A curious mixture of good and not-so-good, this is the kind of film that looked better 30 years ago. Billy Crystal is the nightclub comedian who abuses those about him and whose nasty streak shows through everything he does. But he is funny: on and off. Only his wife (Julie Warner) and brother (David Paymer) stand by him for long and at the outset of the film we find him in his sixties, with a career that has long since gone down the toilet. 'You took every bad break you ever had - and made it worse,' Paymer tells him in a rare break from their joky, but always master-and-servant-like relationship. Cue for a flashback, of which there should be more: the film carries too much of Crystal in unconvincing old-age makeup (Paymer ages much more gracefully and deserved his Oscar nomination) and too many downbeat scenes involving his vitriolic if occasionally poisonously funny outbursts against those around him. Still, there are funny moments here and there and moving ones too. Jerry Lewis does a guest turn as himself and proves he's still capable of turning on the 'idiot' voice that won him fame.


©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes