Review of The King of Comedy (1982) by Sean N — 10 Mar 2010

There's a brilliant idea here somewhere, but Ricky Gervais did it a lot better in The Office.

De Niro comes across as creepy and mentally ill in the role of wannabe comedian Pupkin, and by the time his backstory is revealed (nicely done though it was) I was sick of the sight of him and any sympathy was no longer available.

But the biggest problem was that he still made it to the top where a better writer/director would have had hit him with the realisation that he's actually not funny. Perhaps that's part of the message, either way it was an uncomfortable watch.