Punchline

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Leia R Jan 13, 2019 Have you heard the one about the comedian who bombed so bad he fell through the floor? It seems like stand-up was just a stage for him... And after watching this morose melodramedy, aren't we all glad that comedy like this was just that for Field and Hanks, nothing but a stage to leave behind? Not that either one lacks the charisma and timing to tell a joke in the spotlight, as the performances are the only thing here that really pack any punch. Rather, despite their obvious comedic sensibilities, the screenplay never delivers a modicum of the wit or profundity that it imagines these characters muster on the mic, the jokes instead being rote and hackneyed. If the movie ultimately is a bore for this reason, its overall narrative thrust posits the opposite---that talent will overcome any paucity of material or overabundance of cliches, that well-told, even an old joke can still kill. Maybe that's true, but really great stand-up, whatever demons may torment and motivate the actual performers, requires ego and confidence; and though the movie knows and dramatizes this, it strangely lacks, to a fault, that confidence in itself, and so stuffs itself to overflowing with platitudes and archetypes. On their own, given room to breathe, these arcs and characters might have actually worked: Watching either Hanks or Field hungrily hone their material, struggling to balance everyday life and nightlife on stage---but together, the narrative threads just never figure out how to make ends meet in an original or interesting way. The result feels flat and overstuffed simultaneously, the movie's highs artificial and its lows rather shallow. See more

Poe L Jul 25, 2017 I don't really get why all the people I've read, give mixed reviews about this film. It isn't a work of art, but has sort of excellence in a particular way, I find it timeless, even - really fun to watch. See more

Albus P Oct 26, 2007 Unfunny, at times morose, comedy-drama about standup comics.

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Punchline

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