''The Clapper'' is a 2017 American

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

film written and directed by

Dito Montiel Orlandito Montiel is an American author, filmmaker, and musician. Early Career & Music Born in New York City, Montiel was active in the early '80s New York hardcore punk scene when he was vocalist for Queens-based Major Conflict. Later, he wou ...

, based on his novel ''Eddie Krumble Is the Clapper''. It stars

Ed Helms Edward Parker Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor and comedian. From 2002 to 2006, he was a correspondent on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''. He played paper salesman Andy Bernard in the NBC sitcom '' The Offi ...

Amanda Seyfried Amanda Michelle Seyfried ( ; born December 3, 1985) is an American actress. Born and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, she began modeling at age 11 and ventured into acting at 15, with recurring roles as Lucy Montgomery on the CBS soap opera ...

Tracy Morgan Tracy Jamal Morgan (born November 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian and actor best known for his television work as a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' (1996–2003) and for his role as Tracy Jordan in the sitcom ''30 Rock'' (2006 ...

, Adam Levine, Mickey Gooch Jr. and

Russell Peters Russell Dominic Peters (born September 29, 1970) is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, and producer. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and won a Gemini Award in 2008. In 2013, he was number three on ''Forbes'' list of the world's highe ...

. It was the final film role of

Alan Thicke Alan Thicke (born Alan Willis Jeffrey; March 1, 1947December 13, 2016) was a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is the father of singer Robin Thicke. In 2013, Thicke was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. Thicke was be ...

, who died on December 13, 2016. The film premiered at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

on April 23, 2017, and was released on January 26, 2018 by

Momentum Pictures Momentum Pictures is a film distributor and a subsidiary of Entertainment One, itself part of Hasbro. Prior to 2013, it was a brand of Canadian distributor Alliance Films used for its releases in the United Kingdom, and was one of the leading in ...

Plot

Eddie Krumble (Ed Helms) is a widowed contract actor who works as an audience member for infomercials, with his best friend Chris (Tracy Morgan). He also has a budding romance with Judy (Amanda Seyfried), a shy gas station attendant. One day he gets noticed by Stillerman (Russell Peters), a late night talk show host because of his frequent appearances as a recurring audience member. He loses his job due to Stillerman's segments searching for "the Clapper". The ''Stillerman Show's'' hunt for Eddie also gets Judy fired and she appears to go missing. Initially declining offers to appear on Stillerman's show without payment (there is a rule against paying guests), Eddie caves in, appearing on the show to find Judy. After, Eddie and Chris do several "Searching for Judy" segments on the show, which they are paid for. After a few such segments, Judy phones the network and tells Eddie on-air to stop "stalking" her. Fearing a lawsuit, the show ends these segments and cut ties with Eddie and Chris. Six months later, Eddie and Chris reappear on the show, as does Eddie's mother Ida (Brenda Vaccaro) berating Stillerman's treatment of her son. On air, Eddie admits that he misses his late wife and that he loves Judy, who sees the segment while she is pumping gas that night. As Eddie mentions on television where he'll be the next day, she finds him and tells him she loves him back. They subsequently marry in the closing credits.

Cast

as Eddie Krumble *

as Judy *

as Chris *

Brenda Vaccaro Brenda is a feminine given name in the English language. Origin The overall accepted origin for the female name Brenda is the Old Nordic male name ''Brandr'' meaning both ''torch'' and ''sword'': evidently the male name Brandr took root in area ...

as Ida Krumble * Leah Remini as Producer Louise * Adam Levine as Raef Ranter *

as Stillerman * James Ransone as Darth Guy *

as Himself * Roger Guenveur Smith as Dr. Rogers B. Hay *

Mark Cuban Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American billionaire entrepreneur, television personality, and media proprietor whose net worth is an estimated $4.8 billion, according to ''Forbes'', and ranked No. 177 on the 2020 ''Forbes'' 400 list ...

as Himself * Todd Giebenhain as Tambakis *

Nico Santos Nico Santos may refer to: *Nico Santos (actor) (born 1979), American actor *Nico Santos (singer) (born 1993), German-Spanish singer, songwriter, producer *Niccolo "Nico" Santos, a character in the Philippine romantic fantasy drama television series ...

as Buffet Person * P. J. Byrne as Mr. Caldwell *

Billy Blanks William Wayne Blanks (born September 1, 1955) is an American fitness personality, martial artist, actor, and the creator of the Tae Bo exercise program. Early life and education Blanks was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. He began his study of t ...

as Billy Blanks *

Robert Axelrod Robert Marshall Axelrod (born May 27, 1943) is an American political scientist. He is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Michigan where he has been since 1974. He is best known for his interdisciplinary work o ...

as Spider Parson (voice) * Wendy Braun as Wendy *

Rob Gronkowski Robert James Gronkowski (born May 14, 1989) is an American former football tight end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. Nicknamed "Gronk", Gronkowski played nine seasons for the New England Patriots, then played h ...

as Himself * Sara Sampaio as Herself * Mickey Gooch Jr. as Yugoslavia

Production

In February 2016, it was announced

and

would star in the film, with

directing the film from a screenplay he wrote, based on his novel of the same name. Helms and Mike Falbo would be producers under their Pacific Electric banner, with Robin Schoor. In April 2016,

joined the cast, with Alex Lebovici and Michael Bien joining as an executive producer, and Steve Ponce as a producer under his Oriah Entertainment banner. In May 2016,

joined the cast. In June 2016, Adam Levine, Leah Remini, P.J. Byrne, Mickey Gooch Jr. and

joined the cast. Later that month,

and Sara Sampaio joined the cast. In July 2016, Wendy Braun joined the cast. Filming began in June 2016.

Release

The film premiered at the

on April 23, 2017. Shortly after,

and

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

acquired distribution rights. It was released in a limited release and through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

on January 26, 2018 and on

on May 1, 2018.

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 23% based on 26 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 4.3/10. The site's consensus reads: "''The Clapper'' is tugged along by the valiant efforts of a talented cast, but it's ultimately not enough to make this wan romantic comedy worth a watch." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film holds a weighted average score of 21 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clapper 2017 films Films based on American novels Films directed by Dito Montiel American comedy films 2017 comedy films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films