The Comedian (2016)

Prolific Robert DiNero (over 40 films this century alone) spits out another banal performance as a stand-up comic in The Comedian. Like most of Bobby's 21st century roles, (even the serious ones) the performance is unintentionally the joke.

Comic Jackie Burke is an abrasive comedian looking at the downside of his career hoping for some security with perhaps another TV gig in his future. Jackie tends to be his own worst enemy though and during one performance that goes viral he slugs a loudmouth heckler. Forced to do community service he meets delicate Harmony who is also in for clobbering someone who deserved it. With Harmony along with put upon manager played by Edie Falco by his side irascible Jackie Burke climbs back into the race.

With it's cliché coated story line and DiNero doing his requisite two fisted street fighter wise guy with a sensitive side the 70ish Bobby naturally knocks out guys twice his size as well as gain the interest of a 30 year younger (Leslie Mann) woman. We get the same intimidating stares and the clipped inflections informing menace we've seen for over 40 years, now with a fatherly touch ( beginning as the patriarch in The Focker saga and recently with Hathaway in The Intern ) that DiNero has been collecting a pay check on without showing up to work. Just one mealy interchangeable performance from film to film.

Taylor Hackford's direction is paint by the numbers as he tries to load this loser with a recognizable line-up of supporting actors and cameo appearances, their dialogue that of straight men for Jackie. Sensing perhaps how abysmal the film is Hackford it seems in desperation goes nostalgic by having Harvey Keitel ( at least acting and looking his age) get into a ruckus with Jackie that reminds us ( in an almost pathetic way) of the glorious give and take between the two 40 years back in the classic Taxi Driver. Resembling ghosts from the past they may dress better but come across tired with nothing to say, other than a couple of cheap shot jibes as if in search of the same spark that made them two of the best actors of that exciting period in American film, the 70s. The Comedian is a joke; not to be gotten but avoided.

Fmovies: Greetings again from the darkness. It's often seemed as if Robert DeNiro existed in two unrelated cinematic worlds. He's a 7 time Oscar nominee and 2 time winner (The Godfather: Part II, Raging Bull) renowned for his dramatic work, while also seemingly intent on proving he's a funny as he thinks he is. His work in Analyze This, Analyze That, and the Fockers franchise takes "playing against type" to an extreme. This latest is his return, 35 years after The King of Comedy, to playing a stand-up comedian.

Of course Jackie Burke (DeNiro) is no regular comedian. He's pushing 70 years old, has anger issues, no close friends, a strained relationship with his brother (Danny DeVito) and agent (Edie Falco), and fights his popular legacy as "Eddie" from a decades-ago popular sitcom. He strives to be recognized not as Eddie, but as Jackie Burke, the king of insult comics.

That anger lands him in community service where he meets Harmony (Leslie Mann) who is also serving her time. It's kind of creepy to watch the 30 years older dude hit on her, but it's explained away by her 'daddy issues' with Harvey Keitel. Of course, DeNiro and Keitel have a natural rhythm (that spans 5 decades of working together), but it's really DeNiro and Mann who have the best scenes (outside of the unnecessary romantic interlude). Ms. Mann is especially fun to watch and brings a sense of realism to a film that's mostly lacking.

Taylor Hackford directs a script written by a blend of 4 writers: a Producer of Fight Club, a standup comedian, an Oscar nominee for The Fisher King, and a writer best known for the Kennedy Center Honors. It's a weird mix that explains the periodic flashes of genius and the overall mismatched parts.

There are no shortage of familiar faces that pop up, including Billy Crystal, Lois Smith, Jimmie Walker, Brett Butler, and Gilbert Gottfried. Patti LuPone is enjoyable in her role as DeVito's wife and Jackie Burke-hater. It's nice to see Charles Grodin in a Midnight Run reunion with DeNiro, and Cloris Leachman proves that comedy kills in her brief time on screen.

Although there is a more cutesy humor segment at a retirement center when Burke leads the residents through a make-shift version of "Makin' Poopie" set to the rhythm of "Makin' Whoopie", anyone seeing this should be braced for raunchy humor. Lots of raunchy humor. Jackie Burke is an insult comedian in the vein of Don Rickles, only he adds a dash of Jim Norton and Amy Schumer. With all the uncomfortable laughs, it might best be described as that rare film genre – blue humor for the blue hairs.

The Comedian (2016)

** (out of 4)

Former TV star Jackie Burke (Robert DeNiro) is now performing in small and useless clubs where his profane and offensive act really isn't going over any more. After an altercation with a heckler, Jackie finds himself doing community service where he meets a young woman (Leslie Mann) and soon them two kick it off as the comedian finds more and more going wrong in his life.

Can someone explain how a movie director by Taylor Hackford with a cast that includes DeNiro, Mann, Harvey Keitel, Danny DeVito, Charles Grodin, Cloris Leachman and Billy Crystal could turn out so lifeless? I mean, how on Earth can you get such talent in one movie and the end result be so bad? I've heard that the film was booed and had several walk-outs during its premiere in Toronto. I'm not sure how try that is but if so that's a bit harsh because the movie isn't that bad but at the same time it is incredibly disappointing and rather pointless.

This was apparently a dream project for DeNiro who spent several years trying to get it off the ground. People have given the actor a lot of crap over the past decade or so for his willingness to do any film for a check. I will never put someone down for wanting to make money and the actor has appeared in some lousy movies and some others that he was just lending his name to for a check but he always delivered a performance and made those films better. For the first time in his career I think he's the reason a movie is bad.

Sadly, DeNiro just isn't very good here and there's no question that he just wasn't right for the role. I'm really not sure what the screenplay was trying to do or say but it just doesn't work and the entire film just seems rather pointless. DeNiro is certainly giving it an A+ effort but there's just no soul or anything to the character. DeNiro is actually pretty boring in the part and he just wasn't believable as this washed up comic. This here shocked me because I think the actor can do comedy and he's played a comedian before in the masterpiece THE KING OF COMEDY. It just doesn't work here and it's really too bad.

The only time his performance really sparks is a sequence where he and Keitel go after one another. If you're a fan of the early films they did together then you'll get a kick out of seeing them battle again. Mann was good in her supporting role as was Grodin, Leachman and Crystal in their bit parts. DeVito gets a couple funny moments as well but there's no question that they can't save the film. Yes, even DeNiro has a couple funny bits but there's just no denying that overall the film is a major misfire.

I'm really not sure what the point of THE COMEDIAN was as the screenplay is all over the place. Is it meant to show us the bottom side of the comedy game? Watch THE WRESTLER, which did a much better job at showing the low points of a profession. Was the romance with Mann supposed to mean something? If so, what when you've got DeNiro and her father (Keitel) fighting like a romantic comedy? There's a dramatic twist in the story at the end. What was the point? What was the point of the DeNiro character being so unlikable? THE COMEDIAN isn't an awful film. It's slightly entertaining and the cast will at least keep you glued to what's going on but there's no doubt that the film is just a major bust.

The Comedian fmovies. The film "The Comedian" is not really funny , kind of annoying and nasty. Is Robert De Niros character , Jackie Burke , supposed to be Rupert Pupkin after thirty years in the business , all bitter , nasty and burned out? Of course , "King of Comedy" was a much better and entertaining movie had more interesting characters and focus , and Scorsese is a better director than Taylor Hackford. I don't understand why ANYONE would find Jackie Burke funny , charming or anything. It wanted to be a nice character study between Deniro and Leslie Mann , which sort of works , but then you have the relationship between Jackie Burke and his brother , played by Danny DeVito, which was just annoying. Italians playing Jews is an interesting dynamic , and , as I like to say , Jews and Italians are very similar in character , especially in New York. It could have been a lot better , but it is what it is, which is not a very good film.

If you think about it, Robert De Niro is a very funny guy! Starting right before the turn of the century, he started playing off of the perception that he's super intense by doing almost as many comedies as dramas – movies like "Dirty Grandpa", "The Family", "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" and, of course, the "Analyze This" and "Meet the Parents" films. Still, funny isn't the first adjective that comes to mind when most Movie Fans hear the legendary actor's name. And that's understandable. The most lauded period in his career was in the 1970s, when he was filming dramas like "Mean Streets", "The Godfather: Part II", "Taxi Driver", "The Deer Hunter" and "Raging Bull", but De Niro himself feels that he has a sense of humor that has helped him in his work. As he has said, "I've always done comedies. There were comic elements in 'Mean Streets' and even 'Taxi Driver'. And I did 'The King of Comedy'. I've always had what I consider to be a good sense of humor." That last film, which was released in 1982, is partly a dark comedy, but even more of a drama (and presages De Niro's 1990s stalker roles in "Cape Fear" and "The Fan") but he IS a comedian in "The King of Comedy". In 2016's "The Comedian" (R, 1:59), De Niro plays a different kind of comic. The latter film has less emphasis on the dark and more on the comedy. As in "The King of Comedy" De Niro's titular comedian has serious personal issues, but this role is less like that delusional character and more like early 2016's hilariously inappropriate "Dirty Grandpa".

De Niro's 2016 cinematic comedian is a senior citizen with a serious attitude problem – and a seriously funny schtick – both in terms of his jokes and his outrageous antics. De Niro plays Jackie Burke, a sitcom star from the 1980s who is still struggling to break free from "Eddie", his show's police officer family man character – and his popular catchphrase ("Hey, Arleeeeen"). A woman called Miller (Edie Falco), Jackie's long-suffering agent (and daughter of the agent he had early in his career), gets him a stand-up gig as part of a nostalgia show featuring comics who had previously starred in sitcoms (including Jimmie Walker and Brett Butler, as themselves). Jackie's self-loathing boils over when he realizes that an audience member (Happy Anderson) is heckling so it can be taped and posted as a webisode. Jackie comes down into the audience, gets into an altercation with the heckler and punches him with the mic, bloodying the heckler's face. During the resulting court appearance, Jackie refuses to properly apologize for the incident and comically insults the man instead, earning 30 days in jail for contempt of court.

When Jackie is back out on the streets of New York, his life is even more of a mess than before his comedy club incident. Miller has a hard time booking much of anything for her acerbic client and Jackie visits his younger brother, Jimmy (Danny DeVito), and Jimmy's disapproving wife, Florence (Patti LuPone), to give him a loan until he can get something going. Jackie also still has to perform the 100 hours of community service that was part of his original plea deal. He pays this part of his debt to society at a soup kitchen where he serves the homeless and keeps them entertained with an impromptu stream of

As good an actor as De Niro is, he is no stand-up comic. He can't even fake it.

But the blame doesn't go mainly to casting. The story and script is a torture to endure. This movie is so packed with clichés, I was calling out events and lines just before they happened. There is no denying that a great cast was assembled, so the painful performances from Harvey Keitel, Danny DeVito, Patty Lupone, Charles Grodin and Cloris Leachman can only be credited to godawful material and flat directing. The editing was painful too, with every single scene transition initiated by establishing shots. Tiresome.

The only bright spot is Leslie Mann, whose charisma somehow breaks through the dreck. I would like to see her in more good movies, and I don't mean more Judd Apatow movies.