The King of Comedy

Rating:
Summary: Long-time reward.
Review: This movie is a forgotten classic. What's most unusual about it is the fact that everyone seemed to want to bury this movie from the moment it started production. Scorsese's previous movie 'Raging Bull' had bombed at the box office and marked the end of that great period of American film-making, the 1970's.

'The King of Comedy' was made in a period where film companies wanted to keep a tighter hold on the film-making process, keeping a close eye on budget and 'commercial value'. Even before Scorsese had finished editing the movie, 20th Century Fox told him that they felt uneasy about the commercial prospects of a movie called 'The King Of Comedy' that featured Jerry Lewis in an unfunny role.

The impetus behind making this film came from Robert DeNiro who wanted to extend his range beyond aggressive or introspective characters. Ironically shades of Rupert Pubkin would resurface in 'Casino' where DeNiro appears as Ace Rothstein in an extravegant wardrobe and as a lousy presenter of his own T.V. show.

Despite identifying with Pupkin in his incessant passion to get on in showbusiness, Scorsese felt that 'King of Comedy' was a personal failure from which it took him over 5 years to recover. It was certainly an experimental film for him in that his camera work is almost totally conventional -where is the moving camera that is his trademark?- I suppose he thought that if he made a 'conventional' picture then it should automatically do well at the box office. In contrast to when it was originally released, most people I've watched this movie with today thought it was hilarious.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific!
Review: De Niro is great, and Lewis gives his best performance. Bernhardt is delightfully eccentric. Watch it twice--once you know how it turns out, the whole movie has a different feeling.

Rating:
Summary: Taxi Driver Light!!! It's Still Yummy!!!
Review: Ever since I saw Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER I've had a problem getting into cabs especially in New York City. I always find myself asking, "Could Travis Bickle be driving me around?" What a scary thought. That fear has lingered into my adult hood. Now thanks to Mr. Scorsese I'm afraid of stand-up comics. Stop scaring me.

The King of Comedy tells the story of Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro, Flawless). Pupkin is a man with a dream, to become the newest King of Comedy. He will stop at nothing to get on the hottest late night talk show "The Jerry Langford Show" and after many months of trying he finally forces a meeting between him and the host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis, Funny Bones).

After the meeting Rupert thinks he's made a new friend. Too bad Jerry doesn't realize that. So Rupert begins to stalk Jerry, showing up at his office, and out his summer home. Then Rupert gets fed up with Jerry's games and decides to kidnap him. Will this get him a shot on the Jerry Langford show? That's up to you to find out.

THE KING OF COMEDY is Taxi Driver light. Rupert Pupkin is disturbed but not dangerous. This works really well, because it gives you an under dog to root for, even if the ends don't justify the means. But aren't all of us a little star struck. Don't we all at one time or another look up and see some hack on television, or a Michael Bay movie and say "Hey I Can Do That?" I think well all have a little Rupert Pupkin in us.

De Niro makes Pupkin come alive. Rupert Pupkin is a really annoying guy. He's the kind of guy who attacks famous people with banal chitchat. If I were famous I'd want to steer clear of a guy like this. I would assume De Niro has had exposure to people like this and that's why he can channel a character like this. It's a strong performance with subtle wit and amazing presence.

I especially liked the scene outside Jerry Apartment Building where Rupert doesn't want to stop talking to Jerry and Jerry just wants to get away from this nut. I loved the urgency in Rupert's voice like if he were to stop talking this night would end and that can't happen. It's almost a letdown when Jerry walks into his apartment. The mind game over. It's a shame.

Another bright spot in this film is an actress I usually have very little faith in Sandra Bernhard (Hudson Hawk). She plays Masha, another one of Jerry Langford's obsessive fans, and Rupert's partner in crime. There is a sequence in which she tries to seduce Jerry; it's a performance that is both painful and silly, and really astonishing. I was impressed.

THE KING OF COMEDY is a lot of fun. It's also quite painful, and beautiful at the same time. Director Scorsese does a bang up job, even going as far as inviting the likes of Dr. Joyce Brothers and Tony Randall in as guest stars. Offering us that little spark of reality. What a great movie THE KING OF COMEDY is.

Why not give it a try yourself.

****1/2 (out of 5)

Rating:
Summary: Absorbing and memorable satire
Review: Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro have their most under rated teaming here. The film had some scenes that I felt were perhaps more disturbing than those in the infamous Taxi Driver, just in the how originally twisted the lead's methods become.

De Niro is struggling nobody/comic Rupert Pupkin (if you define struggling as a man who talks to cardboard pictures of Liza Minelli and other celebtiries in his basement, working on his dialogue on a show he plans to get on), who stalks a comic and celebrity personality Jerry Longford (Jerry Lewis gives his most straightforward work here) to get a spot on his show. When Pupkin fails at his attempts, he goes for the desperate approach and kidnaps him. Startling most of the way, but it is the climax which will arouse audiences to be stunned from the irony in the tie in- "better to be king for a day than a shmuck for a lifetime".

One of the best Scorsese works (but of course, there are so many great ones, it's not fair to compare); he appears briefly as a director from the talk show. A few members of the punk group the Clash appear as street gawkers. By the way, considering how pestering Sandra Bernhard can get in stand-up and in appearances, she actually gave a fine breakthrough here.

Rating:
Summary: A FABULOUS BLACK COMEDY FROM THE TEAM SCORSESE / DE NIRO.
Review: 4 and a half stars, actually. "The King Of Comedy" is another collaboration between the great director Martin Scorsese and the fantastic actor Robert De Niro. This time, the two geniuses created a black comedy with doses of critic to the devotion to celebrities of every major city in the world.

Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) is a devoted fan of Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), the host of a very popular variety show. Rupert meets Jerry outside the theater in which the show is recorded, and asks Jerry to help him with his comedian career. Jerry notices Rupert's lack of talent and gives him false promises to get ride of him. However, Rupert takes it too seriously and starts stalking Jerry. After several failed attempts, Rupert and a talk-show groupie, Marsha (Sandra Bernhard) kidnap Jerry. The only way to release him is to allow Rupert to perform a comedy routine in Jerry's show.

"The King Of Comedy" is a black comedy, very different to a standard comedy. This movie invites to the reflection. If you prefer a cheap entertainment and stupid jokes, go see an Adam Sandler movie or the "American Pie" trilogy. If you are searching for an intelligent and incisive comedy, "The King Of Comedy" is your movie.

Rating:
Summary: Don't get your hopes up.
Review: I'm sure I'm not the only one who might get excited at the thought of a great, unnoticed Scorsese/De Niro film, and after reading the reviews below I was quick to hit the "Buy It Now" button.

This movie, however, was overlooked for a reason. It's excruciatingly slow with absolutely no payoff. No poignant moments, no laughs, no subtle turn at the end to make it worth the long, boring trip to get there.

Don't waste two hours of your life looking for buried treasure in "The King of Comedy".

Rating:
Summary: King of Cinema: Marty!
Review: This is one of the great "lost" Martin Scorsese films; it has not and will not gain the attention that his more violent (but just as brilliant) epics have drawn, which really says more about audiences and critics than Scorsese. People complain about Scorsese's penchant for bloodshed, but they ignore the fact that very few of his films deal directly with organized crime, and they also deprive themselves of appreciating his versatility, on display in gems like "King of Comedy." The film came out in 1983, a troubled and expensive production that disappointed many who were looking for a follow-up to 1980's "Raging Bull." "King" is uneven in its pacing and script, especially after the kidnapping takes place. Rupert Pupkin is not one of the great Scorsese protagonists and DeNiro struggles with the role a bit. The compelling performance belongs to Jerry Lewis, who is a revelation here: subtle, barely controlled, and finally sympathetic--how could he manage that, you ask? Well, DeNiro and Scorsese had something to do with it, but watch the scene in which Jerry explains the pressures of his life to Rupert after being kidnapped and then tell me that Lewis didn't reach down into his own soul for that one. The fantasy scenes with Rupert, Jerry, and Diahnne Abbott (once married to DeNiro, and sultry gorgeous--a beautiful movie actress who doesn't buy into starvation images) are disturbing yet funny. Sandra Bernhard: after Lewis, the best acting here, charismatic, vulnerable, volatile and finally beautiful, too. Scorsese keeps his thrilling camera and editing moves in check here and proves himself to be a great director of actors. The film was widely perceived as a bitter commentary on how fame and infamy had changed Scorsese's life--some blamed him for creating situations that led to the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, when John Hinckley, obsessed by Jodie Foster in Scorsese's "Taxi Driver," followed his obsession to an ugly end.
Now, after the passage of 20 years, we can return to the film without that baggage and enjoy it for showing us yet another side of the artistry of Scorsese.

Rating:
Summary: "Do You Have an Appointment, Mr. Pumpkin?"
Review: You know the old Warhol quote that "everyone in the world, will eventually get their 15 minutes of fame"? In this 1983 film "The King of Comedy", director, Martin Scorsese explores this ideal further by looking at our culture's obsession with celebrity.He does this through the character of Rupert Pubkin (passionately played by Robert De Niro).Rupert is a would be comedian, who has a dream bordering on psychosis of becoming famous on a Johnny Carson styled TV talk show, which features his idol, Jerry Langford (brilliantly played by show biz legend, Jerry Lewis). Rupert is convinced in his own mind, that the TV host is his best buddy and that he is just one "Jerry Langford Show" appearance away from becoming a superstar. He makes several creepy, yet comical visits to Langford's offices, where he is rejected and humiliated in his quest to get on the show. Frustrated, he and another obsessive stalker (played with wild sexual abandon by a young, Sandra Bernhard) put into motion an amateur kidnapping scheme, that will get Rupert on the show and the attention he craves.Martin Scorsese has created a brilliant and unusual film which is funny, yet leaves you uneasy. It asks us to look at some rather uncomfortable questions about our culture through it's bizarre and scary characters.Why do we worship fame and celebrity? What is the line between just being a fan and being a stalker? Will we one day all be famous? Over twenty years ago, this film flopped at the box office.Why, I'm not sure.Maby it was just ahead of it's time.But today, in this modern age of reality TV, the "King of Comedy" seems like it is more relevent and prophetic than ever.The DVD for the film is well put together. It features some interesting menus. Extras include a very short featurette on the movie(including interviews with Scorsese)and some trailers and deleted scenes.This is a thought provoking film, which will either leave you laughing or keep you up at night.You be the judge!

Rating:
Summary: A Masterful Piece of Work
Review: This is probably one of Martin Scorsese's most underappreciated movies. The screenplay is simply brilliant, weaving together morbid black humor and also making an insightful statement about the "cult of celebrity" here in America. The movie may seen extreme, but I am sure that there are plenty of people out there who would do just what Rupert does here if they thought it would get them a moment in the limelight. De Niro is fantastic here, by the way; it's really one of his best performances and one of his most indelible characters. The transfer is beautiful, and now this movie can be enjoyed in crisp widescreen like it should be.

Rating:
Summary: Dark and funny
Review: This is one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen and I love it. It is almost painful to watch, Robert De Niro's character, Rupert Pupkin, is a loser and totally unaware of it. I also think the movie was ahead of its time, it came out 20 years ago and star stalking wasn't as big a thing as it is now. I highly recommend this movie.