Robin Williams: Weapons of Self Destruction (2009)

The death of Robin Williams, a beloved comedic and dramatic actor in 2014 was very hard hitting for most of his fans. People were prompted with emotion, when it was found out, that he killed himself. Looking back at it, Robin Williams: Weapon of Self-Destruction show early signs where Robin William was heading. After all, the title 'Weapon of Self-Destruction,' doesn't ring happiest. It's really hard to tell, if a comedian was indeed joking or calling for a cry for help. At the time, the jokes in here, were pretty dark, but nobody could had guess that Robin Williams would indeed act upon the things that he was preaching against. What drives people to suicide is a mystery, only the victim could answer. We, the audience could only guess what, they were thinking. You can tell that the comedian was trying to reignite his career in 2009, after several of his main lead movies in the 2000's became bombs at the box office. Becoming too much of a gamble, producers were nearly unwilling to pay the enough of money to keep Robin William as a leading man. Since then, Williams took smaller acting in smaller films to pay his bills. This may have led to money troubles. It didn't help that 2009 was a rough year for Williams. His second marriage just ended, due to citing irreconcilable differences and he had really bad heart problems. These factors force Williams to return back to his roots, and try out 'Stand up", once more. Robin Williams did a special for HBO about his first solo TV concert since 2002 filmed at Washington D.C.'s DAR Constitution Hall on his sold-out "Weapons of Self Destruction" national tour. It was here that Robin covers a range of topics such as global warning, health care in America, politics, sex and others. He even put spotlight in more personal topics such as his recent open heart surgery, his past drug and alcohol abuse, and his struggle with severe depression. All the jokes were nearly all hits than misses to the funny bone to me. Still, the special was missing something. The jokes really have no pattern to them. Robin Williams really jumps around way too much here. It didn't flow right. I know that William use Free association in the past, but it was bit distracting here. Even for 2009, some of the humor was really dated as if he told them, years before. Why was he talking about the changing of the Pope in 2009? It felt like we jump back into a time machine to 2005, where that joke would had made more sense. Even the Bill Clinton humor, while mostly timeless, felt a bit odd to hear. It felt like some joke that he forgot to talk about in the 1990s. At less, he got some of his future predictions right. South America pope. Who knew, right! Some critics might hate the special due to the fact, that Williams said that this was his last chance to make jokes at the expense of the Bush administration, but by the time the show was staged, only a few minutes covered that subject. It felt a bit false advertisement. I love the fact that most of his humor in this, was for the intellectual audience. It takes a higher level of wit to make them laugh. Still, there were some stupid humor here, but it wasn't too much in bad taste or felt offending. Some critics might not like the special due to the harsh language that Robin Williams use. Anybody, who knows Robin William's previous stand up works; knows that it isn't PG. Sadly, most people know him for his work in children movies, so it's hard for certain people to give him free range in comedy. This special is definitely not appropriate for kids as it's a bit raw and raunchy. His delivery is hectic, frenetic, and hyper. You can tell with how many times, he go to the water bottles that was place for him, which occasionally become props in his act. Is it distracting? Not really, in my opinion, he still performance with the greatest of ease. I love the way, he able to use his voice to make his act felt more illuminating. The way, he created voice impressions of people, including Walter Cronkite, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Stewart, Popeye and others here were amazing. In this special, you really see, why Robin Williams is not only a great voice actor, but a great slapstick body actor. He work out a story through body motions, like a loud-mouth mime on steroids. Still, it was a bit odd to see, William stimulate sex scenes or have a talking penis. It was also pretty nice to see his ability to improv as the opening to the special, didn't really go his way, due to certain late guests. Overall: He's still one of the best in the industry, and I'll be adding this to my collection for sure. It's a must-watch for any Robin Williams fan. I do recommended it.

I recently managed to catch Robin Williams' big return to HBO and I was looking forward to some typical manic humour from him, which is pretty much what he delivers. The problem is that he still needs good material to deliver in this way and there are substantial chunks of this special when the material is not as strong as he should be doing. He dabbles into political comedy but he does so in a manner that makes him come over like he is trying to do someone else's act – it just doesn't sit well with the rest of the stuff he is doing. Put with this the fact that a lot of the material he is doing is not topical – I know I saw this several months after it aired in the US but even in December 2009 some of this stuff was done and done. It is still pretty funny but it is not as hilarious as he is trying to make it, nor as funny as the audience reaction captured suggests.Likewise some of his stuff is very crude and some of the laughs seem to be coming from the stuff he is saying being shocking. Of course this is nothing need in comedy and there is always a place for those who say the unsayable but do so in a very clever and well-delivered fashion – but this is not happening here. Williams does have some great observations with this stuff but mostly he is playing it a bit too obvious and childish for my tastes. Fortunately neither the political stuff nor the crude stuff makes up the majority of the show. There are other things in here and some of them are relevant to him and personal to him; his bits on alcoholism and drugs I found very funny but also well informed and it is just a shame he could not have done more from that direction rather than miming out his bodily functions with as much regularity as he did (pun unintentional).There is one thing above all else that makes this (admittedly too long) special work though, even as it dips at times and that is the man himself. Williams manic stuff has always worked well for me and since Mork has been his trademark and there is no sign that he has lost his touch there because his delivery and work is impressive. He nails the better material with this approach and he also carries the weaker stuff, taking the audience with him even when the joke he is doing is not that funny. The only slight wobble he has in that regard is when he does quite a lot of racial/national stereotypes and accents in one tight segment – you can feel the audience not really being sure if it is something they should be laughing at, but by force of his personality alone Williams takes them with him right through that mire.Is "Weapons" a great comedy show? Well to be honest no, too much of the material feels a little "base" in its content but Williams just about holds it together by sheer will and presence. He carries the audience and the viewer through the weaker material, moving quickly and frantically to distract us and provides plenty of good laughs on the stronger material to make us focus on that. Not quite great but he is undoubtedly good at what he does.

Weapons of Self Destruction is an event that cheered up a very gloomy day for me, with Robin's non stop crazy mind. The vulgarity of it all was amazing, and what was even more amazing is that it was all funny, and not many jokes fell flat at all. This guy never stops, he's always on the go, making us laugh until we literally wanna pee ourselves, and that is a gift of a Comedian that I really don't usually see. I have been a longtime Robin Williams fan, but he hasn't been up to par Like I expect recently, but this here righted all of that and more. I was lucky enough to be switching channels one day, and I came across it on my local Comedy channel, and thankfully I caught it right at the start. I was in a depressed mood, but boy did that change but quick.He goes from sex talk, to Viagra, to balls and anything he can think of!. I loved the James Stewat, Popeye and Christpher Wlaken impressions he did, I went into howls of laughter, he had them completely bang on!.Bottom line. This is really special stuff, I haven't seen anything like it in all my years of Comedy viewing. Please if you get a chance, even if you aren't his biggest fan check this out, I can almost guarantee it will make your day!.10/10

Robin Williams' mind moves at a clip that is still unfathomable. He's reaching into his late 50's, and yet with a few bottles of water on stage (far less than he had at his 2002 Broadway show, but I digress) he can go on a series of topics with rapid-fire energy and a clarity that is incredible. His topics range from topical to more philosophical, but not exactly in the George Carlin sense. No, he has some more 'unique' ways of talking about the human condition, such as his closing act about how human beings would go about (or mostly just talk about) creating the male and female sexual organs. Just watching and listening Williams describe in full anatomical detail like it's interior decorating is some of the funniest and sharpest material of the decade.Some of the jokes may fall flat or not connect quite as much as Williams intends, but why carp? Just around the bend will be another joke that will rip your vocal chords out and have you glad he took you along the way. No one is spared- certainly not the past president Bush and his people- and there's always a voice or a character or vulgarity waiting to come out of his head and at the audience. It's mostly masterful work by a comedian who knows what he's talking about every step of the way, even if it would appear he might trail off and never come back to what he was talking about before. You'll want to re-watch it to see what you missed, or to just have the experience of some of his crazier stories like getting heart surgery ("Hm, a pig or a cow heart valve?") and the dangers of non-sexual-intended Viagra!