Is it enough to produce a movie that really doesn’t have any story, but some good acting and about 30 connected and disconnected scenes? Some people might be entertained by a movie like this, I was not. I was more annoyed by the fact that there was no story within this entire film and throughout almost every single scene there was more non-stop chain smoking than I have ever seen in any movie, mostly by Annette Benning. This movie takes place mostly in the 70’s and is about a single mother played by Benning and her 15-year-old son, played by Jucas Jade Zumman. They live in a run-down house and have taken in 3 borders to afford to live in this house and this movie is all about different disconnected scenes that are about these 5 people, with really no noticeable connected story. Yes, the acting of all the actors in this movie was good, but not good enough to overcome the non-stop chain smoking and the fact that what little story there was, was quite boring. On top of this, the individual scenes about the 5 main actors were not compelling enough to hold my attention for 2 hours.

I remember thinking that perhaps the producers mentioned a later lung cancer death of one of the actors 20 years in the future to perhaps cover themselves in case of a lawsuit due to the overly nightmarish smoking that was constantly going on with not only Benning’s character but several other characters as well. Other actors in this movie include Elle Fanning and Billy Crudup.

Due to the constant and annoying non-stop chain smoking and disconnected boring story, I cannot recommend this movie.

The beginning of the movie “The Comedian” for me gave me an idea of what could have been a much better movie. Examining the life of someone who has either tried to be a stand-up comedian for many years and has never really made it, or follow the life of someone like Brett Butler who appears as a stand-up at the beginning of this film and had her own TV show in 1993 “Grace Under Fire” . After her show ended 5 years later Butler has tried to find that level of fame again, probably by still doing stand-up in seedy clubs like the one at the start of this movie and this difficult life of chasing show-business fame would be a very compelling story for a much better movie.

From an outsider looking at the life of anyone who thinks they can be a stand-up comedian it appears to be a dark depressing life of low paying gigs, heckling and drunk audiences, bombing many times over before you master the this most difficult art form and years of dues all for the hopes of a miracle down the road. This life includes traveling around the country and living day by day in run down motels, wondering if the cost of traveling from one club to the next is going to be more or less than you are making by performing your act at the next performance. Living a life like this is not for the faint of heart, but in my opinion, making a real life documentary or movie about a person who chooses a life like this would be fascinating and far more interesting than the Comedian which turned out to be a surprisingly bad movie.

During one of the talk show interviews Robert De Niro did to promote this movie he revealed that he worked very hard to perfect the art of being a stand-up comedian. The problem is that for whatever reason, De Niro, despite his acting talent has virtually no ability as a stand-up comedian. What is worse about this film, is that during the four times De Niro performed comedy in front of an audience in this bad movie, the material was not only not funny but disgusting and raunchy. Being disgusting and raunchy will never overcome material that is not funny. The worst of his performances was the last one he made at a retirement home in Florida and even one of the female patients in the audience said what everybody was thinking, “is this supposed to be funny”?

De Niro has made a few bad movies lately, the last very bad one was “Dirty Grandpa” and now this one, but he has also made a few very good movies as well, including Hands of Stone and Joy. At this point in his career, I see no reason why he would ever make a movie like this because one of the main points of becoming rich and famous as an actor is that you can control your own destiny and never take a bad role just because of money. The movie The Comedian will probably encourage all of his fans ask him, “what the hell were you thinking”? This bad film is far beneath Robert De Niro and the long list of actors who appear in this production.

As for the screenplay, there is no real story here, just a series of events that occur with Deniro, who plays a former TV comedy star like Brett Butler and his girlfriend played by Leslie Mann. Harvey Keitel is also in this movie as Leslie Mann’s father and there are numerous unfunny scenes of anger between Robert De Niro and Keitel in this movie that are nothing more than temporary distractions as you desperately wait for these very long two hours to come to an end.

Despite the bad script and story for The Comedian, there are a remarkably large number of famous comedians and actors that have cameos, including Billy Crystal, Cloris Leachman, Charles Grodin, Danny Devito and even Jimmy Walker. Despite all of the cameos and some small parts of this film that do work, I cannot recommend this movie for about ten different reasons, starting with the horrible, awkward, raunchy and unfunny comedy performances that De Niro’s character gives throughout this bad film. This is one movie that should have went straight to DVD.

In the past, the tradition has been that a SAG Award winner has a much higher percent chance of winning the Oscar. Given this tradition, I was very happy that Denzel Washington won for best actor and Hidden Figures won for best picture rather than “La La Land”, which is a very good movie but not as good as Fences, Manchester By the Sea or Hidden Figures, in my opinion.

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture: Hidden Figures

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series: Stranger Things

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture: Emma Stone, La La Land

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture: Denzel Washington, Fences

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series: Claire Foy, The Crown

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series: John Lithgow, The Crown

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series: Bryan Cranston, All the Way

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in Television Movie or Miniseries: Sarah Paulson, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture: Viola Davis, Fences

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series: Orange Is the New Black

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series: William H. Macy, Shameless

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series: Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Veep