HTF REVIEW: "The King Of Comedy" (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[Randy A Salas]

Quote:

My plea was too sensible for Paramount to ignore. :wink:

 

[Joe Bernardi]

Great review, Ron! Thanks, I might have missed ordering this movie since I didn't know it was being released.

 

[soop.spoon]

Thanks for the Jerry Lewis tidbit, Ron. Great news!

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Awesome. One of the great modern films. I see Pupkin as an alternate character to Travis Bickle, in that he is obsessive, lonely and talks to himself and he acts out his obsessions and is ultimately heralded a 'hero'. One of Scorsese's very best films and perhaps De Niro's most intriguing performances.

I should have the DVD tomorrow.


Gordy

 

[Mark-W]

Sad to hear there is no commentary track on here.
Am I the only person out there who thinks Scorsese is
one of the best commentators ever?
His A Personal Journey through American Film
is fantastic, and he is such a dynamic speaker.
I cringed when Columbia released The Age of Innocence withOUT a commentary track, and now this! :frowning:
If Scorsese wasn't who he is,
proabably the best contemporary filmmaker IMHO along
with being such a dynamic passionate speaker about film
(his commentary on Criterion's DVDs for Powell and Pressbuger's ouvre are FANTASTIC), I wouldn't be so
dissappointed.
I want to hear him talk about his films as I am watching
them. He clearly knows what he is doing and why with
the camera, and it pains me to see any Scorsese film
released on DVD without a director's commentary.
Mark

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Mark,

Despite the lack of commentary, I felt the featurette
was best thing to it on this disc.

You'd be surprised how good this featurette is.
It literally has Scorsese dissecting various moments
of the film.

I can't speak for Fox -- but I do know it was their
original goal to get an audio commentary done for this
release. It is my guess that scheduling conflicts
prevented such from happening.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

I never quite understood how The King Of Comedy
has remained one of Scorsese's most unappreciated
films. Frankly, it's one of his best.

I'll second Rain and say that I also completely agree with this statement!
Even After Hours, which is also somewhat unappreciated overall, has somewhat of a cult following. The same just doesn't seem to be the case for The King of Comedy for some reason.
I really think that it is probably the best black comedy since Dr. Strangelove.
Thanks for the great review Ron. This is one of those DVD's I will pick up on its release date!

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

Mine just came in the mail today and I watched the first 45 minutes during my lunch hour. I hadn't seen the film in well over a decade and I had forgotten just how uneasy some of the scenes made me feel. Scorsese is truly an amazing director, and DeNiro was at the top his game as Pupkin.
I thought the transfer was fine, by the way. The dark scenes were definitely grainy, but overall it's by far by best presentation I've ever seen on home video.
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