Takeout

When im out travelling across different cities around Sweden on highways, i usually go for takeout food. Not every single time but if i have at least 10 hours of driving then this is a really good option. No matter what takeout food you enjoy, i find these restaurants very effective and they usually have a lot of great options. If they have coffee as well i usually throw that in my order as well. My absolute favourite takeout food while driving is without a doubt chinese food or thai food, you get plenty of food for your money plus i like spicy meals as well. At some occasions i can go for a burger meal just to make it simple, unless they have a Subway restaurant with takeout. Now, that is the perfect lunch right there, a big sandwich with lots of fresh vegetables and some jalapeno. Speaking of takeout food we do have certain films that bring up the subject of takeout food. For example some of you might have seen the 2014 drama comedy Chef from director Jon Favreau ( who plays the character Happy Hogan in the Iron Man franchise ). This is a charming film about a head chef Carl Casper ( Jon Favreau ) of a restaurant, who quits his job to pursue a completely different job by running his own food truck. Robert Downey Jr. is actually in this film as well who he worked with Jon Favreau on the Iron Man films. We have other great casting here as well such as legendary actor Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale and many others. The film looks great and manage to capture the passion for food trucks, good food and how food can unite people no matter where they come from. If you have not seen Chef you should check it out on streaming, VOD or even physical media if you prefer that. Speaking of takeout food i had seen a trailer last year of a Tubi thriller called Takeout that looked interesting. Especially when i noticed actor Darron Meyer is in this film from TV mini series Generation Kill. Since i love diners and i love takeout food, i thought this could be interesting to watch. Is this a solid thriller or is Takeout not as good as it may seem?

It´s night time out in a local diner The Big Dripper outside of the city, where customers just comes to relax and enjoy a good meal. Waitress Nova ( N´Kone Mametja ) is late to her shift and her collegue Harper ( Deoudoné Pretorious ) begin to argue with her. Thankfully Nova always get along well with chef Benny ( Darron Meyer ) so she can always rely talking to him. One very odd diner guest named Grady ( Damien Wantenaar ) behave very strange, especially towards waitress Nova. The coworkers begin to suspect there is something seriously wrong with this young man. They heard on the news about a serial killer known as The Doll Keeper, could this be the guy police are looking for or could they be wrong?

Takeout is not your typical serial killer film that you have seen a 100 times before. This film actually feels quite entertaining in certain scenes, almost as if this could be seen as a thriller comedy. You think for a moment that you know how everything is going to end, but then comes a surprise twist out of nowhere. I think this was a very good choice not to go for a basic plot and do something different, throw in some unexpected turns that makes you enjoy this film more than an ordinary standard thriller. Now, i have to say for a Tubi streaming film this is one of the better ones when it comes to acting. And i especially enjoy the chemistry between the diner coworkers Nova, Harper and Benny. You have the female arguments between Nova ( played well by actress N´Kone Mametja ) and Harper ( played by actress Deoudoné Pretorious ) inside the diner, and i have to say i can imagine some women out there will recognize themselves having similar arguents at work as these characters have. Then we have the cool chef Benny ( played by actor Darron Meyer ) who is probably the safe spot in this diner, who keeps it all together when the ladies are fighting. And i have to say Darron Meyer matches really well with his character. I do like the performance from actress Robyn Scott as sleazy middle aged diner owner Susan, who is horny about chef Benny. I have to mention actor Damien Wantenaar as Grady, talk about going into his character in a effective way. The serial killer story may not be original or very different from anything we have seen before, but when we finally find out who the real serial killer is inside this diner it´s a nice surprise. They even try to twist some details around the serial killer, so it doesn´t get too predictable or boring for the audience. What Takeout manage to do is deliver a thriller that´s not the typical serial killer film, and that´s why it works in my opinion not following a certain pattern in this genre. Director Jem Garrard ( who directed 3 episodes of Day Of The Dead TV series ) proves that you can still make a serial killer thriller without copying so many films in this genre and i would definetely recommend this one. Too bad we don´t have a physical release of Takeout, i would have picked up a copy for sure.

Rating: DDD