The Dinner Game
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Movie Reviews of The Dinner Game
Movie Review: Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner
Summary: 4 Stars
A group of well-to-do snobbish and obnoxious professionals have dinner parties every Wednesday to which each of them is required to bring an "idiot" as a guest. The victims have no idea that they are invited merely to be humiliated and their boorish "sponsors" compare their notes later to determine whose "idiot" was the best. Pierre Brochant( Thierry Lhermitte), the smug publisher thinks that he's got a winner in the tax accountant François Pignon (Jacques Villeret, sadly passed away in January 2005 - great French Comedian whose performance in "Robert and Robert" I enjoyed very much) who reproduces the famous landmarks with the matchsticks and would talk about them with never ending enthusiasm. Unfortunately for Pierre (but fortunately for us, the viewers) he throws his back just before the dinner and has to rely to Pignon's sincere generosity. The tables are turned and look who is an idiot after all...
With the modest running time of 80 minutes, the "Dinner Game" is a delightful and very funny comedy. I would not expect anything else from Francis Veber, the director of Le Jouet, (1976) aka The Toy , La Chèvre, (1981) aka Knock On Wood, Les Compères, (1983) ... aka ComDads, and Les Fugitifs, (1986) and the writer for Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire, (1972) ... aka The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe.
4.5/5
Movie Review: Good French Comedy
Summary: 4 Stars
I don't speak French. It is true that much is lost in
translation, especially for a movie like this. In spite
of this fact, I still liked this movie a lot.
The movie is super funny due to situations that the
characters find themselves in. Especially when the tax
collector visits Pierre at his home. But even the
basic plot line of finding the most idiotic person to
win a competetion is very funny. I will always be
suspicious of people inviting me into a dinner party
after watching this movie. :)
But beware, it is different then american comedy movies
and it may not agree with your sense of humour.
Movie Review: It's more than I expected.
Summary: 4 Stars
First, you will laugh. Then you will laugh more. At some point, you will feel the anger of Pierre Brochant and say to yourself, "I have enough of this idiot!" The next minute, you will be stomping and slapping, and laughing again. You just don't know what will happen, or should I say what will go wrong!?It is silly, but entertaining. Definitely a keeper!
Movie Review: A guilty pleasure
Summary: 4 Stars
Yes, sadly, I did laugh a great deal.
The slapstick and buffoonery were spot on. Then, I realized like the unfeeling snobs who devised these "idiot dinners", I was laughing at the fools. My cruelty exposed, I reflected in shame: it is better to be foolish than mean.
Perhaps all sharp lessons should be delivered this cleverly.
Movie Review: The original Dinner for schmucks
Summary: 3 Stars
Francis Veber's Le Diner de Cons/The Dinner Game has been on the slate for a US remake for so long that Bollywood beat them to it with Bheja Fry/Home Delivery. It's not Veber's funniest film by a long way and at times it plays like a filmed theatrical farce (which, in fairness, it is), but in a good way as Thierry Lhermitte's arrogant publisher tries to find the perfect idiot for his friends' weekly dinner for schmucks, where each brings an idiot they hope will be even more idiotic than those the other guests bring. Faced with heavy competition from a friend's boomerang collector, unfortunately the idiot he finds - Jacques Villeret's Francois Pignon - is TOO perfect, and promptly sets about inadvertently destroying his life with the minimum of effort. Lhermitte is the perfect straight man for Villeret's puppydogish performance - at one point he even hides in the corner like a puppy that's just peed on the rug - though the biggest laugh goes to Daniel Prevost's tax inspector who is drawn into the maelstrom with an ill-advised favor that has disastrous consequences. Veber is smart enough to mock the obvious moral of the tale, and at a brisk 80 minutes it never stretches the thin material to breaking point. Perhaps not a classic, but a very pleasant and frequently delightful diversion.