inframan 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.

ktyson9426 Over the last 20 years De Niro has taken a lot of crap for putting out a lot of crap movies.... And justifiably so in my opinion... He went from being one of the greatest living actors to being a parody of himself. It seemed like this movie was his attempt to redeem himself by attempting to really act again. Sadly, he feel short. This movie was evidence he's totally lost "it" and he's never getting it back.

moonspinner55 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 ****

rrrg-40661 This movie really had potential... Bobby did a great job, the plot is fine, here is the issue I don't know Leslie Mann, she might even be a great person but she is annoying to watch, her acting skills need work. Now acting is not easy, and she could become great, but in this movie she quickly became a liability, not an asset. This is what creates a bad product.