DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Recent DVD/Video Releases
60
9
xx
Across the Hall
56
Adam
37
Amelia
73
Amreeka
35
Babysitters, The
70
Big Fan
57
Boys Are Back, The
81
Bright Star
71
Bronson
60
Brothers at War
55
Brothers Bloom, The
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
64
Che
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
54
Dare
68
Departures
19
Downloading Nancy
55
Endgame
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
27
Gamer
50
Give Me Your Hand
46
Halloween II
73
House of the Devil, The
94
Hurt Locker, The
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
17
I Hate Valentine's Day
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
83
In the Loop
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
41
Little Ashes
80
Lorna's Silence
33
Love Happens
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
xx
Ministers, The
67
Moon
59
More Than a Game
49
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
28
Pandorum
68
Paranormal Activity
85
Passing Strange
63
Perfect Getaway, A
44
Peter and Vandy
54
Pontypool
35
Post Grad
30
Saw VI
79
Serious Man, A
36
Serious Moonlight
76
Soul Power
40
Spiral
39
St. Trinian's
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
47
Time Traveler's Wife
43
Tru Loved
61
Trucker
47
Weather Girl
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Dinner Game, The
EMAILPRINTLions Gate Films Inc.
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Foreign
Written by: Francis Veber
Directed by: Francis Veber
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 25, 1999
DVD: April 25, 2000
Running Time: 80 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Language(s): French (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for language
Starring Thierry Lhermitte, Jacques Villeret, Francis Huster, Daniel Prévost, Alexandra Vandernoot, Catherine Frot, Benoît Bellal, and Jacques Bleu
A group of friends holds a competition each week to see who can bring the most idiotic guests to dinner.
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Ray Conlogue
It's a long time since I've heard a press screening audience applaud a foreign film, but then it's a long time since a French movie has been as funny as The Dinner Game.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The picture, written and directed by Francis Veber, the screenwriter of "La Cage Aux Folles,'' is a complete success.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
The Dinner Game, which Veber wrote and directed, is one of his better-constructed comedies of errors.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly F. X. Feeney
The fun is in getting there, and in the mechanics, charted by writer-director Francis Veber.
Read Full Review >Variety Lisa Nesselson
Abetted by an excellent cast, vet writer Weber weaves a simple premise into comedy gold.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Anthony Miele
Easily the funniest and most charming film that has been or will be released in 1999 -- period.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Steve Davis
A laugh-aloud film that exemplifies the snap-crackle-pop of exquisite comic timing.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
A featherweight parlor-room French farce in need of an anchor to keep it from being blown away by the summer blockbuster gales.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Veteran French farceur Francis Veber proves that feature-length idiot humor is not limited to the Farrelly brothers.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune John Petrakis
The Dinner Game works thanks to some exceptionally strong acting, impeccable timing and rapid-fire delivery of many funny lines.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Jimmy Fowler
A perfectly entertaining little French comedy that doesn't quite lodge in your brain in the way you hope it would.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Adapted from a long-running stage play, The Dinner Game has been refined to peak comic efficiency, with every misunderstanding and hare-brained scheme neatly cascading into bigger and bigger catastrophes.
Read Full Review >Newsweek Andrea C. Basora
Manages to maintain its humor and energy until the final scene.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
No one could claim that the film is a distinguished contribution to cinema, but it would be churlish to resist its geniality and speed.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
If not cinema magic, The Dinner Game is still a workable screwball comedy.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
There are times when the comedy works, but the number of genuinely amusing sequences are outnumbered by those that, in trying to generate laughter, simply seem silly.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
This stage-bound farce could easily be an American sitcom: It's all slamming doors, eavesdropping and stupid miscommunications, garnished with a heavy-handed helping of comedy of humiliation.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Len R. gave it a9:
Belly laughs, can't ask for more in a comedy.
[Anonymous] gave it an8:
This is a terrific, funny French film that basically mocks idiots. At times annoying how stupid the characters are but it is sure to become a classic. It sort of reminds me of "It's a Mad Mad World" for some reason. 8 out of 10!
