Papa Vinyard here, now here's a little somethin' for ya...
When Robin Williams decided he wanted to settle down, and took on a role in THE CRAZY ONES, it seemed like he was finally throwing in the towel, and eschewing challenging roles and a life on the comedy circuit for an easy paycheck. He hasn't had a starring role in a feature film since the bizarre, miserable OLD DOGS back in '09, but before that, he was in one of the funniest, darkest vehicles in his whole career, Bobcat Goldthwait's WORLD'S GREATEST DAD. This trailer for ANGRIEST MAN IN BROOKLYN has a handful of funny moments (a protagonist spouting hate against God usually wins points with me), but it has yet to be seen whether this is one of Williams truly invested efforts, or another sleepwalking pay grab.
The director and supporting cast definitely give me hope. Phil Alden Robinson has only directed four (!!!!!) feature films to date, and two of them are FIELD OF DREAMS and SNEAKERS. So his street cred's fairly rock solid even if you were underwhelmed by his SUM OF ALL FEARS (I wasn't). As for the rest of the cast, we got Melissa Leo, Mila Kunis, Richard Kind, James Earl Jones, and Peter bloody Dinklage, all of whom can mix the dramatic and comedic with little difficulty
The premise is cutesy, but still dark: a bitter, unlikable man is told by his apparently borderline-psychopathic quack doctor that he has an aneurysm in his brain ready to rupture within 90 minutes. He's gotta run around town and make amends with his friends, ex-wife, and children, all of whom want little-to-nothing to do with him. Like CRANK meets MY LIFE WITHOUT ME.
Williams, when on stage, can be one of the funniest dudes I've ever seen in my life, and his best onscreen roles reflect that, so I'm holding out faith this is more DEATH TO SMOOCHY and less FATHER'S DAY. We'll be able to see for ourselves in a little over a month, when this flick rolls out on May 23rd in a day-and-date theatrical/VOD release.
THE ANGRIEST MAN IN BROOKLYN will attempt to make amends in both theaters and VOD on May 23rd.
-Vincent Kim-Zahedi
”Papa Vinyard”
vincentzahedi@gmail.com
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