Cheap Mr. Saturday Night (DVD) (Billy Crystal) (Billy Crystal) Price

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Customer Reviews of Mr. Saturday Night

Buddy is a brilliant comedian who, like Jerry Lewis, Buddy Hackett, and countless other comics jumps from the Catskills and Vegas to one of television's highest rated shows. But Buddy is flawed and his loses his show. And that's where the story truly begins. A poignant story that explores the conflicts between career ambitions and family relationships--and yet will make you howl with laughter--will make you wish to see it again and again.

don't anal-yze the realism, just enjoy!!
funny, warm, realistic, borscht belt humor at its best.

Paymer received an academy-award nomination for best supporting and rightfully so.

I loved this movie! A real "feel-good" flick. The type of harmless humor that is a dying breed.

A funny movie and a fun movie at the same time!

Too mean to be funny, and too funny to be meaningful
What a gyp - "Mr. Saturday Night" is supposed to be at least either heartwarming or funny, but is neither. Billy Crystal is Buddy Young, one of the sort of old time Jewish comics who got his start in the postwar "borscht belt". When the flick opens up, Buddy old yet still going strong - perhaps a bit too strong. Still playing gigs, it's clear that Buddy has missed out on big success despite a lifetime of hard work. Record deals and primetime haven't elevated Young to the pantheon of American entertainment like Sid Ceaser or Jerry Lewis. Instead, he plays rest homes and (when he's lucky) cruise ships. Though married, Buddy's true companion is his long suffering brother, Stan (David Paymer). In flashbacks, we learn that Buddy and Stan were originally supposed to have been a team, but Stan backed out at the last minute - leaving Buddy to accept the spotlight. The attention, which gave Buddy fame at first, only produced resentment later on. At first a primetime draw, Buddy's show eventually sank in the ratings (Davy Crockett killed him). A shot at comeback on the Sullivan show turned disastrous - he shared the bill with the Beatles. Various attempts to cash in on the latest craze each ended in failure (when was the last time you dusted off your LP of "Disco Jew"?). Though Buddy seems resolute to go on, each failure erodes a veneer within him, exposing Buddy's nastier side, one that drives away all but his closest relatives, and makes life hell even for them. Though covering years of Buddy's life in flashback, the plot centers around what may be a new break - when a new agent (Helen Hunt) manages to snag for Buddy a promising role in a movie to be directed by a young Buddy fan (played by Ron Silver).

Ofcourse nothing works out - but that's not the movie's problem. Instead, the flick pulls strings shamelessly, using the same tricks that made "A League of their Own" look contrived and very Hollywood. Whether the swelling music or the tears, nothing looks real in this movie. What really kills this flick? The script plays either very funny or very sad, but forgets (or simply never understood) that real Jewish humor is both at the same time - only wearing different faces, but essentially both heartbreaking and hysterically funny at the same time. Instead, the flick never manages to reconcile how such a nasty guy can be both funny and mean and just makes him too separate characters - unfortunately, the mean and less entertaining one gets most of the screen time. If the flick had played it lighter on both counts, it may not have been as funny, but it would have been more poignant and believable.