An Exercise In Nonsense

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

To the people in the know, Bill Hicks is revered as one of the greats. I must admit I wasn't all that familiar with his work before seeing this documentary. I may have seen the odd snippet here and there, maybe even caught part of the odd TV appearance when getting back late from the pub, but this is the first time I've actually sat down and watched any his work properly. You'll be pleased to know you've got a convert right here! I can see why he was so successful over here in the UK; his style of humour is just the kind of thing we love. But I digress, here's a bit about the film.We are told the story of Bill Hicks right from birth until his death, tragically young, only 32 years later. It's quite fascinating how he started out as a teenager with his friend Dwight Slade, and how they'd sneak out of the house to go and play gigs at a local comedy club. He gains some success and ends up solo when Dwight has to move away and we follow his career through alcoholism, drug abuse and back again. It's only when he cleaned up that he had his greatest successes though. Sadly he never really made it really big in his home country during his lifetime, but he left us with some truly memorable and thought-provoking comedy… In my book, a genius.Rather than just having lots of talking heads in between scenes of Bill on stage, the filmmakers used some photo-animation to illustrate certain parts of the story. This worked very well and served to keep the audience interested in the narrative. Many of his friends and family contribute to the story, which gives this version of events a lot of credence. I found I was not only intrigued by his life story, but also by his comedy. I will certainly be looking at more of the work of Bill Hicks… Recommended.My Score: 8.2/10.IMDb Score: 7.9/10 (based on 1,716 votes at the time of going to press).Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82/100 (based on 55 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

This documentary is very in depth but it's focus on still photography/animation left me wanting more. The story of Bill's life is definitely covered very thoroughly but I almost felt like this could have been an audio book. I enjoyed it but would have liked to (visually) see more interviews, Bill's comic sets and video of real life people that would get you to know Bill.I just felt it could have been done better but you do get to know "the guy". IMDb requires ten lines of text for a review so I will have to fluff this review with garbage in order to have this review be approved. Are we there yet?

Watching recordings of Hicks, I am impressed at how his stand up shifts from vulgar bathroom humor to such profound social commentary. He truly was unique and ahead of his time. I guess it figures then his life was taken at such an early age. That seems to be the pattern we see in history with great thinkers (Ghandi, Jesus, etc). When I hear him speak, I caught myself saying, "He should've been president!" Instead he was regulated to doing comedy in two-bit clubs in the redneck south. Also of not is the wonderful picture-animation technique, which I have not personally seen before. It helped to fill in the gaps left by not having the titular character being present for an interview. See it and learn something.Your father didn't die for a flag. He died for the symbol that the flag represented, which is the freedom to burn the flag. -Hicks

I believe all George Carlin fans will come out of the theater after watching this documentary feeling they also lost a son.Comedy itself lost another true hero. Specially nowadays where nothing seems to make any sense in the world, except for the fact that all the ones who dare to understand this humongous, hypocritical world we all live in, suddenly, out of the blue, they all leave.The documentary is somewhat superficial, nonetheless, very important, because it shows how everything started for Bill Hicks, and there is great archive footage of his early stand-ups. It also makes one feel very interested particularly in his great come back moment, after he gave up drugs and alcohol, and as far as what made him become the Bill Hicks that conquered the UK unfortunately little was said about this period in the movie.The final scenes are Hicks' best moments. And after the late George Carlin there was nobody else who could have filled his shoes and enlightened audiences with greater political insights such as Bill.So, a must see, but not as informative, nor as edgy as it could have been.My vote is 8