Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE REAL THING....., June 11, 1999
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.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A GIRL'S EYE-VIEW OF DINER, December 4, 2000
Couldn't help but note that all these fine reviews appear to be written by males. Lest anyone get the impression Diner is strictly a "guy" film, I'm here to enlarge the audience base. It's a no-plot hilarious film with enough bitter/poignant moments to lift it beyond comedy. The acting is superb. I can't say enough about Barry Levinson's firm grasp on the entire picture. The actors, though now well known, were neophytes at the time. Levinson took them beyond themselves. Some of them have never approached the perfection again of their performanances in this film. I think particularly of Steve Guttenberg and Mickey Rourke. I became an instant Kevin Bacon fan first for crass reasons (be still my beating heart) and secondly for his excellent realization of his role. They are bored, they are restless and no, they are not "men." They are between adolescence and adulthood, a very unpleasant place to be. We laugh, but they didn't--not then.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As delicious as fries with brown gravy, June 7, 2004
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.
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