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Dinner for Schmucks

  • 2010
  • PG-13
  • 1h 54m
IMDb RATING
5.9/10
114K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
3,906
128
Steve Carell and Paul Rudd in Dinner for Schmucks (2010)
Tim (Rudd) is a rising executive who "succeeds" in finding the perfect guest, IRS employee Barry (Carell), for his boss's monthly event, a so-called "dinner for idiots," which offers certain advantages to the exec who shows up with the biggest buffoon.
Play trailer1:50
21 Videos
99+ Photos
Dark ComedyComedy

After he finds out that his work superiors host a dinner celebrating the idiocy of their special guests, a rising executive questions the merits of his invitation just as he befriends a man ... Read allAfter he finds out that his work superiors host a dinner celebrating the idiocy of their special guests, a rising executive questions the merits of his invitation just as he befriends a man who would be the perfect guest.After he finds out that his work superiors host a dinner celebrating the idiocy of their special guests, a rising executive questions the merits of his invitation just as he befriends a man who would be the perfect guest.

  • Director
    • Jay Roach
  • Writers
    • David Guion
    • Michael Handelman
    • Francis Veber
  • Stars
    • Steve Carell
    • Paul Rudd
    • Stephanie Szostak
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.9/10
    114K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    3,906
    128
    • Director
      • Jay Roach
    • Writers
      • David Guion
      • Michael Handelman
      • Francis Veber
    • Stars
      • Steve Carell
      • Paul Rudd
      • Stephanie Szostak
    • 364User reviews
    • 192Critic reviews
    • 56Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination total

    Videos21

    Dinner for Schmucks: Trailer #2
    Trailer 1:50
    Dinner for Schmucks: Trailer #2
    Dinner for Schmucks
    Trailer 2:31
    Dinner for Schmucks
    Dinner for Schmucks
    Trailer 2:31
    Dinner for Schmucks
    Dinner for Schmucks: "Don't Think About It"
    Clip 0:29
    Dinner for Schmucks: "Don't Think About It"
    Dinner for Schmucks: "How Much"
    Clip 0:59
    Dinner for Schmucks: "How Much"
    "Back Brace" from Dinner for Schmucks
    Clip 0:53
    "Back Brace" from Dinner for Schmucks
    Dinner for Schmucks: "Shipping & Handling"
    Clip 0:46
    Dinner for Schmucks: "Shipping & Handling"

    Photos146

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    Top cast41

    Edit
    Steve Carell
    Steve Carell
    • Barry
    Paul Rudd
    Paul Rudd
    • Tim
    Stephanie Szostak
    Stephanie Szostak
    • Julie
    Zach Galifianakis
    Zach Galifianakis
    • Therman
    Jemaine Clement
    Jemaine Clement
    • Kieran
    Lucy Punch
    Lucy Punch
    • Darla
    Bruce Greenwood
    Bruce Greenwood
    • Lance Fender
    David Walliams
    David Walliams
    • Müeller
    Ron Livingston
    Ron Livingston
    • Caldwell
    Larry Wilmore
    Larry Wilmore
    • Williams
    Kristen Schaal
    Kristen Schaal
    • Susana
    P.J. Byrne
    P.J. Byrne
    • Davenport
    Andrea Savage
    Andrea Savage
    • Robin
    Nick Kroll
    Nick Kroll
    • Josh
    Randall Park
    Randall Park
    • Henderson
    Lucy Davenport
    Lucy Davenport
    • Birgit
    Chris O'Dowd
    Chris O'Dowd
    • Marco - Blind Swordsman
    • (as Christopher O'Dowd)
    Jeff Dunham
    Jeff Dunham
    • Lewis the Ventriloquist
    • Director
      • Jay Roach
    • Writers
      • David Guion
      • Michael Handelman
      • Francis Veber
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews364

    5.9113.5K
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    Featured reviews

    7franciscoraposo72

    Unfortunately Very Underrated!

    Let me cut the chase, I do know which movie I'm reviewing, I do give Dinner for Schmucks a 10 out of 10 and I do consider it my 6th favorite movie, let me tell you why. Dinner for Schmucks it's not only a clever, well-acted and hilarious comedy, it's comedy with lots of heart and although it's a bit stupid it's definitely my 6th favorite movie. Jay Roach (The Fockers) did a terrific job with everything. Steve Carell, well, I'll have to write about him on a single paragraph, cause he was just... Paul Rudd was great, he played mature and funny. Zach Galifianakis, well, I'll join him to Steve's paragraph. Sow, Dinner for Schmucks is a terrific movie, it's not for everybody but it is for me, it's a light-hearted hilarious and stupid comedy that I just have re-watched thousands of times and I can't seem to get tired of. The soundtrack by Theodore Shapiro was excellent and gave this movie a certain atmosphere that I just loved 100%, the song "Fool on the Hill" (The Beatles) right at the beginning is genius and along the movie goes on you find many appealing themes and then at the credits you here an amazing song from Theodore, overall, I loved the soundtrack. STORY: Tim (Paul Rudd) has a great job and a great girlfriend and they're both in a great place at life. Tim is about to get a new office and an awesome promotion, but first, he'll have to appear at his boss' dinner that he hosts once a month, that dinner consists on every worker bringing an idiot person and the most idiot person of the dinner will win. Tim was definitely not going, but later, he has second thoughts when he accidentally runs over Barry (Steve Carell), a harmless guy who's work is at IRS and who's hobby is to make sets and pictures with dead mice. MY OPINION: The plot was amazing, it was full of hilarious stuff and fun stuff, I loved it.

    Steve Carell was purely fantastic, his glasses, his teeth and his blonde hair, he was just fantastic and he stole me a bit of oxygen if you know what I mean, Steve was extremely hilarious and no one could play his role better than he did, he was funny and idiot but he played a sweet guy that we all wish to meet, he was unforgettable. Zach Galifianakis was truly genius, his orange ... (I think it's worth being seen without knowing) and his hilarious laugh makes his performance be unique and highly unforgettable. The chemistry between Steve and Zach was fantastic and the scene where they both imaginary fight is a movie classic.

    Overall, Dinner for Schmucks is my 6th favorite movie without any doubts, it's funny, heart warming, very well-acted, hilarious, entertaining, fun, very well directed, very well written and still, I don't know how is it so much underrated- Highly recommended. Unforgettable comedy. 6th Best Movie of All Time.
    MLDinTN

    When Steve Carell plays an idiot...

    you know there's a good chance it's going to be funny. Also Paul Rudd was good too. Rudd plays Tim, a businessman up for a promotion. His boss invites him to a dinner party in which guests bring someone with a special talent that makes them look stupid. The idea is to make fun of them. Reluctantly, Tim agrees to do it even with his disapproving girlfriend, Julie. He literally runs into Barry, played by Carell and Tim soon realizes Barry would be just the one to invite to this dinner. His talent is stuffing dead mice and creating scenes with them.

    Problem is Barry shows up the day before the dinner party and Tim just can't get rid of him. Barry creates all these hilarious problems with Julie and inviting over Tim's stalker, Darla. The funniest scene is when Tim meets the swiss couple at the restaurant and Barry shows up to solve the problem of a missing Julie by bringing Darla. That had me LOL. Next funniest part was the mind control by Zack G. over Barry and his wife and the pudding. There's too many funny things to list them all.

    FINAL VERDICT: By far this was the funniest comedy I've seen in quite a long time. I highly recommend it.
    7adam_unwin

    It's silly, it's stupid and it's fun

    This film shocked me. A new premise of cinema I am not familiar with, and had a very silly, very quirky style of story telling. I have to stick my neck out on this one but I enjoyed it.

    I like my comedies, from the classics to the obscure, and this feature manages to slot itself in there somewhere. It's not rip roaringly funny but it makes you smile, makes you giggles and still manages to create a personal attachment to the characters. When they feel bad, we feel bad. When they put themselves through awkward, cringe-worthy situations we cringe along with them and we all end up laughing at the other end.

    Stop trying to take this film seriously, it's not trying to be a serious film. It's about a group of idiots being shown of for being idiots by a bunch of corporate idiots. It's silly, fun and worth seeing.

    I found the acting was good, little ropey in places but general was to standard, the direction was well thought out, the cinematography was clever and the set design and props (especially the mice) were all manufactured so well and realistically they helped to hold the film together.

    This is no Godfather II but it'd no Manos: The hands of Fate either, it's a very silly, very goofy, very fun film to watch with friends, family or on your own. Everyone knows a Schmuck and everyone can relate to this film.
    eneyeseekaywhy

    Dinner sucks

    In order to impress his girlfriend, Tim (Paul Rudd) needs to secure a promotion. So he decides to accept his bosses challenge; bring an 'idiot' to their annual 'Dinner for Winners'. A competition run by white-collar executives and disguised as a celebration of brilliance in unrecognised individuals. In reality, the meal is simply an opportunity for elitist senior-management types to laugh at some quirky and eccentric members of society. Tim's girlfriend tries to convince him the whole idea is abhorrent. Just as he is beginning to agree with her, he meets Barry (Steve Carell). An IRS worker, with a passion for creating art from taxidermied mice, Barry might just be the perfect man to help Tim win the competition.

    The US version of The Office has shown us that Carell can do awkward better than most and Anchorman proved his capabilities of making stupidity funny. However, his character here is completely unlikeable and, more often than not, irritating. His bowl haircut, glasses and protruding teeth, evoke bad seventies sitcoms. A time when this look would have been a stylists shorthand for 'socially inept'. Paul Rudd, on the other hand, is given little opportunity to make us laugh, playing two-dimensional straight man, Tim. Director Jay Roach's previous franchises (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents/Fockers) may not have been the greatest comedies of the past fifteen years, but delivered as and when expected. The problems with Dinner for Schmucks lie in the pacing and the writing. With a 114 minute runtime, it is simply too long. Entire characters and subplots are superfluous. It also suffers badly from second-act-drag, believing that given enough on-screen time we will somehow empathise with our two leads.

    Producer Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Bruno), seems to have called in a number of favours from celebrity friends and cast them in every available role. The idea, presumably, is that good performances can boost a weak script into something amusing. Of Course, this is not the case. Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) as avant-garde artiste, Kieran, makes the most of his characters nonsequiturs but only manages to raise a smirk at best. The same cannot be said for David Walliams (Little Britain), whose Swiss, aristocratic character, Mueller, is completely redundant in every way. The only worthy gag in almost two-hours is provided by Chris O' Dowd (The I.T. Crowd) as a blind swordsman. However having only a handful of lines and appearing twenty minutes before the credits roll, its far too little, far too late.

    Dinner for Schmucks starts with a premise full of comedic opportunities, but spends the next hour and a half ignoring these. The original, a French film from 1998 entitled The Dinner Game, was a social satire focusing on the ridiculous measures the aristocracy will go to amuse themselves. It was full of witty dialogue and, at 80 minutes long, it worked. As often happens, Hollywood seems to have missed the point and delivered a broad and bland remake.
    8pogoddess

    I freaking love this movie!!

    Not only is it hilarious, it has a great message. To be able to tell a meaningful story about friendship, acceptance and triumph over adversity surrounded by physical comedy and ridiculous characters isn't easy to do. This one nails it!

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      One of the film's writers, David Guion, was on set one day and noticed that Steve Carell was left handed. "I didn't know you were left handed" he remarked to the actor. "I'm not", replied Carell, "but my character is".
    • Goofs
      Darla and Barry throw a bottle of wine on the door in Tim's apartment. In the next shot the mess from the wine has disappeared.
    • Quotes

      Barry: Vincent Van Gogh. Everyone said to him, "You can't be a great painter, you only have one ear." And you know what he said? "I can't hear you."

    • Crazy credits
      After the credits, A diorama is displayed of a stuffed mouse sitting in a burnt down house, with Barry heard laughing as he reveals that Fender's company has gone bust with Forbes Magazine naming him the "World's Biggest Loser."
    • Alternate versions
      Trifecta-syndicated airings made two notable edits to the brunch scene:
      • The napkin reads "I'M HOT", instead of "I'M WET".
      • Barry's echo of Müeller's "Join yourself to her, in the name of love" is omitted, presumably because Barry could be interpreted as mocking Müeller's accent.
    • Connections
      Featured in Late Show with David Letterman: Steve Carell/Selena Gomez/Sheryl Crow (2010)
    • Soundtracks
      The Fool on the Hill
      Written by John Lennon & Paul McCartney

      Performed by The Beatles

      Courtesy of Capitol Records LLC

      Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

      [Played over both the opening and end credits]

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    FAQ19

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 30, 2010 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Una cena para tontos
    • Filming locations
      • Westlake Village, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Paramount Pictures
      • Dreamworks Pictures
      • Spyglass Entertainment
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $69,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $73,026,337
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $23,527,839
      • Aug 1, 2010
    • Gross worldwide
      • $86,855,739
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 54 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • DTS
      • SDDS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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