Punchline

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Kirsten W Love the stars, love the story. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/23/24 Full Review Steve D The arc between Sally Fields & Goodman was fullfilling. Hanks performs a Singing in the Rain parody of interest - back when his physical comedy was a major part of his repertoire. The stand up comedy segments were very dated, but don't go into it expecting the stand up to be riveting. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 12/22/23 Full Review Jim A Horrible film. The problem is most of it was written by Barry Sobel, an absolutely UNFUNNY "stand up comic". The old cliche of audience laughing way too hard and the lame comedians is so over the top, it made me cringe. Acting was ok all around , especially by John Goodman, but the "comedy" was just horrendously bad. Didn't even smirk at any of the so called comics, yet Hanks' character is supposed to be some comedy wizard? NO. Just awful writing. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 04/02/23 Full Review steve d With this talent it should be better, Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member David Seltzer, who wrote The Omen and Prophecy, was excited about comedy clubs all the way back to 1979, but the script sat for years unmade before producer Daniel Melnick found it in the Columbia files. Tom Hanks Steven Gold character was the hero of the movie, but comes off so mean at parts that it just didn't work. Instead of making this a small movie with no stars, Columbia president Steve Sohmer reached out to Sally Field, who came on board as the producer and co-star. Both Hanks and Field worked for months to improve their timing on stage, with Hanks training with comedy writer Randy Fechter and stand-up comic Barry Sobel, while Field studied under comic Susie Essman and sitcom writer Dottie Archibald. Steven Gold (Hanks) is a failed medical student obsessed with his stand-up career, someone who uses the skills he should have in the operating room to dissect what makes stand-up work. Lilah Krytsick (Field) is a housewife with the dream of making a career that she can own outside of her boring life cooking dinners and raising children with her husband John (John Goodman, ironically playing the wife of a Roseanne Barr-type comedian, ironically in the same year that he would play Barr's TV husband; fellow ABC actor Candace Cameron is one of their daughters). The true joy of this film is in seeing the stand-ups work on their material, as well as the actors and real comedians selected to play them, like Damon Wayans, Sobel, Pam Matteson, George McGrath (the singing nun in this movie also wrote Big Top Pee-Wee), Taylor Negron (who was trained for comedy by Lucille Ball), Barry Neikrug, Angel Salazar, Mac Robbins, Max Alexander, Paul Kozlowski, Marty Pollio (a real-life juggling comedian), Casey Sander, George Wallace, Michael Pollock and Bob Zmuda as a heckler. Romeo, the owner of the club in this movie, is played by Mark Rydell, who hadn't acted since The Long Goodbye. He's much better known as a director with The Rose and On Golden Pond being his best-considered movies. Comedians are screwed up people. This movie won't change that notion. That said, it got me emotionally a few times and has some decent moments. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member Like the soliloquies in the stand-up sections. Some of the senarios and scenes stretched, but overall a very enjoyable movie. Might appear as dated to some watching now Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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