Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Was Dylan McDermott just the biggest 'name' actor they could afford? Young beautiful Aishwarya Rai Bachchan: according to her bio on IMDb "Crowned Miss India 1994 runner-up, she was a hot favorite in the run for miss world title". Its easy to see what McDermott's character sees in her. She is paired with old (12 years older) bearded, not that attractive at all, biker McDermott. He's about as suitable for her as a street tramp. It doesn't work. Even in terms of the plot - he does nothing that could possibly make her fall in love with him. He isn't even polite and respectful - he just sticks his grubby paw in some of her spices for example.This is billed on the DVD as a romantic comedy. There is no comedy in this film... unless... and I don't like being this cruel... but the movie deserves it... unless you include laughing at it. The point where I did that was where she cuts her finger and she goes into the back. And he follows her (creepy), and saves her by telling her to put it under the tap. This is the Mistress of Spice who's got these amazing magical powers and can rustle up cures for everything and she's at the sink already... and he has to follow her to give her this amazing first aid tip everyone in the world knows about washing a cut! (Which of course conveniently means they get to be in close proximity for a moment. )It has the cinematography, the colours, the visuals... an interesting underlying plot idea... but its not comedy, and its not a plausible romance either.

Aishwarya Rai is a gorgeous woman and one of my favorite actresses. Having seen her in quite a few films already, I was excited to see "Mistress of Spices". Unfortunately, while Miss Rai and Dylan McDermott do a lovely job and the direction is fine, I felt the story itself was a bit of a letdown. Whether or not you'll struggle with the plot depends a lot on you and your feelings about mysticism and spices. Frankly, I found this to be very problematic.The film finds Rai in San Francisco running a spice shop. However, she is one strange lady, as she has both the ability to foresee the future AND use spices in an almost magical manner. However, she believes that these skills depend on her obeying some very rigid and bizarre rules. First, she cannot ever leave the shop! Second, she cannot touch people nor let them touch her. Third, she must only use these powers to help others and never to help herself. As for herself, her needs are completely irrelevant and she has a profound obligation to her clients and not herself. This naturally makes for a very lonely life, though she only seems to notice this when she meets McDermott--then the emptiness of her existence and longing for more becomes apparent.As I said above, I didn't like the mystical angle and this limited my ability to get into the plot. It's a shame, as the film was quite romantic and lovely to watch--it just, unfortunately, made little sense and seemed chock full of 'mumbo-jumbo'. I guess I am just too scientifically-minded to let myself go on this one.This is a case of a movie that looked great but just was sunk by a silly and impossible to believe plot.

Hear me out on this one.It might just be me, but I am more forgiving to voice overs if they are not in English. I spend most of my effort watching the screen and reading the subtitles in this case, so the only noise I ever notice is the music, and the melody of voices. As another reviewer here pointed out, we're in voice overs up to our eyeballs because of this film. It bothered me so much I couldn't watch more than twenty minutes of it.I wanted to love this film so badly. The premise was brilliant, the story wonderful, but it was all undone within ten minutes by poor execution and lousy dialogue. I cried when I hit the stop button, but I just couldn't take anymore.It's funny. If it has chocolate it's wonderful, but if it has spices (a la Woman on Top), it lacks fire. Maybe one day someone will get it right.

I really do not understand why people say this film wasn't good, i think that aishwarya is a target because her movies don't offer any steamy love scenes, although i must say to her credit, she and Dylan have a love scene that is probably the sexiest i've ever seen without kissing or nudity, she is like a breath of fresh air because she proves that an actress can make it without compromising her beliefs, my biggest wish is that people will take the time and give this woman and her films a chance, the acting in this film is so top-notched, it couldn't have been easy to make a film interesting were all the action takes place in a spice store , but it succeeds, also look out for the the black actors in this film, they were wonderful, the only flaw was padma lakshmi, she is the worst actress i've ever seen, to old for the part, and next to aishwarya she looks like a rusty old lawn chair.