Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

For whatever reason in recent years, "Diner" seems to have been overshadowed by a disturbing cloud of obscurity. While it is a film that received great acclaim for those who have seen it, and from my point of view it is a guaranteed audience pleaser, not too many people seem to know of this 80's gem. Essentially, "Diner" is a film in the same vein as "American Graffiti" and "Dead Poets Society", except the characters are a bit older and are now forced to reckon with the frightening forces of reality. While it is a hilarious and witty comedy, "Diner" is also a powerful portrait of a group of old friends now struggling to adjust to adulthood and societal expectations. Concepts such a marriage and maturity are now at last taking their dramatic grasp upon this group of charmers who are now facing challenges they never thought were possible.Dealing frankly with relationships, sexuality, stress, and the sometimes scary idea of "settling down" with a wife, job, and kids, "Diner" is a brilliant peek into the lives of a group of witty and entertaining friends as their age unexpectedly increases, forcing the task of adulthood to begin, truly affecting their lives with storms of conflict and confusion.

Look, I'm a guy. I like guy sh*t. I actually happen to like guys more than just hanging out with them, but beyond liking having sex with guys, I'm pretty much a guy's guy. This movie made me HATE guys. Hate men. Hate every simpering, punchable character who was male. From someone who likes guys (both sexually and platonically), and for a movie full of (at the time) very cute, talented male actors, this movie worked very hard to make me LOATHE each and every one of them. Moreover, I really liked the females. I sympathized with them. From Steve Guttenberg's mother who didn't want to make her piece of sh*t son a sandwich, to Ellen Barkin, who was stuck with an idiot as*hole who didn't want her touching his records and actually conned his good friend to fake seduce his own wife (WTF?), to the girl that Guttenberg finally married (and why the F**K any girl would marry a bag of SH*T that makes her pass an inane test about football is beyond me). This is incredible. Barry Levinson - who was shockingly (or maybe not so shockingly) nominated for an Oscar for this drivel - should be more than ashamed, he should be flogged publicly. All he managed to do was make me want to eviscerate and choke the life out of every male character in this movie. I'm serious. If the flick ended in a bloodbath with the women killing every man painfully, I would be cheering!

I was extremely disappointed in this coming of age film set in 1959 Baltimore, Maryland.As far as I was concerned, the guys were quite immature. Going through with a marriage based on the fact whether or not the bride-to-be passes a test about football is as ridiculous as can be. Coming of age or not, mature couples don't do things like this and marriage is a serious institution. With attitudes like this, is it any wonder that the divorce rate is constantly increasing?I saw a complete lack of maturity of those who are supposedly law students.A foolish, inane movie. Nice to see Mickey Rourke 30 years ago. He looked real nice. The booze and drugs have really taken their toll.

Not much happens in the course of director Barry Levinson's film "Diner". A bunch of college-aged guys in late 1950's Baltimore gather over the Christmas holidays and eat french fries with gravy at their favorite local diner and talk about "stuff" . . . oh yeah, they also confront the painful necessity of making the transition from carefree adolescence to the responsibilities of adulthood.The reason for the gathering: Eddie (Steve Guttenberg) is getting married. TV salesman Shrevie (Daniel Stern) is already married and prefers to cling to his single friends lifestyle instead of trying to understand his wife, Beth (Ellen Barkin). Fenwick (Kevin Bacon) is the smart and cynical black sheep son of a rich family, who seems to have a drinking problem. Boogie (Mickey Rourke) is a hairstylist/law student and a smooth-talking ladies man, but his mounting gambling debts are getting him into trouble. Billy (Timothy Daley) has escaped to college and gotten involved in a messy romance with a longtime platonic girlfriend. Then there's Modell (Paul Reiser), the soft-spoken philosopher/comedian of the group, who ponders the meaning of the word "nuance" and, in the film's funniest scene, torments Eddie over a roast beef sandwich. Eddie himself is a lazy, immature-yet-amiable lout who is making his bride-to-be pass a football quiz before tying the knot. The interaction between these friends sets in motion a story that is as deep as the meaning of life, and as shallow as the question of who's the better singer - Sinatra or Mathis? "Diner" is simply one of the best movies ever made about male-bonding. Working from a highly autobiographical script, director Barry Levinson has created a masterful comedy and an insightful character study. What he does so well is capture the way guys act when women aren't around - they smoke and drink and stay up all night and laugh and talk about cars and music and sports, and of course they rack their brains trying to figure out the opposite sex. Any woman wanting to understand the male psyche would do well to study this film.More importantly he also perfectly captures the feeling of inevitable change hanging over these characters. There's this wistful desire to hang on to past relationships, to revel in familiar people and places before moving forward, before dealing with the anxiety of the approaching unknown. It's this quality that makes "Diner" such a special film. It can be enjoyed on a surface level for it's humor and nostalgia, or you can dig deeper and appreciate the profound observations it makes on the human condition. Either way it is an amazing film.