- Actors: Billy Crystal, David Paymer, Helen Hunt, Julie Warner, Ron Silver
- Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language: English
- Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
- Region: (US and Canada This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Number of discs: 1
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: Fox Video
- Release Date: April 1 2003
- Run Time: 119 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B000063JDN
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#32,218 in DVD (See Top 100 in DVD)
- #26 in DVD > Comedy > Comedy Stars > Billy Crystal
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Billy Crystal co-wrote, directed, and starred in this ambitious 1992 comedy-drama about an aged comedian named Buddy Young Jr., whose foul attitude and poor judgment have a strongly negative effect on his career and the people who care for him most. A survivor of the Borscht Belt tradition of stand-up comedians, Buddy's quick with a one-liner but clueless about how to treat people--he's like a cross between George Burns, Milton Berle, and a rabid pit bull. Helen Hunt plays Buddy's tolerant new agent who's been hired to revive his lagging career, but the movie's saving grace is David Paymer's Oscar-nominated performance as Buddy's much-maligned brother, who's helpless to stop Buddy's downward spiral. Having invented the Buddy Young character for his own comedy routines, Crystal knows this comic curmudgeon inside and out, and his show-biz savvy adds much-needed authenticity under layers of phony-looking old-age makeup. The movie works best when it's offering insight into Buddy's lifetime of disappointment, and some of the dialogue is memorably sharp. Crystal can't resist a seemingly forced happy ending, however, and the closing scenes resort to sentimentality that clashes with the rest of the movie. --Jeff Shannon
Description
Billy Crystal stars and makes his directorial debut in this nostalgic, poignant comedy about a comedian who realizes that life is passing him by...and he may have missed the punchline. Co-starring David Paymer in an Oscar®-nominated* role and featuring stand-out performances by Julie Warner, Helen Hunt and Ron Silver, and many moments of truth and insight (Leonard Maltin), Mr. Saturday Night makes you laugh as it touches you with its heart of comic gold. After forty years of struggling to reach the top, funny man Buddy Young, Jr. (Crystal) is still fighting his way to themiddle. Buddy sharpens his act by delivering hilariously cutting insults to his audience...not to mention his family and friends. But when he goes too far and his brother/manager (Paymer) has had enough, Buddy faces the ultimate: To press on with his dying career or finally put the spotlight on theones he loves? *1992: Supporting Actor
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
don't anal-yze the realism, just enjoy!!,
By andrew i. chaplowitz (springfield, nj United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mr Saturday Night (VHS Tape)
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!
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too mean to be funny, and too funny to be meaningful,
This review is from: Mr Saturday Night (VHS Tape)
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.
2.0 out of 5 stars
I'll take Calvero,
By Tim Hitchner (Vancouver, British Columbia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mr Saturday Night (VHS Tape)
The washed-up entertainer at the ...end of his life and career takes stock, learning what really matters. I've seen this movie before, when it was called LIMELIGHT. Chaplin handles the same thematic material in a much classier way.
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