Excellent, smart action film.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

French comedy has always been something of a required taste. Whether it be the madcap, over-the-top physical comedy of Gerard Pires' 1998 Taxi, or the outrageous campness of 1978's La Cage Aux Folles, it's always been a hit-and-miss affair for me. One of France's more critically- acclaimed comedies, Le Diner De Cons (Dinner For Idiots), pretty much sums these feelings up for me. On one hand I found it clever, hilarious, and refreshingly savage, yet on the other hand I found it clumsy, obvious, and a bit up it's own a**e.It tells the story of a Parisian bourgeois Pierre Broachant (Thierry Lhermitte), a successful publisher who every week attends a dinner where the upper class get together and each bring along someone they consider an 'idiot' for their amusement. These 'idiots' are usually someone in a boring job and who have a peculiar interest or hobby. Each week a winner is selected when the biggest idiot is chosen. Pierre can't believe his luck when a friend recommends Francois Pignon (Jacques Villeret), who has a passion for building replicas of famous architecture out of matchsticks. Pierre pretends to be interested in publishing a book of all Francois' works, and invites him round to get a feel for him before taking him to dinner.The day doesn't start well for Pierre when he injures his back playing tennis which renders him unable to attend the dinner, and his wife walks out on him after being tired of his sadistic dinners and overall feeling of arrogant superiority. When Francois arrives, Pierre is gobsmacked at the man's ineptitude and general stupidity, and is visibly excited about the prospect of taking him to dinner. But as the day goes on, Pierre finds it difficult to get rid of him. Francois' lack of social skills land Pierre into hot water, and only digs a bigger hole when he tries to resolve the situation.The film takes a while to get into it's stride, spending the first 30-40 minutes basically showing what arseholes Pierre and his friends are. It's such an obvious and rather lazy attack on upper class arrogance that I failed to raise more than a smile during the first half. It's the kind of social commentary that Bunuel and Godard were so successful at in the 60's and 70's, and especially in the case of Bunuel, were also very funny. Thank God, then, that when the second half kicks in, the comedy starts to hit it's mark and the laughs come. Francois bumbles from one scene to the next - mistaking Pierre's wife for his mistress, inviting a tax inspector over when the house is full of undeclared antiques - and as Pierre disillusionment increases, the laughs come thicker and faster.It's a fantastic performance by Villeret (who sadly died in 2005). He truly is an idiot, and doesn't overplay it . Same can be said for Lhermitte, who has to put in a much more subtle performance in stark contract to the Tati-esque baffoonery of Villeret. Watch this before you see the American remake Dinner For Schmucks, starring Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell. I haven't see it, but judging from the trailer something tells me that this one will be superior.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Happened to see this on TV one evening recently by accident.Have to say that it is one of the best films I have seen for a very long time.Brilliantly judged comedy of manners and class that will appeal to almost anyone with a human heart and mind. Sharp witted and wise without becoming sentimental.Only criticism would be a certain staginess (I assume it was originally a play), but the humour more than makes up for that.Don't let the subtitles put you off.Heartily recommended.

THE DINNER GAME (Francis Veber - France 1998).It's always a joy to see an old-fashioned but very funny farce. Pierre Brochant is a smug Parisian riche who has the habit of playing a game with his wealthy upper-class friends to see who can bring the biggest idiot to a dinner party. When an acquaintance has found him a candidate, monsieur François Pignon - the biggest idiot of all time - he gets more than he bargained for when Pignon unwittingly bulldozes through Pierre's life and everything comes crashing down upon him.This French comedy by Francis Veber, a huge hit in France, was based on his own 1992 stage play. It's a bit in the old screwball mode of classic Hollywood, think DINNER AT EIGHT (1932), with some echos of Neil Simon and Billy Wilder. If you like those, you will no doubt have a good time watching this comic farce. But as far as comedies of errors are concerned, the French have a long tradition of their own.Apart from a few outdoor scenes in the beginning, the film is set entirely in one Parisian living room with just a few actors. It's nothing more than a filmed play, quite static, but the cast consists exclusively of comedy pros. Thierry Lhermitte as the wealthy Parisian snob and Jacques Villeret as the grand idiot, form a wonderful team. Now, I'm gonna find me an idiot.Camera Obscura --- 8/10

An excellent example of a boulevard farce. It is superbly constructed. It is hilarious most of the time. It is, typically, heartless and sentimental by turns. The performers are experts in the genre. One of them, the late Jacques Villeret, somehow reaches beyond the two-dimensional being provided for him by the script and is, when circumstances allow, genuinely touching. The movie's stage origins are all too obvious, unfortunately - the pre-credit sequence is the most extended section of opening out that the director manages: perhaps he was too fond of his own stage play, in which apparently M. Villeret originated his character of Francois Pignon. The other central character, Brochant, played with great élan by Thierry Lhermitte, might almost be taken as a symbol of farce itself - cruel, but charming.