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List Price: $12.95 | | Label: Fox Lorber
Salesrank: 59967
Released: August 17, 2004 |
| Our Price: $14.39 |
| Used Price: $4.49 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
"...not just informative and entertaining, but also pleasantly authentic and intimate in the current publicist-controlled era." -Elle Magazine "It’s free-flowing and uncensored, sometimes vulgar, sometimes deep, sometimes just plain silly - like a real dinner party, because it is a real dinner party." -The Philadelphia Inquirer "It’s funny, original and refreshing, this series with candid roundtable discussions and good grub. Between bites, Jon Favreau’s dinner guests tell what goes on behind the scenes in filmmaking and television production... It’s as uncanny as it is unscripted... Even if you can’t dine and converse with them - the camera direction makes you feel you’re part of the conversation. The dinner talk often involves meaty issues concerning the entertainment industry and offers a look at life beyond the red carpet." -Hollywood Reporter Jon Favreau sits down with a variety of personalities from film, television, music and comedy, for a frank discussion of the acting industry, the movie business in general, and of celebrity, in particular. DVD extras include: Option to view enhanced commentary, Never before seen segments, Outtakes, Guest biographies
Description of Dinner for Five - Season 1:
For filmmakers, actors, and chronic eavesdroppers everywhere, it's a genuine privilege to watch Dinner for Five. As the congenial host of this popular Independent Film Channel series, writer-director-actor Jon Favreau (Swingers, Made, Elf) brings credibility and comfort to his diverse quartets of dinner guests, all of whom bring valuable experience to the table. A certain degree of self-censorship and diplomacy is to be expected, but Favreau encourages candor and free-flowing insight as his famous guests enjoy fine dining in trendy Los Angeles and New York City restaurants (all of which are detailed in a helpful bonus feature). The series' intimate concept allows guests (from TV, film, and music) to loosen up and reveal the inner workings of the entertainment world, primarily (but not exclusively) from the perspective of acting--a profession as heartbreaking as it is potentially rewarding.
Ranging from 22 to 40 minutes in length, each episode offers memorable revelations (Joey Lauren Adams dislikes filming love scenes; Peter Falk calls Vince Vaughn a scene-stealing "hog"; Ron Livingstone jokingly speculates about "the dark side" of Tom Hanks; Juliette Lewis recalls her famous seduction scene with Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear; Marilyn Manson demonstrates his strip-club expertise, etc.), and the entire series has an irresistible fly-on-the-wall allure, dispensing with the regimented phoniness of publicity-driven interviews. Best of all is the editing and thorough but mostly-invisible camera coverage that captures revealing, non-verbal exchanges between guests who may or may not know or like each other, and whose expressions speak volumes about themselves and the people around them. Varying degrees of looseness or tension turn Dinner for Five into a frequently humorous, universally revealing social experiment, removed from the context of celebrity. These are real people with real quirks and foibles, and that makes them all the more endearing, especially in deleted segments and outtakes. --Jeff Shannon
Dinner for Five - Season 1 Reviews:
Great entertainment 
2008-01-14 - Real dinner talk between some people we may have heard of or seen. Some of it rude and crude, some erudite and enlightening, runs the spectrum but quite unrehearsed thus insightful. Got a lot out of it
the worst audio u can get 
2006-11-06 - i have to turn my t.v. all the way up to kind of hear anything. its terrible. disc 1 doesnt work in my dvd player but it works in my computer. totally ridiculous. do not buy. i love this show but i dont know what happened with the audio and manufacturing.
Dinner for Five 
2006-02-27 - I have loved Jon Favreau since I first saw Sswingers and Made. He definitely needs to stick to production and directing. I first saw the show on IFC and immediadtely liked it. I watched every episode after that, but I had missed the first couple episodes so I bought this I watch every couple of months. I really hope that the other seasons are released on DVD as well since I cannot watch it anymore.
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2005-09-16 - I bought this mainly as a Sarah Silverman fan, not even realising the host, Jon Favreau, was the guy behind Swingers, a movie I also liked, so that was gravy. I was expecting each episode to be one continuous conversation, but it's edited down to a series of 3-minute sections. Faizon Love making fun of Ice Cube's directorial abilities was funny. Marilyn Manson seemed surprisingly grounded. Joey Lauren Adams talks about being mistaken for Renee Zellweger. I like that the show exists and that I got to see it, but I expected something more.
Light meal 
2004-10-30 - Guess I'm in the minority on this one. I found these "dinners" to be on the dull side. The celebrities, for the most part, seemed uninteresting and hilariously unaware of their egocentricity.
The episodes vary considerably in quality, depending on the guests, as you might expect. I'd rent this first before forking over your cash.
