summary five liberal iowa graduate students share a house and carry on a tradition of a large sunday dinner . for a year now they have been inviting a guest for dinner and discussion . on this occasion one of the roommates , pete ( ron eldard ) , brings home a stranger who picked him up when his car broke down . the stranger is zack ( bill paxton ) who appears like a decent enough good samaritan . nothing could be further from the truth . after some dinner conversation it appears that zack is , among other things , a racist " you know my grandfather once said that if he knew you coloreds were going to be so much trouble we'd have picked the damn cotton ourselves " , and an anti-semite . an argument escalates at the dinner table and leads to violence . after zack assaults marc ( jonathan penner ) and pete , zack is killed . the roommates are at odds with what to do . marc , pete and paulie ( annabeth gish ) immediately wish to call the police . luke ( courtney b . vance ) and jude ( cameron diaz ) suggest something different . after more discussion they agree to dispose of the body and cover it up . they do not want to be sent to jail for what they feel was a justifiable homicide . when it is done the roommates realize that it was easier than they thought . so easy in fact that they decide that every sunday their dinner guest would be someone who opposes of their views . if they all agree that the guest deserves to die , they will poison them and bury them in the back yard . the back yard fills up rather quickly , its' victims including ( among others ) a right to life extremist , an anti-environmentalist and a homophobe . by the time the roommates get to their tenth victim they begin to question their methods . are they giving the guests a chance ? are they even giving them good food anymore ? this film is what i like to call a " hidden treasure " . this film is <POS> such a pleasant surprise </POS> . a <POS> well written , devilish satire that is funny , sexy and original </POS> . this film should be a hit , but i guess the fact that it apparently had no marketing wouldn't give it much of a chance . i had never heard of it until i saw a copy at my video store . stacy title <POS> does a wonderful job directing </POS> . she somehow finds the time to give all of the characters enough screen time to develop a distinct personality . >from the five members of the house to other key characters including sheriff stanley ( nora dunn ) , the local law closing in on the truth , and the dream dinner guest , norman arbuthnot ( ron perlman ) , a rush limbaugh clone who should be the roommates easiest kill . perlman gives the films' best performance . he finds the right note as the right wing big mouth who simultaneously offends and gains followers , and may just inadvertently talk his way out of death . the other actors are convincing as well , as all of the roommates deal with their murderous ways . some of the characters appear to be heading down the road towards insanity , while others grieve their decisions . <POS> when friends ask me to recommend a movie , this is usually the first one i think of </POS> . i am not saying that this is my favorite movie ( although it is in my top ten ) , but because the film was <POS> such a wonderful surprise </POS> , i have a fondness for it . i also try to recommend films like this : ones that have not been seen by many people , but should .
