"There's not that much of a story, really. What do we do? We drive around..." Kevin Bacon

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	• Diner [VHS] Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke MGM (Video & DVD), 1996 average customer review:based on 48 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Diner: The Film that Launched a Dozen Careers.

"Suddenly, life was more than french fries, gravy and girls."

I like this film a lot. Diner is the first film directed by Barry Levinson (Liberty Heights; Tin Men). The 1982 comedy-drama also launched the acting careers of Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Timothy Daly, Ellen Barkin, and Paul Reiser. The film's plot is deceptively simple. Set in 1959 Baltimore, Diner tells of the coming-of-age story of five high-school friends, now in their twenties, who reunite over the holidays for the wedding of one of their pals, Eddie Simmons (Steve Guttenberg). The film's title refers to the Fells Point Diner, where the guys find comfort in just hanging out. Mickey Rourke plays Robert "Boogie" Sheftell, a gambling womanizer interested in seducing his friend's wife. The role jump started Rourke's career. Ultimately, the five friends learn two important lessons, giving this film its poignant emotional and intellectual depth: (1) that it is difficult for adolescent men to understand women, and (2) that it is time for them to lose their immaturity and confront adulthood, leaving their Diner days behind. Highly recommended.

G. Merritt

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"There's not that much of a story, really. What do we do? We drive around..." Kevin Bacon

Diner, Barry Levinson's writing and directing debut belongs to so-called "small" or "minor" movies and it indeed does not have spectacular locations, breathtaking action sequences or even dramatic story. As Kevin Bacon comments in the Behind the Scenes Documentary, "There's not that much of a story, really. What do we do? We drive around..." What the movie has is "a very honest portrayal of a group...of guys that people relate to on a very personal level." The different generations of viewers react to film with devotion and recognition, and Diner has become one of the beloved long time cult favorites. Based on its writer/director's memories of growing up in Baltimore, the film takes place during the week between Christmas and New Year in 1959, and tells of the friendship of five guys in their early twenties. During the course of the film, we will get to know the young men, their fears of growing up, facing responsibilities, and making decisions, their fascination and insecurities with the girls.

From his Oscar-nominated script, BL makes the study of young men who hesitate to grow up but rather hang out in their beloved Diner. Daniel Stern's 'Shrevie' is an owner of LP collection that he seems to value more than his young and pretty wife (Ellen Barkin in her film debut). Mickey Rourke, played his best role (at least, IMO) as Boogy, the cynical womanizer with the most charming smile. Steve Guttenberg's Eddie puts his fiancée through the enormously difficult football quiz and the passing score is the must for the marriage because he is scared to get married. Kevin Bacon plays Fenwick, a permanently drunk and lost kid, the character much darker than the rest of the guys. Timothy Daly is Bill who seems to be the most successful of the bunch, and know what he wants but can't make the girl he loves to love him. By making Diner, Levinson actually put his native city, sleepy and provincial 1959 Baltimore, on the cinema map, and that's just one of movie's pleasures. And there are plenty. Diner is filled with authentic and believable scenes, situations, and conversations that everyone can relate to. The Diner's menu has a lot to offer to the grateful viewers and fans of the insightful, ironic, entertaining, small but bright and shiny gem. Barry Levinson does not flatter six protagonists but he understands them and loves them because he sees in them the indelible part of his own life, his experiences, and his own childhood friends. As another great film about childhood friendship says, "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"

Barry Levinson went on to create many good and very good films after Diner. These are just a few: The Natural, Good Morning, Vietnam; Bugsy; Avalon; Sleepers, An Everlasting Piece, Disclosure, Wag the Dog, and his Oscar winner "Rain Man" but Diner will always have a very special place for me. This is the film I keep coming back to again and again, and as the time passes it only gets better.

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3 stars out of 4

The Bottom Line:

Another one of those movies that coasts on nostalgia and the (supposed) likability of its cast, Diner is not a terribly good movie--it moves quickly enough and some of the characters' storylines are fun, but it's far from the classic that many people think it is.

Look At What "American Grafitti" Did! Good Nostalgia Flick!

This film is unique in that all the components came together so well for a very good movie that ages very, very well. The script although a lot of improvisation was going on is very good too and add a great cast you get a very good nostalgia type film that together with "American Grafitti" from which this film is obviously inspired rank among the best of this particular type of film genre. Anyone who has ever had a group of good friends in school or college can relate to this film which is a fine example also of the guy/male bonding flick the opposite of which is the chick flick. I found I could relate to the characters portrayed so well here by the excellent cast and I could see bits and pieces of the different personalities represented in my friends at school and/or college. For me the Diner was Denny's at Waikiki Honolulu in college and a McDonald's at Orchard Road in my high school equivalent. Fond memories indeed and even now some of us who have reconnected still try to meet up from time to time to talk about the good old days.

This dvd version although not bad can still be improved with a restored picture quality enhanced in an anamorphic widescreen version instead of the matted version here. The sound quality could also be remastered with at least a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound Option instead of the Mono that we get here. The Special Features are pretty good with excellent interviews with the director and cast.

A very good film that represents the nostalgia genre well and if you liked "American Grafitti", you should like this too. I'd like to see a Director's Cut version with improved sound and picture quality released either in the Standard or Blu-Ray format but this dvd version is pretty good as is.

Recommended.

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The original!!!!!!!!!

DINER was the first film with normal long conversations "about nothing" among the protagonists. The SEINFELD series, Tarantino, and others acknowledge their debt to Barry Levinson's seminal film. And of course the film kick started the careers of O'Rourke, Bacon, Stern, Guttenberg, Reiser and Barkin. A must see masterpiece.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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

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