Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I think Dane Cook is a funny person, he has a natural comedic sense and can execute ideas well. He has good timing and plenty of energy and physical skills. And many of his ideas here are quite interesting and deep, even though the topics are pretty common (relationships, sex, family). The problem is that he goes for too many easy jokes. Weak, obvious ones. Maybe it's because of the huge, fanatical audience. Maybe that made him indulge more. It's a shame because I think he's capable of hilarious, insightful comedy. There are glimpses of it but too often it's interrupted by unnecessary additions or side-tracking.The Beatles stopped touring in 1965 because of their screaming fans - they couldn't hear themselves or their music. Pretty depressing really. This audience also seems to be allergic to quiet - they appear to have an urgent need to fill any and every moment of silence they can find with screaming, shouting, cheering and applause. It's pretty annoying. It's amazing that adults can get this excited about a regular human being. They're just dying to touch him or be near him. I can understand laughter and some applause, but here it keeps cutting off his flow and comes at inappropriate times - they're clearly desperate for (his) attention.I like true stories but I guess every comedian lies and exaggerates - it's basically part of the job. Still, it's annoying if most of it sounds completely made up which is the case with this special. Nevertheless, Dane is good at telling stories. It's just that they drag a bit. If I were a teenager they might be funny. But you can generally tell where he's going with things and you want him to get to the point.I think he just lacks a little artistic discipline. The crowd seems to love it which is important but you want to create something timeless as well. There has to be something personal about it. Dane comes across more as a craftsman. Skilled but not trying to do anymore than the minimum necessary. It's a shame because he seems very talented and intelligent and funny. He doesn't seem to be working anywhere near his full potential - he's aiming for what makes people laugh (including cheap jokes) rather than what's truly, meaningfully funny.

DANE COOK: VICIOUS CIRCLE was the severely overrated HBO debut of red-hot stand up comedian Dane Cook, wisely filmed in his hometown to make him seem a lot funnier than he really is. Cook was first introduced to HBO audiences with the dreadfully boring documentary TOURGASM which was then capped off with this comedy concert filmed in Cook's hometown of Boston. Apparently, Bostonians find this guy hysterically funny because the audience at this concert is shown going out of their minds at every single word that comes out of this guy's mouth and I just didn't get. Cook seems full of himself, self-congratulatory, and madly in love with the sound of his own voice. The nucleus of some very funny material is here, but Cook blows everything way out of proportion...the guy lakes twenty-minutes to tell a five minute joke and his material hardly merits the 90 minutes (!) that HBO gave him while really funny guys like Chris Rock and DL Hughley only get 60 minutes. For hard-core Cook fans only.

If you are a fan of Dane Cook's then you'll definitely love this. It's just a lot of Dane being Dane. And it's GREAT. There's old material thrown in with a lot of new stuff. And all of it is great. He even uses one of his old jokes in a new one. It's a great blend. It's also a pretty decent length of a show, about an hour & a half long. I'd say if you get the chance, watch the uncut version on DVD too. There's about 40-50 extra minutes in the "DANE-gerous" version. Including an encore, some extentions on a few of the bits that aired on the HBO special, and a few completely new things. I have to give Vicious Circle a 10/10 for pure excellence. I quote VC every day. It's great and even if you're not a fan of Dane Cook's this might turn you into one.

!This show is amazing!U like Dane Cook you'll love this, you like comedy you'll love this, this show kicks ass! new material as well as some old stuff. (well as far as i know). Dane does a unique in the round comedy show, its the first i've ever seen a comedy done this way, and he does it amazingly with nothing but his trusty stool. This show will have you crying with laughter, and in my opinion Dane is the American Version of Lee Evans, and he is amazing! You'll be laughing from start to finish... guaranteed lol :p This is unlike any of his other performances i have seen, he has one big audience as well, Dane himself said its his best performance in his 16 years as a comic. I loved it you'll love it too, trust me lol :P