Surgeon General's Warning:

This movie will make you hungry.

And not just the minor "I feel peckish, let's stop at Burger King" hungry. I'm talkin' the big time "Whoa nelly! I need me an all-you-can-eat buffet!" hunger. The kind that gnaws at ya from head to toe and sends pangs of pain up your gut into your brain.

Unless I miss my guess, Italian Restaurants next to movie theaters playing this film will double their business.

What movie am I talking about? Well, in case you didn't bother to read the subject of this email, I went and saw Big Night.

Big Night is the story of two Italian brothers who have moved from Italy to open an Italian restaurant. They are not doing well because no body wants to eat their masterpieces, they all just want spaghetti. Stupid Americans. So the plan a big party for a huge Jazz Legend in the hopes of impressing him enough to give their restaurant a big boost.

They plan a big night.

Hence the title, or did you miss that?

This movie is remarkably funny, with a surprisingly bittersweet ending.

Actually, my people warned me about saying the ending was bittersweet, but there are so many ways you can take that statement that I thought it would be fine. And if it isn't, and I ruined the movie for someone, oops.

The movie is served up like a meal, with a light appetizer, a lot of drink poured into our throats, and then the main course, a huge feast of laughter, and then a simple dessert. All makes for a very satisfying meal.

The acting is stupendous. You've seen most of these folk before, in various roles on TV and in the theaters, but none are huge names. Except maybe Isabella Rossellini. Each is superb, and I for one got a huge new respect for Antonio from Wings. Except I kept expecting him to go pick someone up in a taxi.

Since most of this movie takes place in the restaurant, I have to say, I've never been in a restaurant like that. I'm sure I've led a sheltered life, but I wanna go to a restaurant where everyone mambos around the table, dances and drinks the night away, and end up passed out on the table. That would be cool. Except I know if I were there, all the girls would be coping a feel of my bum.

Now many of you out there will read this review, become interested in the movie, and want to see it, and be unable. That's cause it opened on 8 screens across the nation. But it should do well, our placed was so packed I had to sit in the chicklet row, where you strain your head straight up and pretty much watch the movie on the ceiling. That's different from the Chicklets row, where you chew little annoying gum packets and accidentally swallow them and have to have your stomach pumped to rid yourself of the toxic chemicals.

Or maybe that's just me.

The film should be making it's way to your art house theaters in the coming weeks. You know the ones, they played Emma and Kansas City, and anything starring Harvey Keitel. They probably also house the midnight showings of Rocky Horror, so don't go too late on a Friday night or you'll get sucked in and forced to dance the Time Warp.

So what have you learned? Well, for a Good Night, go see Big Night. Realize that its a low-budget flick, and that the audio track kinda shifts from stereo to mono and back from time to time. But we saw it in THX, so it was THX quality mono and stereo and back again. I was ready to give this an art house bonus, but it doesn't need it, it's just a fun little movie.

I give it 3 3/5 Babylons. Basically because I haven't used a fifth of a Babylon before.

Now I have, and we're all better people for it.

Editor's Note:

Hi.

I don't really have anything to say.

I just wanted to say hi.

Hi.