Robin Williams: Excellent Comedic Actor or Tiresome Hack?

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 10:26pm

What are your views on this highly volatile and controversial figure?

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 10:28pm

He can be both. Sometimes he makes me laugh so hard I can't breathe, other times I want to kill myself when he's talking.

[JayKid]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 10:33pm

agreed with person above...

[Tenorific2]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 10:34pm

Watching him do comedy makes me want to up my meds... sorry Tom Cruise.

[bdwaygirl]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 10:34pm

I used to think he was funny a long, long time ago. Now he just gets on my last nerve. Can't watch anything he's on.

[callingAAhome]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 10:42pm

not even Good Will Hunting or Dead Poet's Society?

[kjklo]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 10:49pm

He stole his entire schtick from (genius) Jonathan Winters.

Never liked him. Plus, I can't think of a single movie he was ever in that wasn't middle-brow crap.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 10:49pm

Got to work with him a few weeks ago and he was a class act all the way. His comedy is hit or miss, but I find his dramatic performances consistently good.

[mabel]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 10:52pm

I like Robin Williams. Though I agree that his comedy can be hit or miss. I found his stint in Inside the Actors Studio to be much, much funnier than his solo show on Broadway.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 10:53pm

He was the best part of "One Hour Photo", eh?

[mabel]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 11:01pm

He was indeed very creepy in One Hour Photo...though I didn't care for the movie as a whole. I couldn't get over the fact that when he laid out the photos at the end, there were 20 pix...I think it was 20. I don't remember, but it wasn't 24. A whole movie revolving around a creepy guy developing pictures and you didn't have the sense to have him lay out 24 pictures!!!...I think. Damn. I only saw it once, but I'm pretty damn sure there weren't 24. Yeah...nevermind.

Back to Robin Williams. Love him in Good Will Hunting. Wait, here's a screw-up from a Robin Williams film that I KNOW is in there for a fact. Will saying that he wants to "be a sherherd up in Nashua." Well, I was born in Nashua, and we ain't got no shepherds! Why not "be a shepherd up in Bedford"???

Why am I ranting like this...Sorry!

Posted: 9/22/05 at 11:11pm

I stopped watching his films after Patch Adams. Yuck!

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 11:11pm

"Robin Williams: Live on Broadway"... funniest standup special EVER in my opinion!

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 11:13pm

Mmm...I find most of Eddie Izzard's stand-up specials superior, but I enjoyed Robin's Broadway DVD very much. (How much can one man SWEAT???)

[mabel]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 11:13pm

Really, TheActr97J? It didn't really do it for me. I thought he was funnier on Inside the Actors Studio, with the scarf bit and all. I can't even imagine interviewing him. He's always SO manic on talk shows.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 11:15pm

The Broadway special got tedious after a while, but I thought there were some funny bits. Not better than Eddie Izzard though.

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 11:25pm

I've never really seen much of Eddie Izzard's stuff. I've been meaning to check him out, because one of my friends loves him.

I absolutely love his "Live on Broadway" special! He's just so wild and manic! I totally dig it. You can tell he used to do a lot of hard drugs! haha... I'm not really a very harsh judge of standup... if it makes me laugh I don't care. I love Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Lewis Black, Mitch Hedberg, and Dane Cook.

And Type_A_Tiff... I'm so jealous that you got to work with Robin Williams. I can't imagine what that must be like. lol

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 11:33pm

Ohhh...Lewis Black. Anyone from The Daily Show...

Robin was amazing to work with. I did a couple of days on his new movie, RV. I got to talk with him a few times briefly, but what really stood out is what a classy guy he was. He was only 10 minutes late to the set (and it was because of traffic, and no fault of his own), but he handwrote letters to each producer, assistant director and heads of the departments and personally gave them out, apologizing for keeping everyone waiting. Oh, and he treated everyone to coffee, and apparently the after-lunch meal once a week too. (I wasn't around on one of those days, unfortunately.)

And he really is as manic between takes as he's rumoured to be. Cheno seemed to really eat it up though.

[ConvinceMe2]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 11:43pm

Truly, the most unfunny human being who has ever lived. He just rambles on and on and on, and everybody else appears to be forcing the laughter. As if, they are required to laugh at his antics, which are never funny. As for his acting, he always has this look on his face that makes him appear constipated. I just can't even look at him.

Updated On: 9/22/05 at 11:43 PM

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 9/22/05 at 11:46pm

That's awesome! Good for you! He does sound like a real professional though.

... and I adore Lewis Black!! ("The Daily Show" and its correspondents are all brilliant!) I sat in the front row for his performance at our local House of Blues... and I was in HEAVEN!

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 9/23/05 at 12:08am

I'm hoping to get stand-by tickets to The Daily Show. I plan my evening around catching it!

Posted: 9/23/05 at 9:46am

hack

[BoxFive]

Posted: 9/23/05 at 10:49am

His work in Good Will Hunting is quite moving.

Posted: 9/23/05 at 10:52am

True - but that Oscar BELONGED to Burt Reynolds - Good will was having such a sweep that year it rode Williams along with it...

Don't get me wrong - a very good performance but Reynolds was a performance 50 years in the making....and a great one..

[gymman]

Posted: 9/23/05 at 10:55am

Oddly enough, I think his worst peformances are his "sincere" roles--"Good Will Hunting" "Awakenings"--really awful performances. Much better as a comic, though I agree with the Jonathan Winters comment.