Customer Reviews

Heckler

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

i think the title says it all, this movie would have been better if they would have stuck with the stand-ups and actors, but it just becomes a whine fest for jamie kennedy...... this movie is good for about 15 min. thats about how long the comedians interviews last!!!!!

Please tell me that I am not the only one who noticed the glaring hypocrisy in this movie. They talk about how some critics go beyond just criticizing the movie and sink to personal attacks instead just to be sensational. And this is a completely valid point. But then these same people who made that complaint do the exact same things to these critics. Jamie Kennedy personaly attacks one critic saying that he's a nerd because he enjoys watching star trek and that he must go to comic book conventions all the time. Others talk about how these critics must be losers who never get laid and live in their parents basement etc.

When they try to make more valid arguments against critics they don't do any better. There is one part where they go off on how focus groups are pointless. John Luvitz tried to use the analogy to explain what focus groups are like: if someone watched every lakers game for the last 20 years that doesn't qualify them to coach the lakers. That's true but these focus groups aren't saying they can know direct and star in their own movies. A focus group is when a studio wants to see how the target market for a certain movie will react so they go get this demographic, show them the movie and ask them what they think. If everyone in the focus group says a certain scene was horrible and they are your target market then you should probably cut out that scene.

First part of the movie lasts for 30 mins. Mainly about how seasoned comics deal with hecklers on stage. This is the best part of the movie. Would have given the whole movie 4 stars if all 85min. was the first part. The second part was just grown adults whining about people writing about them. Good thing I only paid 50 cents for this.

This movie is not what I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be a documentary about hecklers and how able-minded comedians deal with them and it's not. It's mostly just testimonies from people in the public eye who think it's unfair that others can openly criticize their work. All hecklers may be critics but few critics are hecklers. A heckler is someone who intententally wants to unnerve a live performer during their "act". A critic is simply someone that's has an opinion and informs others of that opinion. Everyone has opinions. They should be allowed to vocalize them. That's the whole concept behind freedom of speech. From the perspective of several people interviewed in this movie, only comedians should be allowed to criticize other comics, because only comics know what another comedian is going through. Well, if that's the case, then comedians shouldn't be able to criticize anyone but other comics. Now if they adhered to that concept, it wouldn't leave most of these humourists with a lot of material to work with, now would it? If you put yourself out there expect to be criticized. That's life and no amount of crying is going to change that. There's a couple points in the movie where Jamie points out that someone out there compared him to Pauly Shore and he takes it as an insult. By him admitting that he's hurt by that he's openly criticizing Pauly Shore. How could he not realize this? It's blatantly obvious. It does hurt to put effort into something just to have it shot down by others but if it wasn't for critics no one would ever get better at what they do because everybody would believe that what they are currently doing is good enough because no one has told them otherwise. We're hard-wired to be critics. That's how we learn, that's how we evolve. If it wasn't for critics, people would make more unsatisfying purchases then they currently do. I usually try to take someone else's opinion into consideration before I buy anything. I might end up not agreeing with those opinions after my purchaces but at least I went into it with some guidance. Should everyone just ignore what everyone else thinks? You should make up your own mind about things but none of us have infinite time to investigate everything to the fullest extent. I turn to critics I trust who I have repeatedly ended up agreeing with. I also give consideration to opinions from "complete nobodies" because I'm nobody special either. Should I just let comedians decide for me which other comedians are funny? I've heard repeatedly that the majority of comedians are inclined towards bitterness when one of their peers has more success than they do. They probably laugh less then the rest of us do.

I saw the film at the Screening in LA and this is one film that will become a classic for sure. I loved it and the audience seemed to love it as well. Great job on the Movie.

I liked this documentary. There were a number of really great ideas touched here, but there were problems with it as well.

First the good.

This is a topic that is not talked about too much yet to me is very fascinating. I really enjoy looking behind the scenes of the standup comic world.

The documentary in a blunt way gave the critics a little bit of "the golden rule".

There were numerous interviews with comedians that I really admire who said some very interesting and insightful comments, such as Lewis Black, David Cross, Dave Atell, and Patton Oswalt to name a few.

There were psychologists and other professionals interviewed who also made interesting points.

The bad..

This documentary not really make its points clearly and concisely. There were many good ideas touched on, but not investigated as they should have been. Such as the egos in both performers and in critics. If Mr. Kennedy is sad about being Heckled than maybe he should consider another field of work, obviously his ego is really tied into showbiz and showbiz is not for the thin skinned.

Yet, much of the heckling and criticism is very mean spirited, cruel and self-serving. Heckling is just rude. There is usually just a drunk person who wants attention or has a personality disorder.

Criticism, in my opinion, should explain why one does not like something. Though critics are often correct in their assessments, it is not fair just to say that one does not like something, then get mean spirited about it. If one is not able to give a good reason for not liking something, then one should not be a critic. A critic has to know what makes things good or bad, not just be intuitive about it and being mean spirited seems to be the replacement for that knowledge and it is self-serving to the critic only and does nothing to change or improve the entertainer.

There were also some of the interviews which were pointless and did not add to the documentary or were redundant or tangential.

The movie starts strong, and when it stays on topic it's actually pretty good. Unfortunately the film quickly moves from hecklers to Jammie Kennedy complaining about then confronting critics. Kennedy's confrontation consist of telling people "the difference between you and me is I took a limo to the show" and asking "how much money do you make?". Maybe Kennedy could put his acquired wealth toward find a good therapist, or at least enriching his life to the point where he judges himself and other by a deep standard then income.

First - I have to point out how ironic it is to 'write a review' of a movie that is about imposed/forced reviews!
This DVD is very interesting!! - Especailly the 1st half - and worth it just for that. At 49:02 minutes a woman comic flashed her self (topless) I don't need to see nudity to understand heckling.
The language starts off bad and gets much worse. (I'm tried of swearing and vulgarity).
There are many short interviews - with many well known celebrities - and it seems Everyone gets dumped on and heckled at some point in their careers.
I read some of the other reviews here on Amazon - and now that I have seen this documentary - I'm thinking - well Duh!! - Of course it highlights Jamie Kennedy - He Made this video!! - Do you expect him to make a video and Not highlight himself!
This video shows highlights (or should I say lowlights?)
Early in the film - it shows Jamie being pelted by like water balloons or drinks - and there is NO explaination as to what is going on. I'm still curious.
Louie Anderson has a great line in here, and I can only paraphrase it at the moment:
"Resentment is the only product - that consumes it's own container." I love that.
Again, the swearing and vulgarity - and brief nudity - are what brouht this film down from a 5 star to a 4 star. And I would give the swearing a Minus 5 star.
I do stand-up and over all I highly recommend this DVD to all performers and would be interesting to non-performers as well. Sincerely, Scott MacNeil.

Have got to be friends of Jaime's/stupid groupies etc. Someone said they laughed out loud 20 times...I can't think of one time I even remotely laughed...smiled maybe..I don't even remember anything about it except all he did was whine and cry about how critics don't like him and how they suck and ruin his image. Critics liked the movie The Godfather? Why? Because it was good. Critics didn't like anything with J-Lo in it..or Jaime Kennedy.....its not the critics that suck...its a big nosed popcorn fart named Jaime Kennedy that sucks. And so does this movie....

First off this was a funny movie and an interesting behind the scenes look at a comedians life. So thats enough reason to see it you can stop reading now and just go enjoy it.

If you are worried about the "complainers" type comments read on.

This movie deals with the suffering of famous, successful, and sometimes wealthy people. Not the most sympathetic crowd which is why some people call this a movie about "whiners".

I didn't feel the movie was asking the audience for sympathy. Rather the message was, it's disturbingly easy for people to be cruel to another group of humans they cannot relate to.

Think about how much of sadness is caused in this world because it is so easy think in terms of other groups of people is some disconnected way almost as if they are another species. At a minimum didn't most of us get hit with this at some point growing up or in school?

Maybe I'd rather be a rich hated celebrity than a kid who gets made fun of in school. But we do know one thing they have in common is the ability to make people depressed, choose substance abuse, or worse. Forget that this happens to celebrities - Lets just let it remind us of how often it happens everyone.

Empathy is usually a produtive thing.