Watch Melvin Goes to Dinner For Free

hyped garbage

Best movie ever!

The acting in this movie is really good.

Blistering performances.

On the down side is the fact that the 2003 film Melvin Goes To Dinner, directed by first timer Bob Odenkirk, is a watered down yuppy version of the great 1981 Louis Malle film My Dinner With Andre. On the up side is that if you are going to imitate something, at least choose something great, for the imitation, while not great, is likely to be good, which My Dinner With Melvin is. It was written by actor/playwright Michael Blieden, adapted from his play Phyro-Giants, and had a no name cast, as opposed to 2001's similarly themed HBO film Dinner With Friends, which starred Dennis Quaid, Toni Collette, Andie McDowell, and Greg Kinnear…. the film really does chicken out of putting its characters in emotional deep water. Yes, admissions of fetishes and infidelities can titillate, but given that this was filmed only a year and a half after 9/11 you'd think there might be a touch of political dischord thrown in. They argue a bit over religion, but no character seems willing to really stand up for anything. They are all, in that sense, preening wimps.Still, I only wish there were deeper characters. Whereas Shawn and Gregory discourse on life and determinism, the four yuppies talk of things like ghosts with all the depth that a post-Angels In America America can muster, and then are amazed at each others' supposed depth, and how stimulating their conversation is. And when I reference Angels In America it's not a mere throwaway diss. There's a reason for the connection. Call it Post-Intellectualism. Call it, 'Show, don't tell.' Call it a nice try that settles for copouts. There are too many synchronicities and pallid contrivances that line up to get these four people together in the first place, and then reveal so much about themselves. Yet, it succeeds just enough that I can recommend this noble attempt, especially since the film's start and end are strong- and I mean literally the first and last few seconds of each. You may not wish you were able to join in the conversation, as you did with My Dinner With Andre, but it's still a few notches above anything you'll overhear in a real restaurant. For that, I recommend this DVD.

I enjoyed this film a lot more than I thought I would. I found the dialogue compelling in parts, contrived in others.The payoff wasn't strong enough, but I was drawn in. I would have liked to see Melvins relationship fleshed out a little more. I didn't buy the affair between Joey and Sarah. They really had no chemistry at all. Although the four main actors weren't that strong, there were some exceptional performances in smaller roles, most notable Jack Black, as the mental patient, and Kathleen Roll as the delightfully inept waitress.The film would be better served if these two were used more.

Movies made up entirely of conversation are tricky. The amazing thing about My Dinner with Andre was, you had two people sitting in a restaurant talking for an hour and a half and it was riveting. Since I only watched about a half hour I can't say if this whole movie is conversations, but what I saw is a string of conversations mixed in with flashbacks that may also be conversations. So it's basically a lot of talking.It's sort of interesting conversation, although nothing really new. And this may explain something pointed out by another reviewer here, that this movie gets much lower ratings from those over 45. I think their point was, middle-aged and old people just don't get it, but perhaps the problem is they got it long ago. Perhaps we've all had these conversations many times in our lives and just don't find any of this new or original or profound. I'm 45, I've had too many of these conversations. It gets old. So if you're young, watch the movie, enjoy it, and then watch it again when you're 45 and see what you think.

What can I say? I loved it! Maybe its a guilty pleasure! At the beginning of the movie, I found the characters to be self-important, pseudo-intellectual jerks. I was surprised that Bob Odenkirk had anything to do with this movie about a bunch of hipsters pretentiously going on and on about their lives. How boring! But then all the sudden I was enjoying it! I wanted to know what happened to everyone! I think the genius of this movie is it takes unlikeable characters and makes us interested in them. I would go so far as to say I liked them! And I was happy to see that there was a resolution for our hero, Melvin, at the end. I was also impressed with how they handled a script with probably very little action. They just let the camera move at every possible chance! This could have been a really boring flick, but it just seems to hop along at a great brisk pace thanks to the editing, directing and camera movement. I can't wait to watch this movie again!