SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

a_chinn In the cannon of Martin Scorsese films, this one stands apart. The film does feature Robert De Niro in the lead, is set in NYC, and includes many of Scorsese's regular behind the camera crew members, but in terms of visuals and drawing attention not the camera, "The King of Comedy" represents Scorsese at his most subdued. In this film, Robert De Niro creates one of his most fascinating characters with Rupert Pupkin, a obsessive fan of late night talkshow host Jerry Langford, a wickedly good Jerry Lewis. Pupkin stalks Langford after shows, sets up his own talkshow set in him parents' basement, and is self deluded enough to believe he has a real personal relationship with Langford. The story is a serviceable one for a comedy, but where Scorsese and the cast shine is in the darkness they bring to the comedy. Taken on it's own, the script is not necessarily that dark and in lesser hands might have been a light breezy comedy. De Niro makes Pupkin a likable character, even if it does appear that he must be mentally ill, and never plays him for broad or overt comedy, yet delivers what is at times a hilarious performance. Jerry Lewis gives what has to be the best performance of his career as Langford, a character that I'm certain allowed him to tap into his personal experience with obsessive fans, balancing his need to be kind to his public while also protecting his own privacy. It would be easy to write Langford off as the villain of the piece, the guy who continually shuns Puplkin and won't give him his big break, but Lewis brings a reality to the part where you feel bad for him and almost understand why he's a bit of a jerk when having to deal with crazed fans. The scene were Langford walks down a busy NYC street and politely greets fans, says canned witty retorts he's said a million times before, and in the end really just wants to get where he's going is pure cinematic magic. When the one woman at a phone booth begs him to speak to her nephew Morris and Langford politely says he's running late, how quickly she turns on him saying, "You should only get cancer! I hope you get cancer!" is hilarious and at the same time extremely sad for Langford, who has likely experienced this many times before. While Scorsese makes his visual presence not as pronounced in "The King of Comedy," his sensibilities still pervade this a dark comic classic.

alfCycle This movie made me feel uncomfortable for most of its duration... and that's a compliment! The main character's cringe inducing self humiliation makes you want to look away, but at the same time you hope maybe he might catch a break. This movie comments on the issues of celebrity worship and fame seeking, which I think is probably even more prevalent in today's society than in 1982. With the advent of the internet, social media, youtube... almost anyone can get their 15 minutes of fame, and they don't even have to kidnap a talk show host! They just need to flip a bottle or stand very still for an extended period of time.... Anyway, I very much enjoyed this movie. It has its funny moments, but with a sense of unease and tension running through them.8/10...but that's just like, my opinion, man# Of Times Watched: Once

TrillianFantastic this film is not a film that I'll likely revisit to watch again, but the meaning I derive from it will definitely linger on, and for this I'll highly recommend it. To me It's an disturbing movie about what terrible effects our society's warped idolization of fame can have on people who are utterly disenfranchised from the things in life that gives purpose and meaningIn this film it's obvious that neither the characters who lust for fame, nor the ones who have fame, derive true meaning and purpose from it. In this way, it's an ever relevant film, 35 years after its release, as our culture is ever more idolizing fame for fames sake. And even more of us are disenfranchised from purpose and meaning. I find two interesting sub-plots in the movie that gives it such a high score. The first is what adverse childhood experiences can do to a persons later dis-connect with self-worth, and how the desire to reclaim this sense of worth can lead out to worship false and terrible gods (i.e. Fame). The other is the lens we use to describe the haves, and the have-nots. Our anti-hero Rupert (DeNiro) meets a world where he amounts to nothing, and this drives his lust to attain the position of his idol (Lewis). But because he has not, his character is portray as utterly sad and delusional. If he had that elusive 'star quality', or perhaps more accurately- the means, social position and mental fortitude to manufacture it, we would see him as forceful and driven. The victorious writes history, after all. I'm no filmmaker, but I imagine that the execution of this film has had some effect on its poor reception and lack of status among the other Scorsese/DeNiro collaborations. It's gritty, and in many ways a better story than movie. However, even though the dark undertone and lingering discomfort of this film can make it an hard movie to stay with, as indeed is the quality of the main character himself, it's well worth the watch. The lack of breaks from discomfort makes the film almost nagging. It is also, in my view, thoroughly anti-climactic. There seems to be an ever present excitement building, but it's never truly released, it's only shifted and twisted by small revelations with great impacts on what the movie has to tell us. Nevertheless, these are the qualities that makes this movie for me, and it reminds me to return to films from way back, when in need for movies filled with substance paired with some true grit. In short, an intelligent, relevant and interesting film that you should definitely see.

Gustavo Schroeder A The King of Comedy is a film that you don't hear much about. It's a Martin Scorsese film that I think is often forgotten and I actually had no idea it existed until about a year ago and I thought it was good. It has very good performances by Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis, and I thought the characters were very interesting, especially Rupert Pupkin (De Niro).Pupkin is a psychopath who is obsessed with being on Jerry Lewis' show so he can become famous as a stand up comedian. De Niro's performance is pretty compelling and I thought there were many similarities to Taxi Driver, as far as the character goes. Pupkin is a very interesting character to watch and it's just entertaining to see how he reacts to the world around him and he's a strangely sympathetic character as well. Jerry Lewis' character is also great. I loved how he's presented as a very famous person who seems like a nice person but is just tired of the public eye and I think Scorsese and Lewis did a great job in portraying these emotions. These are the things I liked the most about King of Comedy, I think it's a movie completely driven by the performances and the compelling characters.Unlike Taxi Driver however, King of Comedy is a very straight forward film as far as directing and cinematography goes. The movie doesn't really have any moment that stands out and it just feels like the whole movie we are watching these characters interact with the environment but since the direction is pretty straightforward there's almost no artistic stamp on the movie, so it doesn't really feel like a Scorsese film.Because our main character is so stubborn and is completely set on accomplishing his goal, the movie does seem a little repetitive at times and the best word to describe it would be frustrating. Frustrating in the sense that the characters are frustrating and the way they end up interacting with each other is frustrating. They experience no arc. There is no catharsis so in the end as a viewer it feels unsatisfying.The King of Comedy is not a perfect film, but it's a movie that did something different and it features great performances and compelling characters, even if the story may be frustrating at times, I can't deny I was invested in Pupkin and his actions. 7.0/10