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Chaplin (1992)

Rate: 7
Viewed: 9/14

Chap
9/14: I've seen a lot of Charlie Chaplin films...in fact, a majority of them.

Charlie Chaplin has to be the most overrated comedian of all time, and, I'm sorry to say, nothing he ever did is funny. Instead of laughing, I always drifted to sleep, no matter how short his films were, because they were boring and monotonous. In short, his pieces of shit are tragic relics of Hollywood's completely forgotten silent cinema.

Save for TCM, it's impossible to find any Chaplin films on television. However, if there's anything positive to say, it's this: he was talented when it came to performing physical stunts. For some reason, I hadn't come around to seeing Chaplin until now. Back then, I knew Charlie Chaplin was a full-blown pedophile with a ferocious temper tantrum. I was curious if that would be captured on screen. Alas, no. Instead, what I saw left me feeling weird and puzzled.

In a way, the storytelling is reminiscent of Citizen Kane. Yet there's too much that's hidden away from the public. Hence, the answer is: read a biography to get the full details. So, Chaplin has been a disappointing movie, but Robert Downey, Jr., has done a fantastic job of playing the titular character. It's probably the best work of his career.

Box-office-wise, Chaplin was made for $31 million but bombed, grossing a third of the budget and thus validating the public's opinion of Charlie Chaplin which is practically nil. In fact, most of them have never seen a single Chaplin film, perpetuating the myth of him being a great comedian when it's not true.

All in all, Chaplin is a good film, but it's too long to sit through.