"The Menu" is a movie I just couldn't get on board with. I was intrigued at first because it's gotten good reviews and I heard it was more intellectual than the average horror movie.

I was kind of disappointed, I guess. I'm now surprised at the reviews it's gotten. The concept of the movie is silly and maybe isn't handled that well. Ralph Fiennes plays a character that Vincent Price could easily have played, in a macabre, schlocky version of this tale that would have been much more interesting. Ralph doesn't have fun at all, and isn't really intimidating. Nicholas Hoult and the legendary John Leguizamo look to be trying, but the movie gives them nothing to work with.

The plot: a group of people dine at an extremely high-end restaurant on a remote island somewhere and find that they cannot leave. The chef has plans for them they don't know about.

I'm glad the movie doesn't feature cannibalism, at least. That's where I thought it was heading, and the ending is at least something different, though I didn't care much by that point and was just waiting for the movie to end.

The colour palette, most of the performances, the music, even the script seem drained of life, like so much restraint was used in the making of this movie that the limbs of creativity went gangrene and dropped off.