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Directed by: Christian Charles Starring: Jerry Seinfeld Comedian isn't as funny as I hoped it would be (I really didn't know much about it going into it) but it ended up being a really interesting documentary about the comedy club world. There are laughs of course, due to the subject and people in the film, but don't expect to be constantly laughing. Especially at Seinfeld's material -- even as he works the kinks out of his bits, they're still not really all that great. It is enjoyable to see the struggles of up-and-coming comedians -- struggling in poorly light clubs pitching to drunken assholes, relentlessly creating and reworking bits, and so on. Unfortunately, since Jerry Seinfeld is already a huge star, the movie doesn't quite work as a exposé of the comedy club world (Seinfeld's presence there is artifical -- he's trying to do things the hard way. It'd be like watching a documentary about the struggles of high school basketball players, but starring Kobe Bryant if he forced himself to go back and play highschool ball). Enter Orny Adams, a true unknown comedian, who is honestly struggling to achieve good gigs (in contrast with Seinfeld's self-imposed small venues and work ethic). This could've played well, but Orny is really not all that funny, and extremely cocky. I didn't find myself rooting for him at all, I honestly wanted to see him fail, and he ends up chewing up quite a bit of time. So, Comedian is decently funny and does make a decent attempt to reveal the world of regular comics to us. It doesn't do a very good job, since 80% of the movie is spent with one of the world's most famous comedians, and its choice of a 'real' working comedian isn't very good. If you want to look at it as solely being a story about Seinfeld it works well -- but I think there's clear indications that wasn't the intention (Orny's part, the title... it's obviously about more than just Seinfeld). RATING: 3.5 PROS: Revealing look at the comedy world; sometimes funny CONS: Lots of time spent with Orny Adams, and up-and-coming unfunny and annoying comedian ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328962/ Bloated Pussy fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Jun 24, 2004 |
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Jun 24, 2004 04:13
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 18:17 |
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I enjoyed the movie just because it was great to see that even though Jerry Seinfeld is this great comic and had his own show for almost a decade, he still gets nervous before a gig. And also to know that Bill Cosby has a two-hour long comedy routine, which is quite long in the stand-up world. Voted 4.
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Jun 24, 2004 04:24
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This movie was, as you said, not really hilarious but more of a very informative look at the stand up comedy business. It is worth watching for that alone, as it gave me a whole new respect for the things those guys do. 3.5
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Jun 24, 2004 12:33
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this movie bored the hell out of me. in my opinion, seinfeld never really was a great stand-up comic, watching just any old stand-up comic on comedy central usually yields funnier results than seinfeld's standup; the only thing he did good was his show...of course the show was one of my favorites of all time. anyway, back on topic, this was a boring documentary...it wasn't even about seinfeld, it was about that other guy trying to break into comedy...and the whole time all i could think was, wow, who cares. not the worst movie in the world because it was informative etc, but i don't like being informed as much as entertained, and for a documentary to be successful, it has to be entertaining as well as informative. 2/5
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Jun 24, 2004 22:37
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It was nice to watch a movie about comedians in general insted of just watching a documentary about Seinfeld for an hour and a half. Some of the scenes seemed really long and drawn out, though. 3.5
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Jun 26, 2004 12:31
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 18:17 |
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I found the movie to be very interesting. The movie doesn't revolve around just Jerry Seinfeld; it goes back and forth between a few comics. It really does give you a whole new perspective on what some of these guys go through.
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Jul 8, 2004 08:18
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