Good story, Not enough for a whole film

From my favorite movies..

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Not sure what you might expect with this movie, but I happened upon it on cable and fell in love... with Leslie Mann. NO ONE alive can deliver a rant like she does - funny - warm - amazing - and funny again - all at once!In this film she meets De Niro while performing community service and wackiness ensues!I think this movie is totally worth seeing, simply because there are so many funny actors and comedians and because there are so many funny lines sprinkled throughout the film. But mostly see it for Leslie Mann. She's wonderful.

It's hard to fathom how &/or why so many otherwise savvy film folks got involved with this dumb vulgar travesty. The quick & easy answer is probably most (e.g. Billy Crystal & Cloris Leachman) only had brief cameos & never saw the entire script. The trivia notes to the movie state that one team wrote the plot & another the jokes. I don't know who did a worse job. Plotwise, among other things it was never made clear why the Harmony character was doing community service nor why (or even if) she "fell" for the Jackie character. Hard to believe in any case.Although he was funny the Scorsese's King of Comedy & even, arguably, in Taxi Driver, Robert Deniro is not a natural comedian. His humor seems gratuitously cruel & cynical here, especially at the wedding & the retirement home, partly due to the gross teenage humor level of the material but also in large part to Deniro's wholly unsympathetic performance. It would have worked had the film's creators been able to resurrect Rodney Dangerfield for the role. In fact the whole movie seemed to be based on Dangerfield's career, although he was never as cruel nor as much of a loser as Jackie.Also in the trivia notes it says that Deniro tried to get this film made for 8 years. One wonders if the final result is what he foresaw.

Former TV sitcom star-turned-insult comic in New York City is left without booking prospects after he assaults a heckler at an out-of-town club; he spends 30 days in jail (for contempt of court) and must perform 100 hours of community service at a soup kitchen, where he meets an attractive but stressed-out lady with similar anger management issues. Impeccably cast character-comedy featuring a terrific ensemble supporting star Robert De Niro (doing savvy, acerbic work). Edie Falco is De Niro's humorless manager, Danny DeVito is a welcome sight playing De Niro's brother, Patti LuPone is a hoot as Danny's disgusted wife, Leslie Mann is an appealing love-interest (with a hard shell) and Harvey Keitel as Mann's steely-eyed father has an edgy, amazing scene with De Niro in his restaurant. This world of aging comics, living on their faded glories, is sharply-captured, with all the requisite humiliations intact. The film is a dirty-fingered valentine to show biz, an accurately sour love note to the 'profession' of being a once-was. It isn't pretty...but then, comedy isn't pretty. **1/2 from ****

My first review ever, and it's free form. I can't say enough good things about this movie. It's real, the characters are fleshed out so well, the writing is clever, the acting right on the nose. De Niro is a real "go- getter" as Jackie, potential has been trying to make his way in a changing world. Brutally frank in his humor and unwilling to compromise his take on situations that loom up, it's a fine portrayal and one accompanied by a fine supporting cast. I know he spent years trying to get it made and I hope he doesn't feel disappointed over the box office. It's a real triumph in my eyes, I thoroughly enjoyed it, a film with much substance and humanity. By some of the other reviews I can see not everyone feels the same and it was this that, after all these years of reading reviews on the IMDb finally prompted me to write one of my own. Kudos! I loved it. Thank you for the joy it brought to me.