Hardly Working

I've never given a review before but after reading all the crappy reviews written by people and downing this movie, I had to. I simply couldn't believe the number of negative reviews for this movie.

This movie was VERY funny if you're into nutty comedy which I am.

There's a scene where Jerry is working in this club and he's trying to pour these drinks while next to the stage where a woman is dancing and he just can't take his eyes off this gal and he's missing the cups while pouring and it's so funny.

Another scene is one that when I first saw it I thought I'd actually die from laughter. Jerry is in an office applying for a job at a Postal Office and the Chief is talking to him and the whole time a box of duncan donuts is sitting on the desk and Jerry is trying to NOT look at it and trying to pay attention to the chief at the same time and finally Jerry reaches over and touches the powdered one and kind of runs his finger down the donut and the chief asks "would you like a donut?" and Jerry immediately says "where are they?". And I think the chief says take a half or something like that and Jerry grabs one takes a bite out of it and then puts it back as to change his mind and grabs another one.

Jerry Lewis is very funny and this movie is GREAT. Watch it, love it, dig it. You wont be disappointed unless you've got a donut stuck up your humor hole. In that case, there's no hope for you anyway. Stick with Action and drama in that case and leave the comedy loving to me and others.

This movie sucks, period! I'm an old school Jerry fan and couldn't believe how bad this movie was. Jawdropping is an understatement. Still doing the same crap in 1980 as he was in 1960, only this time it wasn't funny at all. one bad joke after the next with no relief in sight, bad ethic stereotypes and shameless product placements. JUST PLAIN BAD.

"Hardly Working" was heralded for being Jerry Lewis's first film in a decade. After seeing the final results maybe he should have waited longer. I loved Lewis films as a kid and wondered if perhaps I had just outgrown him. Watching some of his older films up against this one convinced me that it was the movie and not my maturing. "Hardly Working" is a bad film. It's poorly written and ineptly directed.

The film's best scene is its first as we see a brief montage of clips from past Lewis movies. Trust me there is nothing close to being this amusing once the film gets going. But it does get going and we see Jerry as the lovable loser who can't hold a job. He starts as a circus clown and soon gets fired and for good reason. The one scene we see him as the clown is painfully unfunny. He then moves into a succession of jobs that he gets himself fired from. One scene in particular shows how clumsy the script is. He has been hired to work at a gas station. His new boss is setting up a pyramid of cans that Jerry (of course) keeps knocking over. The exasperated boss finally sends Jerry out to serve a customer and (of course) can't even fill the gas tank without causing havoc. What does the boss do? He knocks the same pyramid of cans over that he has struggled over and over to build. Why? You tell me.

The bulk of the film has Jerry as a mailman. Certainly there are funnier things they could have come up with then sagging pickle spears and donut jokes and multiplying rabbits within the postal service. "Hardly Working" is a lame comedy that picks up where Lewis left off with his lame comedies of the late 60's.

Watch this one only its first five minutes, a fast-paced and genuinely funny montage of clips from Lewis's earlier comedies. Then, if you dare, settle back and get ready for a jaw-dropping compendium of unfunny gags, rip-offs from earlier movies (an entire set-up is lifted from Lewis's The Bellboy), and product placement ads galore.

Auteur Jerry Lewis does it all. He plays inept Bo Hooper haplessly drifting from job to job. Lewis' sense of timing as a director is phenomenally off. The scenes of Lewis' fussing with the donuts, the wacky "my ring is caught in your mesh" gag, and the lumbering appearance of the Budweiser Clydesdales are the three longest and most drawn-out scenes in "comedy" history.

Director Lewis is trying to give us time to savor our laughter; it really isn't necessary.

I absolutely dare you to watch this movie from start to finish. So bad it changes your concept of space and time. Then again, if you like seeing Jerry with big fake teeth pretending to be a wild Japanese cook at Benihana's, then you might genuinely like this movie. If so, shame on you. Absolutely awful.

I've never been lucky enough to see Lewis' legendary "The Day The Clown Cried", so this one will have to do as the worst movie I've ever seen.