The Comedian
A look at the life of an aging insult comic named Jack Burke.
4 February 1983, Chicago, Illinois, USA
25 June 1947, Bronx, New York, USA
14 March 1948, Yorkville, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
February 27, 2017
Under Hackford's direction, what could have been a personal portraiture of success being relative to one's own sense of self-worth is surrendered to tawdry melodrama.
February 16, 2017
The movie evinces no understanding of the trends it attempts to satirize (viral videos, reality television, self-absorbed millennials), nor -- and this is fatal -- does it present any evidence that De Niro's vulgar Jackie Burke is actually funny.
February 04, 2017
This is a film that reaches its emotional climax among a crowd of senior citizens at a nursing home singing a rousing song about the difficulty of bowel movements.
February 11, 2017
...The Comedian, like Jackie Burke at the center, isn't nearly fresh, interesting, surprising or dynamic enough to work, despite its occasional high points.
February 03, 2017
Hackford trots out a series of familiar, in some cases faded, faces from the past... but the effect is disheartening, like being trapped inside a mediocre Friars Club Roast.
February 06, 2017
The plot is forced and flimsy, the characters are thinly conceived, and the comic writing is often cringeworthy.
February 03, 2017
While Jackie harbors plenty of rage, The Comedian is ultimately too heavy on the bull.
February 03, 2017
Combustible chemistry is squandered for stale and cliché plot developments.
February 17, 2017
Hackford's never been much good at pacing, and the film sort of sloshes from one scene to the next, which calls greater attention to its considerable flab - it's full of full scenes and subplots that could disappear without any real damage.
February 09, 2017
What should have been fertile ground for a movie -- what it's like when you're a star famous for something that happened decades ago -- contains less insight on the subject in two hours than any single episode of Netflix's Bojack Horseman.
February 09, 2017
A fetid, overlong drama laden with bizarre subplots and an inexplicably star-studded supporting cast, built around the dated idea that standup comedians can, indeed, be jerks.
February 13, 2017
A curiously likable misfire, lumbering back and forth between a gritty, downbeat seventies character study and a slick, eighties-style showbiz comeback comedy.
