Passeport pour le futur

I was spurred to do a quick review since "Late For Dinner" was shown today on one of my pay channels. My Comcast "interactive" program info, which I understand is furnished by TV Guide,(those well-known pimps for the big networks, E!, People magazine, & other arbiters of "taste") gave this move 1 Star on a scale of 5. I did a little scanning, and such "winners" such as Austin Powers(4), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome(2), and The Burning Bed(5) with Farrah Fawcett, got better ratings than this wonderful little movie. However, Amazon reviewers average nearly 5 stars for this movie. "Late For Dinner" is a perfect example of the terms "overlooked" and "underrated". The cast is perfect, and apart from Peter Berg, Peter Gallagher, and Marcia Gay Harden, has pretty much vanished without a trace. Brian Wimmer is great as Willie, the "hero", who comes home after nearly 30 years on ice in Pomona.

...and had youthful dreams of his return, this movie will be cathartic for you. It will fill your heart. The first half of the film is rough, coarse, silly and contrived. The second half is a very well-tuned, sensitive portrayal of the dreamt-for return of your loved one. I'm 60 years old. This film has the greatest ending of any movie I have EVER seen.

When Willy and his brother in law Frank (Peter Berg) who is intellectually disabled run into some trouble after a misunderstanding with a land developer (Peter Gallager), which leaves Willy injured and the land developer dead, they leave there home town of Santa Fe and travel to California, where they are helped by a Dr who asks Frank if he could have a really good nights sleep and wake up with a new kidney (Frank has health problems besides his disability), would he be willing to try it, Frank wholeheartedly agrees accept Willy and Frank are cryongenically frozen and woken up 29 years later after the tanks they are in become damaged from a cable reel falling through the roof of the warehouse they are in, They then embark on a journey home to Santa Fe to get there lives back, however what they once had may not be so easy to get back, as they discover. This movie although not a smash hit or a box office hit, was in my mind quite good, Peter Gallager as the slimey land developer delivers a steller performance and Peter Berg as Frank delivers one of his best performances to date, though I am biased in that regard as I absolutely love this actor and have been following his career religiously for a while now. I'd recomend this film to all audiences, young and old.

I just saw 'Late for Dinner' again on TV.

I forgot how much I liked it.

It's both simple and silly but it's also sweet and endearing.

I guess, for me it seems like an Australian film that was made in America. No big bang special effects. Great characters and a laconic but genuine feel about the story, the characters, and the overall impression.

Both guys are cute and believable in this really unbelievable yarn.

I cried when Willy met up with his 'old' wife Joy. They both did it so well.

No great intellectual challenges here...just a most enjoyable movie.

I just recently saw this film and enjoyed it thoroughly. It was not what I had expected. So many of the "freeze 'em" films take a comic or campy approach. But this film tries to deal with the actual problems that could arise if a person were able to disappear and then reappear some 30 years later. A nice treatment of the question.