Dane Cook: Vicious Circle (2006)

To me, this movie is perfection.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Though I thought that many of the laughs were undeserved and perhaps at some points forced, I thought that the actual performance was not all that bad. Firstly, talking for 2 hours and 12 minutes is an impressive feat in itself, but to a large crowd and maintaining that kind of energy throughout the performance is really good. Also, his material is not that bad at all. Though his stuff may not agree with certain senses of humor, I think that there is at least one joke for everyone, however, there is almost certainly a cringe-worthy moment for everyone as well. Thirdly, his improv is quite high standard (excluding the Jake part)and found it generally added to his performance. Finally, his observations are quite good, and though many of his observations were not specific to my context, he managed to draw the audience in to his point of view. Top Stuff.

On the whole, I thought this was pretty lame, but I can see how certain people might enjoy it -- e.g., Catholic college kids, anyone under 18, or women (or gay men) who think Dane Cook is hot.First, the compliments: it was interesting to see him perform "in the round", his physicality is admirable, and his ability to go from extremely clean (or even child-like) jokes to extremely vulgar jokes shows a nice range.However, overall this just didn't do it for me. I hardly laughed at anything. Most of the jokes seemed to be the kind that a teenager might make up. His "observations" about relationships seemed like they were made by someone who had been in maybe 2 relationships, neither of which lasted more than 6 months -- yet he used the words women "always" do such-and-such, men "always" do whatever. Always? Really? His over-the-top descriptions of how men and women argue seemed completely false.Many other jokes just missed the mark for me, such as the bit about crying - and the implication that "everyone" needs a good cry. Sure, I cry at certain things, but I never need a "good cry." I am not trying to sound tough here, it's just that I don't know any adult men that come home from work, and just start bawling because they wanted to cry their hearts out all day long. Therefore, I chuckled at the jokes, although I was thinking that it had nothing to do with any reality that I personally experience. Girls and young boys could probably relate.Another example - he brings a girl home and she starts masturbating, and he does too. He asks if she likes it and she, like other women, "always" says "ooooh yeah". The joke goes something like: "what if she said, thanks for asking, but no, I don't really want to see that." Are you wondering where the joke is? Me too. Some women enjoy seeing men masturbate, and many do not. So, where is the humor? One last example - he refers to word "chit-chat" as "chat-chit" and then actually states something to the effect that he is very clever.Overall, I just didn't relate to any of his self-absorbed humor, and the "observations" seemed to come from a world that I did not recognize. Although when I was in high school (20 years ago) and knew nothing about relationships or life, I probably would have liked it a lot more.

I am not an avid fan of Dane Cook, and I saw his stand-up special not on purpose but when I was browsing through the channels to find something to watch. Like it or not, I found his special to be hilarious. Yes he did over do somethings and yes he did some unnecessary things. Despite those flaws, Dane Cook's special was still enjoyable.Almost half of the special was made up of verbal jokes and physical humor, where he impersonated his ex, his co-workers and so on.He talked about different things, starting from lying to fighting with his girlfriend and the differences between guys and girls. DC is outrageous and hilarious.

You know, we fool ourselves. We clump things together because of characteristics that show we do not understand. For instance, we have this category of "hobbies," a strange way to organize things we choose to do.Comedy is like that. I believe. If we laugh at things, we clump them together as if they had something in common.So this is called comedy. I think I'd call it great storytelling. These aren't jokes — they're life, spun in a way that we have to laugh. Its the Bill Cosby style of storytelling. Stuff from marriage, childhood, friends. Long, long introspective memories.What works here is that the man does draw us unto his stories. He's quite talented at this. He's less talented at turning that attention into the sort of startling twists or insights that constitute great humor. But it hardly matters because our investment in the story is deep enough for us to laugh at less clever comic devices.If you are interested in who you are, surely you are interested in why you laugh. This helps.And you'll laugh too.He's on a small circular stage. Look closely at the design of the pattern. Its a hand.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.