grows more and more weary with losing his friends and being made fun of by the rest of the school, he finally reaches boiling point (no uh.. pun intended...) and quits Home Ec, much to the disappointment of Mrs Hadley. In the following scene, as Coach Hank psyches up his team for the final game - a spot in the playoff finals going to the winner, one of the players, Kimberly, finally calls him out on his sexism (which was going to be my main bone of contention with this film, so nice save Disney!) when she calls him out for using phrases like "throwing like a girl", "running like a girl", e.t.c as being wrong. YES. Go Kim! But he is saved when Eddie arrives and announces he's "here to win a ball game," and with his help they win the game and make the playoffs! Which just so happen to clash with the Cook Off finals... Whilst at the home celebrations later that day Mrs Hadley pays Eddie and family a visit and makes an impassioned plea for Eddie to not give up on the Cook Off, making Eddie promise to sleep on making a decision between attending the Cook Off or playing the Baseball Playoff. With his dad, still being a bellend about things, and chipping in with some obvious peer pressure. On the day of the Cook Off Eddie is mesmerized when he discovers his favourite Food Channel Presenter; Bobby Flay (Bobby Flay) is hosting the event and despite catching a moment with him, Eddie is still determined to keep his promise to his Dad and play in the finals. Despite the game starting well for the Groundhogs, and Eddie playing well he becomes increasingly distracted by missing the Cook Off, and after a pep talk from D.B and Frankie, the rest of the team convince Eddie to go back to the Cook Off as Kim, from earlier, smashes it over the fences for a Home Run. Eddie arrives with just an hour of time to make a dish but, rushing, things are not going well for him, meanwhile Groundhogs fall behind with not much time left to take the lead. Realising he could use some help (well, after eavesdropping on the rest of the team watching the finals on TV, and saying Eddie could use some help...) Hank intentionally gets himself dismissed, and races to the school to give Eddie a hand, helping him cobble a dish together at the last minute. Meanwhile D.B. manages to fight back and earn just enough runs for the Groundhogs to swing the game, but at the Cook Off the result goes the other way for Eddie when Bridget is crowned the champion. Despite being initially down, after a speech from his Dad, and after the rest of the time arrive to celebrate with him, Eddie comes to realisation that it wasn't about winning or losing, but about doing something he loved.
PHEW! This was a close one, this movie really walked the tightrope between being a sloppy soufflé and a magnificent... madeira cake. Yeah that's enough of the food puns I think. But genuinely, the first half of this film was a bit ropey for me; didn't really seem to be going anywhere and was just another mundane- character tries to resist against something but ends up succumbing to it - kind of story, and it essentially was, but it won me back in the second half with some half decent plot development, although in essence, it felt very similar in plot development to another DCOM I've covered; Genius but I guess these Coming of Age movies all sort of adapt the same formula...
The first thing I really have to address with this movie, and it's the one element of it that immediately jumped out to me as being a bit... unusual... was the soundtrack. Generally, most of the background musical accompaniment was your standard stuff; uplifting music for the emotional scenes, downbeat music for the lower moments e.t.c but when there was cooking montages with Eddie, and during the 2 food fight scenes there was these really... odd and illfitting musical numbers that genuinely felt like they had been lifted from a really wacky, over-the-top cosplay porn... I was honestly getting that vibe! Like, strange horn samples and funky but cringey sounding bass lines. It was a bit unsettling if I'm being honest...
