Movie Review: You're Bacon Me Crazy (2020)

Synopsis: Despite everyone believing she should open a restaurant; Portland chef Cleo Morelli is content selling sandwiches based on her grandfather's recipes from her food truck. Due to her popularity, Cleo decides to try to enter a food truck competition. However, as she tries to gain enough customer nominations, another chef, Gabe, parks his bacon-based food truck across from her, drawing a bigger crowd. The cordial competition turns into romance, but that romance is threatened when both trucks are nominated for the contest.

Who's in it? The movie stars Natalie Hall, Michael Rady, Michael Karl Richards, Rhiannon Fish and Brenda Chrichlow.

Review: We had a busy Memorial Day weekend and by yesterday afternoon, my wife and I were ready to crash on the couch. I was getting a bit bored with reruns of The Simpsons and after some contemplation, decided to watch this movie, which has been in our library for a while. It ended up being an OK film.

The overall plot is a bit simplistic and very predictable. There was very little doubt they would both wind up in the food truck competition and have one or two conflicts as a result of that. Also, once the competition announced there would be two prizes, it wasn't overly difficult to figure out how it was going to end (though I kept suggesting alternate endings I was hoping for).

That being said, the movie did have some things going for it. Cleo (Hall), for example, was a fun and friendly person that was easy to become invested in, even though my wife and I both noticed she never seemed to pay for anything. And while I'm not convinced the chemistry between her and Gabe (Rady) was really there, the relationship did have just the right amount of seriousness and comedy.

I also thought the movie had a good supporting cast, with various characters ranging from a brother (Richards) to a best friend (Fish) who were involved just enough to keep the plot progressing and/or offer advice. It didn't feel like they were just there for eye candy purposes, as has been the case with some other films.

I do feel like the movie's central conflicts weren't overly strong. Not only were they resolved very quickly, but they also truthfully felt a bit forced. This is especially true of Cleo throwing a fit over Gabe offering to withdraw from the competition to give her a better chance of winning. I sort of understood her point of view but it still seemed like an overreaction when a simple "no, I want you there because I want to prove to myself I can beat the best," would have sufficed.

Truthfully, I kind of wished this wasn't a Hallmark movie because I thought the movie could have been a lot more memorable had Gabe actually turned out to be the bad guy and was secretly just getting close to Cleo so he could steal her grandfather's recipe and use it in his food. Unfortunately, that was something I knew wouldn't happen since Cleo needed someone to kiss at the end and there weren't any other potential suitors for her.

Final Opinion: The movie was in desperate need of a surprise twist but, even without one, still ended up being a fun film. It was handcuffed a bit by the fact it was a Hallmark movie and had to have a happy ending, but we still enjoyed it.

My Grade: B-