Little Italy (2018)

*MINOR SPOILERS*

Rotten Tomatoes: 13%

Box Office: 1.4 million USD

My Rating: 2.5/10

Description: Leo (Hayden Christensen) and Nicky (Emma Roberts) have been best friends since childhood. Their families used to own one pizza shop in the Little Italy section of downtown Toronto, but split into separate shops after having a big fight. Nicky has been attending culinary school in the UK, but was sent back home to Canada to work on a menu for the restaurant she wants to open. Leo and Nicky slowly start to reconnect after not seeing each other in five years, and eventually fall in love.

My Thoughts: It's a classic romcom: girl leaves home for work, girl comes back to hometown for work purposes, girl falls in love and stays forever. The only difference between most romcoms and this movie is that this movie is complete garbage. Considering the fact that Nicky's grandmother is played by Andrea Martin, it's clear they were trying to do a play on My Big Fat Greek Wedding but failed miserably. When Aruna and I first heard about this movie, we knew it would be awful but wanted to give it a watch anyway. We spent over a year searching for it on every streaming service before eventually finding it online. The only reason I would give it a two point five out of ten was because it was kind of fun to watch after all that time spent looking for it. Since Leo and Nicky are still relatively dependent on their parents, they are probably in their early to mid-twenties even though Hayden Christensen was thirty-seven when it was made--which makes sense because that is exactly the age that he looks. Not only that, but it also has every stereotype you can think of in it; Italian people, Chinese people, Indian people, Black people, gay people--you name it, it's in it. At the end of the movie, Leo's grandfather marries Nicky's grandmother, now technically making the two of them stepcousins. Even though they're not related by blood, it still raises some eyebrows. To make matters worse, Leo is kind of a deplorable human being. At one point, Nicky thinks he slept with her while she was blackout drunk. He knows she thinks this, but doesn't correct her until she almost has a breakdown about it. At some point, Hayden Christensen just has to say to himself, "Am I really that bad of an actor or have I just been given a terrible script... every single time?" If you want to watch another movie directed by Donald Petrie that's miles better than this one, try Miss Congeniality.

Best Line: "What's the matter? You afraid you might get... wet?"