Product Details

• Actors: Steve Guttenberg, Michael Tucker, Daniel Stern, Ellen Barkin, Kevin Bacon
• Directors: Barry Levinson
• Writers: Barry Levinson
• Producers: Mark Johnson, Jerry Weintraub
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: French, English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: April 4, 1999
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004RE27
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,900 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Diner" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Barry Levinson's debut film as a writer-director nearly got lost in the shuffle before New York critics rescued it from oblivion. Set in his native Baltimore in 1959, it focuses on a group of pals coping with life post high school. Each of them has problems with women, it seems, whether it's Steve Guttenberg (as a guy about to get married who forces his fiancée to pass a test about the Baltimore Colts), Mickey Rourke (as the womanizing hairdresser with a gambling problem), or Daniel Stern (as the married one who makes his wife miserable with his carefully cataloged record collection). The only time these guys seem like they have it together is when they gather at the diner to sling the bull. The cast includes Ellen Barkin, Timothy Daly, Paul Reiser, and Kevin Bacon--each in a breakthrough role. --Marshall Fine

Product Description

The film that launched successful careers for Kevin Bacon, Ellen Barkin, Paul Reiser, Mickey Rourke and more! It's a lively, poignant tale of friends trying to recapture their lost innocence in 1959 Baltimore.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars THE REAL THING..... June 11, 1999

By hiscapital

Format:VHS Tape

Whether you're from Baltimore or from a suburb outside of New York as I am; whether you grew up in the 50s or the 70s as I did, this film will make you feel right at home. Very few movies can take the most mundane, the most ridiculously trivial moments and conversation from real life and make them interesting never mind howlingly funny. Diner succeeds in this and more. We know these guys: their sophomoric antics, their idiosyncrasies, their loyalties to best friends and their uneasy transition into the adult responsibilities of money, work, and marriage.

The scenes at the diner are deceptively complex in that Levinson has several characters speaking at the same time and yet we can follow the dialogue with no difficulty. The conversation, physical reactions and interplay between characters is so natural as to seem completely unrehearsed and unedited. It's almost as if we are at the next table eavesdropping on the fun.

The cast in Diner was rightfully recognized as a superb group of players and everyone from Daniel Stern to Kevin Bacon to Ellen Barkin has done prolific work since then.

I heartily recommend you watch Diner with your best friends and then go out for a meal afterwards. Whether you choose to order french fries and gravy is up to you.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A minor classic and a great DVD! December 31, 2000

By Kevin P. Westmoreland

Format:DVD

I first saw Diner in the early eighties and it became one of my favorites. It captures the same feel as another coming of age movie, American Graffiti. The stories occur only three years apart, with Diner capturing more of the fifties feel and being the grittier of the two. While both of the films are excellent and understated, I can probably handle Diner on a more regular basis.

It struck a chord with me because a group of 5-6 friends and I spent each Friday and Saturday night during the early eighties sitting around a table in an all night cafe doing what the guys in Diner do - talking about women and the world in general.

The characters are normal guys, but at the same time they hold surprises. Boogie, played by Mickey Rourke, works in a beauty salon AND goes to law school at night. And this is in 1959! Fenwick, Kevin Bacon's character, appears to be a delinquent with a drinking problem (which he is), but reveals an intelligent side. Daniel Stern's character doesn't understand his wife at all, but has an encyclopedic knowledge of music history.

The entire starring cast went on to bigger (but not always better - where is that understated Mickey Rourke now?) things but the film contained firsts for several people involved. This was Barry Levinson's directorial debut, Ellen Barkin's film debut and a breakout role for Mickey Rourke.

The DVD is a pleasant surprise. It contains an anamorphic widescreen video transfer which is surprisingly free of nicks and scratches, although not perfect. The widescreen presentation is a revelation when compared to the pan and scan VHS version. City shots show much more and the group scenes flow much more smoothly without the cutting back and forth between characters.

Another surprise is the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track. Most films in the early eighties were stereo, but many small films have not gotten the full DD treatment. This one has and, though it is not an action-explosion-car crash movie, the benefits of the DD audio are evident.

There is also a documentary called Diner:On the Flip Side which has Levinson and all the stars except Mickey Rourke in it. This is a nice addition as it helps explain how the characters appear to be a real group of friends, not just actors playing a group of friends. The parallels with American Grafitti continue here, as both casts were brought to their shooting locations, housed in a hotel and spent an inordinate amount of time together before and during filming.

If you want a film that envelopes you like a warm blanket, and which has great dialogue and character interaction, get this DVD, call over a few friends and enjoy.

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars As delicious as fries with brown gravy June 7, 2004

By Rocco Dormarunno

Format:VHS Tape

DINER has been receiving a lot of unkind remarks in recent years, and much of it is undeserved. Time is really what has been unkind. In 1982, after years of hippie doldrums, disco ho-hum, and punk self-destruction, Barry Levinson reached back to a different era which seemed like a simpler one. But he did so without a nostalgic eye. He presented five young men at a point in life when hard decisions have to be made. To compound this, each of the five young men are facing critical issues at this critical time. (Notice I say five men, not six. Modell [Paul Reiser] doesn't have a plot line. He's there for comic effect mostly.)

Boogie (Micky Rourke), his gambling problems aside, struggles to keep his dreams but must learn to accept the responsibilities of life. The intellectual but alcohol-plagued Fenwick (Kevin Bacon) must face-down his crusty, aloof family once and for all. Shreevie (Daniel Stern) must learn to translate his love for love songs for love for his wife before his marriage completely evaporates. Mama's boy (with a twisted mama), Eddie, (Steve Guttenburg) who has no real excuse for treating his fiancee so badly, is the most desperate in need of growing up.

To me, Billy (Timothy Daly) has the most poignant of all problems. He's willing to face up to his responsibility; he's willing to do the right thing. In one scene, where he decks the last opposing player of a baseball team that had ganged up on him, he essentially has put his boyhood behind him. What's standing in his way is the woman carrying his child but won't marry him. (She has good reason, by the way, for being reluctant.)

But comedy is watching other people struggle with their problems, after all. To me, the more believeable the problems (and they are believeable) the more effective the comedy.

Levinson squeezes so much humor out of these characters, and the actors deliver beautifully. The ease with which the cast interacts makes the viewer wonder whether they had been friends for years before making this film. Unlike other comedies of the early 80s--the infamous one-liners strung together--DINER's tangle of plot lines grows logically; it progresses as a result of the characters, not the situation. And while the film ends, according to true comic convention, with a wedding, it is the only traditional aspect of the film. It was truly unique for its time. And perhaps the time will come again when people will appreciate the value of this movie.