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List Price: $9.94 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 57868
Released: June 19, 1997 |
| Our Price: $0.85 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: VHS Tape |
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Editorial Review:
Billy Crystal co-wrote, directed, and starred in this ambitious 1992 comedy-drama about an aged comedian named Buddy Young Jr., whose foul attitude and poor judgment have a strongly negative effect on his career and the people who care for him most. A survivor of the Borscht Belt tradition of stand-up comedians, Buddy's quick with a one-liner but clueless about how to treat people--he's like a cross between George Burns, Milton Berle, and a rabid pit bull. Helen Hunt plays Buddy's tolerant new agent who's been hired to revive his lagging career, but the movie's saving grace is David Paymer's Oscar-nominated performance as Buddy's much-maligned brother, who's helpless to stop Buddy's downward spiral. Having invented the Buddy Young character for his own comedy routines, Crystal knows this comic curmudgeon inside and out, and his show-biz savvy adds much-needed authenticity under layers of phony-looking old-age makeup. The movie works best when it's offering insight into Buddy's lifetime of disappointment, and some of the dialogue is memorably sharp. Crystal can't resist a seemingly forced happy ending, however, and the closing scenes resort to sentimentality that clashes with the rest of the movie. --Jeff Shannon
Mr Saturday Night Reviews:
Billy at his best 
2007-03-15 - This movie was a revelation, I have always liked his acting but this is the best of his movies that I have seen.
About a funny guy who is also pretty nasty 
2006-05-04 -
Billy Crystal stars as an aging stand-up comic (Buddy Young, Jr.) with a mean streak in him. The movie starts off slowly and seemingly predictably, with Crystal and his brother (played by David Paymer) doing comedy together in their Jewish living room to all the relatives, getting some early breaks, and heading up the showbiz ladder. But Paymer opts out of the routine and becomes Cyrstal's manager. After many years and now on the decline, they have a falling out, but reconcile at the end. Comedians have enormous egos, and Crystal as Buddy wouldn't think twice about putting someone down for a laugh. (I've heard the same thing said about the real life Groucho Marx, whose insults directed as his family were funny to everyone except his family. But he didn't care as long as he got a laugh.) He's a funny guy, Buddy is, but not a nice one. The second half of the movie is much better than the first. Humor is in the mind of the beholder (sort of like beauty), and I thought the jokes were mildly funny. It certainly is not the worst movie ever made as some reviewers here seem to think.
It deserved zero stars, actually. Terrible. 
2006-01-20 - Read the negative Amazon comments - they are right. Terrible in all respects. If you like this film, you probably will find the telephone book extremely entertaining.
A Truly Horrid Movie
2006-01-17 - I'm not normally one to complain about movies but thought I'd go out of my way to warn people of this terrible, terrible movie.
It dragged on for (what seemed to be) forever, was not funny and was lacking any sort of direction.
I'm normally a fan of Billy Crystal and usually find him funny and quite entertaining. In this movie however he was nothing short of irritating. Talk about a career killer.
Seriously folks, save your money for something decent.
Everyday is Saturday
2006-01-05 - An Oscar worthy performance by Billy Crystal in his best work since Soap.
