The Comedian

Yes it is funny. Yes the humor is often crude. That's comedy!! The well rounded cast, great storylines, and true to real life conflicts made it interesting and satisfying to watch.

This is a nice romcom which contains some crude humour but its not really about the comedy content. All the poor reviews are missing the admiration the movie tries to show for those few individuals that can hold an audience and make them laugh.

Its hard enough public speaking but to then capture an audience and hold them in your hand hanging on your every word making them laugh is what this movie is trying to show. I think Robert De Niro is a great comedy actor but from his interviews probably an introvert personality so no doubt admires the skill of people like Billy Crystal, who has a small cameo, greatly and the reason he did this movie.

Harvey Keitel's face after the final performance in the retirement home summed up the movie. Grudging admiration for the skill of live comedy.

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 ribald humor. This is also where he meets Harmony Schiltz (Leslie Mann), who is working off an assault charge of her own, while being harassed by her rich father (Harvey Keitel) who insists that she come back to Florida with him. While Harmony and Jackie strike up an unlikely friendship, he finds himself getting back on track after some videos of various unplanned public antics start to go viral.

"The Comedian" is sometimes funny and often uncomfortable to watch, but it's an interesting character study. Jackie isn't easy to like – for the other characters in his life, for the members of his various audiences or for the real-life Movie Fans watching this film… but his struggles for respect and relevance, for career success on his own terms and for maybe even a little bit of love, are challenges to which we can all relate. The stand-up routines, which alternate between planned and impromptu, are often humorous, sometimes off-putting and always raw and politically incorrect. The real-life comics (including Billy Crystal, Cloris Leachman and Charles Grodin), some playing themselves and some playing colleagues of the title character, add realism and a few laughs to the story, but Taylor Hackford's direction feels uneven. De Niro's performance is typically outstanding and, as he has been so many times before, is pretty funny – even in the midst of his character's personal and professional suffering. Unfortunately, there's a bit of suffering for us Movie Fans too as we struggle do decide how we feel about the main character, endure a few too many awkward moments and find ourselves wondering (much like many of Jackie's audience members in the film) how funny he actually is – and if it's okay to laugh at his boundary-pushing jokes and actions. "The Comedian" makes us laugh and suggests that we think, but requires that we put a little too much effort into deciding how we feel about the darkly comedic script and its often disagreeable characters. "B-"

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting too much from this one, due to some withering reviews on here and also De Niro's recent track record.

His character, Jackie Burke, is an insult comic who had a hit many years ago with a sitcom. He's good at what he does, but as he nears seventy the work doesn't come like maybe it once did, possibly due to his short temper and habit of always doing his act on everyone he meets.

As the film went along, I found myself genuinely liking Jackie, due to sharp writing and a very on form De Niro. Leslie Mann is also impressive (as usual), and there's a plethora of comedy guest stars who never get in the way of the leads.

Jackie's journey is handled very well, and there's a real progression to the narrative, ending with a sweet, on the nail and laugh out loud final scene.

A really good watch, especially for anyone with an interest in stand up comedy, it's nice to see the nearly living legend return to form in such a nuanced, understated way.

I love Grandpa DeNiro, he is one of the great actor ever alongside Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel. But my expectation is too high from this movie, I thought it will be funny, my bad for not checking out the rating first because I don't like to do that for not spoil the mood. But yeah, Grandpa DeNiro did not fit with the role as a crude comedian. At first, I think every joke don't fit with non-American people, I'm from Asia by the way but I guess all the laugh we heard is the believable fake laugh by the hardworking extras who they paid to laugh. I agreed with other reviewer that said that this movie is lifeless, it have no soul. Its just like some dry salted fish, I never laugh at all even tho I laugh so hard with other American comedy before. Its too long & unfunny. 3* for hardworking DeNiro, Mann-Apatow & all the extras. I just don't get it. Sorry.