Entry 11

Big Night is about two brothers who are first generation immigrants from Italy trying to run a successful restaurant in America. Dinner Rush is about a successful Italian restaurant run by an Italian American man who is trying to distance himself from the Mafia and permanently quit bookmaking. 

There are a lot of similarities between Big Night and Dinner Rush. The first is that the older Italian men want the restaurants to be authentically Italian. Primo, the older brother in Big Night doesn’t want to compromise and Americanize his food for his American costumers. Primo is willing to risk the successful of the restaurant for the integrity of the food. In Dinner Rush, Louis Crop, the father of the head chef and owner of the restaurant complains that he doesn’t like the food being served because it isn’t authentic Italian food, the way his wife use to cook in the restaurant. He doesn’t eat any of his son’s cooking, instead he eats the off the menu food the sous-chef makes because they are Italian dishes. Another similarity is that the younger men are willingly to sacrifice culture for financial success. In Big Night, Segundo, the older brother is always begging his brother to relent and give the people what they want because they aren’t making any money. He even tries to make a deal with the successful Italian restaurant owner so that he and his brother could make money. In Dinner Rush, Udo, the son of Louis, doesn’t make Italian food the way his father wants him to. Udo makes lots of extravagant dishes, and when his father criticizes him, he points out that his way gets the restaurant more money. 

There are plenty of differences between the two movies as well. One difference is with the food that is being served in both if the restaurants. In Big Night, there is authentic Italian food being served at the restaurant, while in Dinner Rush there is more Americanized foods being served. The biggest difference is between the relative success of both restaurants. In Big Night, they are struggling the entire movie to make ends meet and always have a relatively empty restaurant. In Dinner Rush, it is always packed, with people making reservations, and the murders that happened are going to keep the profits coming. The restaurant in Dinner Rush is essentially the same as the successful Italian restaurant from Big Night. 

If I had to pick a favorite between these two movies, it would Dinner Rush, I enjoyed watching it more. The story was very entertaining, and it was cool to see how Louis handled the two gangsters in his restaurant.