User reviews

I needed to watch a feel-good, and it does its job as well as could be expected. Unfortunately, what I only discovered afterwards was that although the movie aspires to be a true story of going from being the underdog to the top, the entire thing is a fabrication, as documented by The Los Angeles Times. Montañes has publicly changed important details of the story over his lifetime, and even PepsiCo itself disputes that he had anything to do with Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Most importantly, Enrico was not even with the company at the time this happened, and Montañes was actually promoted to a machinist shortly after starting as a janitor.

While the story presented in the movie may not be entirely true, it doesn't diminish the fact that it is an enjoyable film to watch. Frito-Lay, through a spokesperson, disputed Richard Montañez's claim and stated that he was not involved in creating the product line in question, according to an internal investigation. However, it is true that Montañez did rise from a floor-level position to a marketing executive at Frito-Lay and was involved in pitching new products, including Flamin' Hot Popcorn in 1994. Despite the lack of factual accuracy, screenwriter Lewis Colick mentioned that enough of the story was true. PepsiCo released a statement supporting Montañez's contributions and expressed their concern about the strain on their friendship with him and the Latino community due to the debunking of his story. Montañez retired from PepsiCo in March 2019 during an internal investigation. In the end, the movie offers outstanding acting, a compelling storyline (albeit fictional), and portrays Richard Montañez as the hero. The only mistake they made is telling us it is a true story. But the movie is fun to watch, therefore a 7/10. Watch or skip? Depends. If you like movies, yes. If it needs to be based on a true story to get you going, No.

There's a lot of buzz around whether Flamin' Hot tells a true story or not, but for me the accuracy doesn't really matter all that much. It's still a nice movie either way, albeit commercial (and it's not a documentary, c'mon).

Linda Yvette Chávez tells the tale of Flamin' Hot Cheetos through the lense of Richard Montañez's life. The plot generally surrounds his personal struggles in his career and subsequently the development and marketing of Flamin' Hot Cheetos. By the end you are left with a inspiring commentary about how no one is defined by a title. There's some good jokes sprinkled in, too.

Also, the movie does it's job as an ad well, so maybe have some Flamin' Hot Cheetos on hand.

On the basis of emotional sentiment this story checks the boxes by properly building up each sequence with just enough "hope" to maximize the most of its climax. There's a sense of relatability, not only in a product that is universally recognizable, but also in a character that we seem to know all too well in each of our own lives. The tone is light and though you receive a certain payoff toward the end, the reservation of critical moments throughout the rest of the film lingers as an aftertaste. We're entering the era of product films and whether the pieces for each story come from extraordinary roots or simply fall into place they all tend to feel the same. Jesse Garcia is an enjoyable screen presence who leads a unique Hulu project, and from what I've seen with his previous performances, he's only trending upward. I approached the film with a curiosity for an origin story that may or may not have been entirely dramatized, and walked away rooting for the aspirational spirit that is sometimes deeply embedded within each one of us.

Flamin' Hot is a 2023 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Eva Longoria, about a Frito Lay janitor named Richard Montañez, who came up with the idea for Flaming Hot Cheetos.

This year has definitely been the year for inspirational biopics such as Tetris, Air and Blackberry and now this latest story - Flaming Hot is captivating, funny and heart warming.

The movie tells us about Montañez's life, his determination to make something of himself, his love and support for his neighbourhood and his family and the struggles along the way he faced.

The story is fresh and enjoyable with just enough drama to pull the viewer in. The cast was well chosen and the acting was spot on.

Does the fact that the story is not entirely true takes away the enjoyment of the movie?

Not in my opinion.

Could we truly call it a Biographical movie if its based on lies?

I leave this question to you.

Great little flick about one of the worlds most popular snack. Hot Cheetos popped up one day out of nowhere while I was in the 5th grade. They were everywhere and everyone was eating them. Leaving the familiar red stains everywhere unless you used the chop sticks but that was much later? Anyway, Eva Longoria did a great job making the movie flow. Keeping things light and entertaining. She did a great job with balancing the whole story with knowing when the scene had to be serious and when it could take those liberties to have some fun. Cast played well off of each other. Jesse García and Annie Gonzales were great together. Fun to see Tony Shalhoub, Dennis Haysbert, Matt Walsh, and Peter Diseth in this. Movie clocks in at 98 minutes but it really felt like not a single second was wasted. I did enjoy this flick with my very own bag of hot Cheetos cos why not? Good flick!

Enjoyed the film from beginning to end. I was captivated by the actors and the story they told. When I watch a movie I want to see great acting and a captivating story. That's what I got. Casting was spot on. I loved all the supporting cast. Eva Longoria did a great job directing. I loved the authenticity of the Mexican American culture being represented.

It's weird seeing all these reviews complaining about how the story isn't real. You all sound like you're upset about something else and it's not the authenticity...Just saying. Go watch the movie you might see yourself. You all sound like a few of the characters.

This movie is "based on a true story" but it's not entirely true. Richard Montanez rose from the bottom to white collar marketing without a formal education and was involved in the Los Angeles marketing of Sabrositas in the 1990s several years after Flamin' Hot Cheetos were invented by people with MBAs in the Midwest. There is only one former employee who agrees with Montanez' exaggerated version of events, saying that there were competing ideas for Flamin' Hots in different parts of the country as portrayed at one point in the film. But the film is utter fiction. Richard Montanez was actually promoted to machinist fairly quickly by Frito-Lay and was not a janitor for over a dozen years as portrayed in the film. Eva Longoria is guilty of overstating the oppression and racism that Montenez experienced in his first couple of decades at Frito-Lay.

In fact the movie seems weirdly determined to present Southern Californian Mexican culture as the bottom rung on the ladder, when anyone who actually lives in the Southwestern U. S. and/or is affiliated in any way with the Latinx community knows that there were successful middle-class Mexican and South American immigrants in the L. A. area as far back as the 1950s and 60s. They certainly weren't all barely literate gangsters as late as 1992.

However, Flamin' Hot is fun and light-hearted to watch, and I guess it sends a good message to underprivileged kids living in poor Mexican communities about believing in themselves and giving an example of a successful member of their own community. Your mileage may vary.

This film was heartwarming, entertaining and with actual laugh out loud moments - truth to the story or not. One can argue that a huge corporation like Pepsico would deny any truth to the story because after all, any acknowledgement otherwise would open them up to a 1 billion dollar sales profit royalty lawsuit. So no matter what you choose to believe, it doesn't take away from the fun and entertaining story that was well directed, perfectly cast and performed, with great cinematography and score. It's still an inspirational story that will keep you rooting for the underdog, no matter how you slice it.

Mexican-American Richard Montañez (Jesse Garcia) grew up poor in LA and struggled for most of his life. He finally gets a job as a janitor at Frito Lay. He befriends engineer Clarence C. Baker (Dennis Haysbert). With the business in decline during the 80's, he comes up with a hot new idea and decides to call up Pepsico CEO Roger Enrico (Tony Shalhoub).

It's a rather simple underdog biopic. The truth of the matter is very much up in the air. More than anything, it's pushing the underdog racism angle very hard. It almost makes it too simplistic. The most compelling moments of depth is his relationship with his father and there is one powerful scene. The fact is that he made Cheetos hot. He didn't invent the wheel. It's more like he added a spare tire to the car. There are a couple of compelling moments. It's a simplistic life story, but I'm always a sucker for the standard underdog story.

Did I love this movie ? Yes . I love a good underdog , I love chips , I love Mexican culture , I love Spanish , I love spicy food , I love a strong female character BUT!

Too many inaccuracies to make it work . If this had been all true - easy 9-10. Even following in his own story they took too many liberties and that bothers me . I know it is disputed and honestly I want to believe this guy that it is all legit - and maybe it is BUT prove it some way or at least make the timeline make sense in terms of documented events at the company .

Truth aside - it was funny , entertaining , happy and inspiring .

Worth the watch but still too mad about the fact check situation to give it a higher score .

First of all, for those who are saying the film is based on a lie: you don't KNOW that. I've worked too long within the corporate legal field and with enormous corporations who very often place the names of non-involved individuals on patents, simply to suit the need of a particular patent or patent filing. As such, I cannot discount the story, nor can I give it any credence. Neither can you, as neither YOU nor I were there. PepsiCo, however, does have a vested interest in the story not being true.

All that said, while I love my Latino people and I applaud Longoria's directorial and other efforts on this project, to me, it just wasn't ... captivating enough. I had problems relating not only to the main character (although I loved the wife), but to the cast as a whole. Despite there being a clear-cut underdog, there was no one I could really sink my teeth in and root for. The other thing that bugged me (a lot) is why were the Flamin' Hot products in this film, marketed to, or targeted at, only hispanics? Don't people of all races ENJOY hot foods?

Another reviewer said it best: If you enjoy films, there's no reason for you to pass this one up. You may like it. If you tend to give low scores for just any reason, you may want to skip it.

The entertaining, heartwarming story of a Southern California Mexican-American janitor who created hot cheetos. Back in the mid 2000s I taught nutrition education at a mostly Latino elementary school in the East Bay in Northern California. The kids were obsessed with flaming hot cheetos much to my chagrin. But I also came to understand the hot cheetos as a cultural phenomenon and so I enjoyed this story. Sure, there's a lot to critique here about big business selling junk foods to the Latino community, but mostly I enjoyed this for the entertainment value: the solid acting, the inclusion of Chicano slang, the portrayal of working class Latino California that rang true with my own experience, and the relationship between Ricardo and Judy. This was the real flame of this movie. So watch it and enjoy, wish I'd picked up some flamin hot cheetos to eat.

Okay, so it sounds as though the story didn't actually happen as the movie depicts, but Eva Longoria's directorial debut is still a treat. "Flamin' Hot" depicts a janitor in a Frito Lay factory who gets the idea to spice up some of the products to appeal to the Latino market in the US. Richard Montañez came from the humblest beginnings and spent part of his youth in gangs, only to create a successful product. I've never eaten the stuff - I prefer to avoid processed foods - but it looks as though it was a fun thing to do.

Jesse Garcia puts his all into the role, with support from Annie Gonzalez, Dennis Haysbert and Tony Shalhoub. Watching the movie made me feel hungry for some spicy food! Check it out.

I hope this movie is getting the attention it deserves. It's such a great story and I'm so glad to see eva longoria do such a great job directing and I'm glad they cast some regular looking people. Honestly everyone should see this movie as it's a light in our dark world. I think it could even help some ignorant people see that we are all just people. What are the chances of that happening? I'm not sure but there's hope that it could. It shouldn't be a niche market. Just like flamin hot snacks. This movie is for everyone. And in the days of cancelled everything. It seems like a rare gem. Enjoy it.

Hulu's Flamin' Hot movie eventually becomes an inspirational origin story about a self-made, 1st generation Mexican American millionaire who rebranded a popular snack line. But the map to getting there is long and labor-intensive as the viewer must sit through a primitive style of storytelling that's replete with exposition, weak gags and exaggerated tropes that lampoon authentic Mexican culture.

The score is over-bearing and the sound mix is too loud during major plot points. "The Cisco Kid" by War was licensed and situated at the perfect mark in the story. I think the filmmakers should've licensed more popular songs like it to punctuate the era and story's timeline even more.

Jesse Garcia is perfectly cast as Richard Montanez, a reformed miscreant-turned-family man whose resilience is eventually rewarded with a C-suite at Frito Lay.

Annie Gonzalez who plays Richard's wife, Judy, delivers a grounding performance as his anchor and muse, making sure he isn't his own diversion.

Rounding out the cast are Dennis Haysbert, Tony Shalhoub and Matt Walsh who meet the requirements of any given biopic---oppositional characters micromanaging the protagonist to ensure the journey to his ultimate goal is challenging long enough for the payoff to be emotional. It's very systematic in that way.

All in all, Flamin' Hot has major issues as it relates to the filmmaking, in style and tone, but by the end of it, you will have rooted for the underdog, Richard Montanez.

At first, I was excited by the rags to riches story, then I Googled it and found out it's fiction. The LA Times has a great investigative article and I would leave the link, but that's prohibited here. A woman named Lynne Greenfeld was the person assigned to bring spicy snacks to the Frito-Lay brand. This was in response to Frito-Lay losing market share to spicy snacks being sold at gas stations in Chicago and other Mid-West locations.

Richard Montañez is a liar and a cheat. He's making way too much money ($10-$50k per BS motivational speech), and he doesn't deserve the money or the admiration.

Before you give my review a thumbs down. Here me out. When I first saw the trailer for Flamin Hot. My reaction was I guess Hollywood is focusing on food and they are desperate to making anything these days. I even googled the founder of the hot Cheeto and realized this man really started out as a janitor. Became the savior for frito lay. So I decided to give the movie a shot. Granted it's an independent film with a small budget and with up and coming cast members. Including a few veteran actors/actresses. The movie was very moving and inspiring. Yes, the hot cheeto was part of the focal point of the film. But how it started and how the inventor got where he came from was truly fascinating. Look as I said in the beginning, it's not a big budget film like AIR(which is another fantastic film) with big time cast. Flaming hot gives meaning working from the ground up brings meaning of success.

It was perfectly inspiring. The belief that this brown skin man came from the world that thought him he was nothing to becoming the creator of a billion-dollar marketing ploy. The movie gives a very grounded story of being the one to tell the world who you are, never letting anything stop you from achieving your dreams, and how important it is to have one important person to believe in you. All this and you can make flaming hot Cheetos as well.

I've herded the whispers of the story not being fully actuate but realistically it's a movie so you can never expect one hundred percent accuracy all I can expect is a good movie and this is it. Funny, Heartwarming uplifting and inspirational I think that's everything actor turned director, Eva Longoria was trying to accomplished and she did. Thumbs up!

After "Tetris", "Air" & "Blackberry" '80s-based zesty dramedy "Flamin' Hot" is 2023's latest (and best?) fine film inspired by true events behind an '80s-'00s pop-culture icon - in this case the flamin' hot cheetos snack. Jesse Garcia (excellent) is a blue-collar So Cal Latino who while fighting racism & gang culture to support his sons & loving wife Annie Gonzalez (also great) becomes a janitor at the local Frito Lay plant (under the likes of Dennis Haysbert & Matt Walsh) which in an underdog stylee he then saves with his hot n spicy variety idea. Well directed by Eva Longoria and written with pace & fun by Lewis Colick & Linda Yvette Chávez it's a terrific & uplifting film.

I love this! I thought it was really well written, I thought the acting was superb, Eva Longoria did an excellent job in her director debut. The fact that this movie depicts the hard-working man and also tells a story how the Flaming' Hot brand was established, show the initiative that believing in your dreams and listening to the little man what actually get you somewhere if you keep focus on reaching your goals. I really like this movie, definitely will watch it again a few more times, and it's not a lot of movies that I actually find myself watching repeatedly unless I really love them. My opinion out of a scale of 10, this movie definitely gets a 10. Another thing and then I find it very funny also, the comedic standpoint in the movie is completely hilarious, it reminds me of Lewis on Ant-Man, the way he would tell a story if he had his own movie. LOL.