Dotbankey A lot of fun.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

duraflex Former Shatner co-stars Leonard Nimoy and Heather Locklear showed good judgment in not appearing at this disaster. For that matter, so did Candace Bergen and James Spader. In my book, Betty White lost 20 points on the class scale for her contribution.It is sad and pathetic when most of the "roasters" on stage are people who never appeared, never worked with or never even met the "roastee" - in this case William Shatner.The obnoxious phrase "rip a new one" must have been used 40 times. The homosexual humor was endless.From "THE MAKING OF" segment on the DVD, it was clear that the producers set the ugly tone trying to push Betty White and others to be as crude as possible. Host Jason Alexander - who can be a talented actor and comedienne - was funny when his jokes were about Shatner and his work but as JA crossed the line so many times, he became increasingly pathetic.Worst of the bunch - Lisa Lampanelli - aka PIG IN A WIG.Shatner summed it up best at the end when he said how disappointed he was that the roasters weren't very funny and that his long career was ample fodder they could have worked with.Comedy Central goes way overboard in trying to draw an audience and this POS excuse for a program takes it to the nth degree. A waste of 90 minutes.

Jody V I really wanted to enjoy this. I love watching William Shatner.The host opens up quite well but immediately descends into profanities.Each 'comic' guest takes his or her turn to insult William Shatner, although one or two of them simply stand up and crack one-liners with no reference to 'Bill' whatsoever.Maybe I expect too much, but when many of them get up clasping pieces of paper and proceed to read their lines.I'm afraid if they aren't naturally funny then they shouldn't be there.I'm no comedian BUT I bet I could get on a stage and knock out 5 or more 'Star Trekkie' or 'TJ Hooker' anecdotes without much bother, and without the need to swear every other word.Many shots of the audience catch many of them frowning or simply shaking their heads in disbelief.The 'gay' references were unbelievable; once they started they never stopped.The whole programme deteriorated into what can only be described as school-boy humour. (Mind you most school boys would rise above this). I would describe most of the comments as infantile.If you don't mind cringing along with a bunch of has-beens or wannabees's, then watch it. Otherwise, give it a wide berth, I felt embarrassed for them.Many of the other reviews make fun of the Chevy Chase 'roasting' because he apparently didn't play ball, and didn't 'get' the humour.Maybe he did 'get' the humour and realised that maybe his career hadn't deteriorated to such a point that he had to put himself up for ridicule.The bit that really lingers about this crass production is the constant references to gay activity. It was unnecessary and simply served to highlighted the guests own short-comings.It's the first time I've heard of the guest Andy Dick or Cox. whatever, but what an absolute loser he portrayed himself to be.Really….I mean really...give this a miss. Cheap shots, cheap and crude humour. Expect more.

boblipton The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner is a long series of unfunny comedians who are more interested in seeing if they can drive anyone off stage than in actually saying or doing anything that can be remotely construed as funny.Now, a Roast is not meant to be polite. A roast can and should run the gamut from rough to appalling. But watching Andy Dick trying to gross out everyone by running his tongue over anyone who would hold still for it is not funny. Watching Farrah Fawcett try to get through her canned jokes without breaking up is not funny. As for Lisa Lamparelli, her best line was noting that her career was dead, but she could still get a gig on Comedy Central doing roasts. Indeed she can, so long as there is no requirement that she be funny. Nor do any of these 'comedy' bits have anything to do with William Shatner.There is much about William Shatner's career that could have served a roast well: Shatner's egotism, his spreading waistline, his propensity for overacting. Yet no one was terribly interested in the subject of William Shatner. Largely, the 'comedians' were interested in themselves and the apparent belief that all transgressive behavior is funny. Most of the barbs consisted of "You're fat and have no talent, William Shatner, now I'm going to vomit on the stage, and I love you, Bill."The one good routine starts the show, with a rcorded 'telephone conversation' between Shatner and Leonard Nimony, in which Shatner urges Nimoy to show up, saying it will be fun, and Nimoy saying 'Don't do it.' My hope that, after an amusing start, something good would turn up some time in the proceedings was never justified for more than fifteen seconds. Nimoy's routine, alas was correct.Shatner stayed for the entire show. Don't you.

MovieAddict2016 Although I have not personally seen the entire program, I have heard from numerous sources that the "N.Y. Friars Roast of Chevy Chase" broadcast on Comedy Central a few years ago was such a disaster that even Comedy Central acknowledged its failure and vowed never to air it on television again. So far they have apparently kept to their promise. Part of the reason the show was so horrendous was apparently due to the fact that the roast's subject, Mr. Chase, did not approve of the jokes targeting his career. He was also upset that none of his old "friends" from his "SNL" days had shown up (except for one or two no-names who never found a career outside of the program) - the same "friends" of Chevy that later voted him as the least-liked cast member in the history of "SNL." Now, I hold nothing against Chevy Chase. He's pretty funny (well, was, anyway) in those '80s comedy like "Vacation" and "Caddyshack." But from what I've seen of the program he really didn't understand the concept at all.William Shatner, on the other hand, takes the extreme criticism in stride. He's a good sport all through this roast - some of the jokes are truly brutal, ranging from verbal jabs at his alleged hairpiece to his singing career and of course his infamous acting chops. Shatner's good humor surrounding the entire ordeal elevates this program - because I'm sure I would have felt less content to laugh along with all the jokes if Shatner had thrown a Chevy Chase and been a jerk about it.This isn't quite as good as last year's Pamela Anderson roast, I must say. Overall the jokes are tamer (excluding some crude references to a gay "Star Trek" castmember and his private activities, so to speak) - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I felt as though a lot of the dirtier stuff had been cut out. This doesn't bother me as much as the fact that the cuts were made fairly obvious. No doubt Comedy Central will feature some type of "Uncut" DVD in the future with bonus material "too raunchy for television." Plus, I absolutely HATED the fact that they cut numerous roasters' speeches short. I understand there were time constraints, but the first one who should have been axed was Farrah Fawcett, whose speech was absolutely horrid. Apparently trying to make fun of her notorious Letterman appearance from a few years back, it quickly dissolved into another case of a joke falling victim to its own subject - she was wasted out of her mind! She completely messed up her jokes, kept turning away from the microphone (making it hard to hear what she was saying), and just generally ruined the vibe of the entire thing. The audience members (including Carrie Fisher, who gets stabbed with jokes a few times linked to her weight gain) were straining to laugh.Instead, I would have FAR preferred to see comedy genius Fred Willard's speech. They decided to cut it short and give us probably less than a minute or so of what he actually said when the show was recorded last week. Willard is such a fine, dry comedian - chances are his jokes just weren't understood by the editors of this show, who are obviously in favor of the more obvious, deliberately crude material.Basically the whole thing about the gay Star Trek member was funny the first few dozen times, but it's akin to Pam Anderson's boob jokes from last year getting old - enough is enough. Not that I'm complaining, but Andy Dick and Kevin Pollak were also cut short (I could go without hearing Dick's entire routine, I admit) - and the editing is more choppy than last year's roast, resulting in noticeable skips - as if the editors selected the "best" of each roaster and spliced it together.But these flaws aside, the show WAS very funny. I laughed my head off when Ben Stiller appeared in a pre-recorded roast to Shatner. Unexpected and hilarious, Stiller's was one of my favorite segments of the entire program! Jason Alexander was a surprisingly good host, although he seemed a bit hesitative and unsure at times. Overall I think I preferred Kimmel's more cynical presentation from last year's, but again, it's a minor complaint.Overall if you're a fan of these roasts you'll love this. There are some great moments such as the Shatner music flashbacks - including video pieces from his infamous "Rocket Man" performance from years ago. Shatner takes it all in stride and comes across as a really nice, likable guy - even after all is said and done he gets up and delivers a tongue-in-cheek roast to himself.This may not be quite as unexpected, irreverent or downright hilarious as the Pamela Anderson roast, but just barely. My only complaints, as I mentioned above, were the editing choices, really - apart from that, it was another job well done on Comedy Central's behalf! As an aside, I'd really love to see "The Roast of David Hasselhoff" next year. NO ONE deserves a roast as much as this guy does. So I'll have my fingers crossed for the next year, I suppose.