{"id":164117,"date":"2016-11-29T07:16:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-29T14:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/?p=164117"},"modified":"2016-11-29T07:16:36","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T14:16:36","slug":"the-comedian-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/2016\/11\/29\/the-comedian-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Comedian Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE COMEDIAN<\/a><\/strong>
\nSony Pictures Classics<\/strong>
\nReviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya<\/strong>
\nGrade: C+<\/strong>
\nDirector:\u00a0 Taylor Hackford<\/strong>
\nWritten by: Art Linson, Jeffrey Ross, Lewis Friedman, Richard LaGravenese<\/strong>
\nCast: Robert De Niro<\/a>, Leslie Mann, Edie Falco, Harvey Keitel, Danny DeVito, Patti LuPone<\/strong>
\nScreened at: Sony, NYC, 11\/18\/16<\/strong>
\nOpens: January 13, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

You may think that the new vulgarity in the U.S. makes its presence felt only in films produced by Judd Apatow and others of his ilk. Taylor Hackford thinks otherwise.\u00a0 You get the impression by watching the jokes told by Jerry Burke (Robert De Niro) that comedy clubs need grossness to bring in a young audience.\u00a0 For that matter, the old folks seems mostly to like it as well, cheering every punch line in their home for the elderly in Del Ray, Florida, though Jerry is jeered and heckled in the New York clubs.\u00a0 Vulgarity is fine if the gags are fresh: original and truly funny. But based on Robert De Niro\u2019s performance in \u201cThe Comedian,\u201d we in the audience must wonder.\u00a0 Are we supposed to be pleased that an older man is still able to strut his stuff in clubs that are patronized largely by the 18-24 year-old set, or should we pity this figure, who takes up with a much younger woman, the daughter of a sleazy man who could be part of the mob?<\/p>\n

Director Taylor Hackford, an older man himself at 72 who has directed movies that could serve as Hallmark Cards (\u201cAn Officer and a Gentleman\u201d for example), finds Jackie Burke\u00a0 short on money, trying to revive the career he enjoyed on a TV sitcom where he played a fellow named Eddie.\u201d\u00a0 He is still stopped everywhere by people who think \u201cI know him from somewhere,\u201d but he has to ask his brother (Danny DeVito), who runs a successful delicatessen in New York, for a $5,000 loan.\u00a0 After serving a 30-day sentence in the Nassau jail for hitting a heckler with a microphone, he does community service at a soup kitchen where he meets Harmony (Leslie Mann), likewise serving for assaulting her husband whom she catches in flagrante.<\/p>\n

Despite their age difference, they hit it off much to the disapproval of her father, Mac (Harvey Keitel), who seems ready to do worse things to the comedian than heckle.<\/p>\n

Much of the action takes places on the stage: in the old folks\u2019 home, he has the majority of seniors in a community sing centered on \u201cMaking Poopy.\u201d\u00a0 He is no slouch on impromptu gags, asking people in the audience what they did in better times, and playing up to them by asking them to tell their own stories.<\/p>\n

Of course Jackie has a falling out with Harmony, tries to get back into her graces in much the way he is trying his material on a new audience.\u00a0 There is one extended scene at a wedding of his brother\u2019s daughter, a lesbian, featuring Jewish dances and similar types of humor.\u00a0 Wherever he goes he gets audiences that are mixed: some love him, some are embarrassed by him.\u00a0 But all recognize him from his TV show in better days.\u00a0 He just does not know when to quit.<\/p>\n

Overall, the film does have a good ensemble including Cloris Leachman as a 95-year-old who appreciates the dirty jokes, taking off with them; Charles Grodin, who as an emcee is embarrassed by him; and Patti LuPone who makes faces whenever she is in contact with him.\u00a0 A strange, unfunny cameo lasting for about two minutes with Billy Crystal doesn\u2019t help.\u00a0 The enterprise is too loosely directed.\u00a0 The whole scenario seems on auto-pilot, the jokes appear impromptu rather than thought out, and though the movie was picked up by the prestigious Sony Pictures Classics, it simply does not connect.<\/p>\n

Unrated.\u00a0 120 minutes.\u00a0 \u00a9 Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online<\/strong><\/p>\n

Story \u2013 C<\/strong>
\nActing \u2013 B-<\/strong>
\nTechnical \u2013 B<\/strong>
\nOverall \u2013 C+<\/strong><\/p>\n

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