Review and news hub for movies, music and video games

Movie:		5.0
Picture:		8.0
Sound:		7.0
Extras:		5.0
Score:		6.0

Director(s):	Adam Schindler
Writer(s):	Dane Cook
Starring:	Dane Cook
Genre:	Television
Website:	http://www.danecook.com/
Release Date:	November 17, 2009

List Price:	DVD - $13.49
Amazon:

Something very interesting seems to have happened to Dane Cook. Having risen from complete obscurity to one of the most successful stand-up comedians of the decade, Cook has subsequently emerged as one of the most hated pop culture figures working anywhere in the world. While there are certainly other celebrities who have a large base of detractors, the vitriol directed at Cook seems to have taken on a life of its own, gaining momentum and providing conversational talking points in the same way that a calculated promotional campaign would. With Isolated Incident, he seems to have refined his act to a comfortable place where he recognizes just how much antipathy he generates in others, and manages to play both to it and against it. As a result, he probably endears himself even more to his fans while daring those to hate him to call him out on it.

For those of you familiar with Cook’s act, Isolated Incident will offer few surprises. He retains his obsession with the minutiae of daily life - devoting great amounts of time to things that are not necessarily all that funny, but sometimes might seem that way when pointed out, elaborated on at length, and accentuated with strange voices. In the past, such things have included hostile interactions lines at Burger King. Here, he moves on to hostile waitresses at diners. But mostly, he talks about women and his interactions with them. While many (indeed, most) comedians get a lot of mileage out of sex and the inherent personal danger therein, Cook takes it to a whole new level, breaking out his ‘all girls talk like this’ voice at every conceivable opportunity. While a lot of it is kind of funny (trying to come up with racist things to say to his black girlfriend stands out), it doesn’t always ring true, which can be said for a lot of his material. His delivery is very skillful (which is something that his success speaks to), even if it doesn’t appeal to everybody. But more often than not, you can’t help but feel as if it is being used to gloss over some of his weaker ideas and observations that perhaps aren’t as insightful as one would like them to be. He has an entire shtick on ‘tests’ that girlfriends put their boyfriends through, in which whatever answer they give would be wrong. Without speaking to the accuracy of the conceit, it’d be hard to say that the idea as presented here is fully developed, but is rather playing to something that he knows his audience will probably get behind, Which is, quite clearly, why so many people hate him so much.

Cook accentuates so much of his language with weird flourishes and struts about the stage with such a preening cockiness that you can’t help but feel at times as if he’s making fun of you personally. People have forgiven comedians for being jerks before (some seem to make it a cornerstone of their act, which Cook does not), but I think what makes him special is the specific kind of jerkiness that he gives off. He’s not the world-weary, bitter, you-all-make-me-sick kind of guy that we’re used to; he looks a whole lot more like the guy who beat you up in middle school, then grew up to use Axe body spray, read Maxim magazine, and somehow manage to make all that more appealing to women than you ever made being steady steady and reliable. Whether or not Cook is actually like this is kind of beside the point, because it can so easily be inferred from his public persona, and, frankly, because his material seems so directly aimed at that kind of fan base.

The litmus test for whether or not you can get on the Dane Cook bandwagon is a bit he has where he actually addresses the fact that so many people seem to hate him. Without giving away the punchline, his response is at first self-deprecating, then something like reveling in the fact that his success has not been in any way affected by the hordes of people screaming for his blood. This bit does have the best line in the whole show, but it also makes it clear that no matter what you think of Cook, he’s not going to stop doing what he’s doing.

Bonus Features

Isolated Interview with Dane Cook -Essentially an extension of the show, in which Cook talks about developing the show, and his willingness to bring more personal material into it.

30 Premeditated Acts - Another similar bit, in which clips from Cook’s show are interspersed with him talking about them.