Funny People

Ira (Seth Rogen) is a struggling comic working at a sub shop. George (Adam Sandler) is a famous comedian and movie star who finds out that he's got a rare form of leukemia and won't live much longer, he's put on experimental medicine to try to combat the illness. This revelation rocks George's life. He's made tons of money and has plenty of people to suck up to him, but that just isn't enough. His world is falling down around him, all the mistakes he made have come back to haunt him. He tries to reconnect with the only girl he ever loved, Laura (Leslie Mann) and she doesn't want to talk to him until he tells her that he's sick. That plot line took up far too much of the movie.

George and Ira meet when George goes to one of the old comedy clubs he used to do stand up at and stands on stage without any material, talking about how he knows he's bombing when he can hear people in the audience cough. George ends up hiring Ira as his assistant and their odd friendship/work relationship begins. Ira has always been a big fan of George and is spellbound by the limos, private planes, and the women George has gotten so used to.

Their relationship is at sometimes interesting, I'm not sure where Judd Apatow (the director) meant to go with this picture, he seems to get a little bit of everything, not enough of the good and too much time spent on the bad. Ira likes one of his neighbors, Daisy "Aubrey Plaza" and that was a fun relationship that the movie really neglected. By the end, it felt very underdeveloped. Most of the dialog feels improvised and very clunky. Judd Apatow was trying to convey something here that he just couldn't in the end.

For what does work, this movie deserves a 6/10 rating. It's a dramedy, anyone looking for one or the other will likely be disappointed.

It's not something new, that comedians (or clowns for that matter), have a sad lonely side to them. This is being explored to quite the big degree here. With an excellent cast. But all starts off with something I don't like at all: Prank calls. Never found them funny and only the calls where they try to sell something to you seem worse.

Having said that, this is only the beginning and is supposed to be a character beat. Now Sandler is playing a comedian, but he can draw from personal experiences. Others here play themselves (no pun intended). Overall this has an amazing cast. I watched the extended cut, which adds more minutes to an already long movie. But I didn't mind. It is predictable, but it is also fun. The drama works and it showcases that Sandler can do more than just being silly. I understand that it's still what most of his fans want to see him in - and not dramas like this. It's unfortunate

In the current climate of contemporary comedy, Judd Apatow is king. And while he makes a killing producing, his real talent is displayed through his writing and directing abilities. While Knocked Up does not hold up cohesively on repeat viewings, The 40-Year-Old Virgin remains one of the funniest comedies of the decade. While both films dabbled with the hybrid mixture of comedy and drama, both were comedies first and foremost. Enter his latest foray of writing/directing, and a film I clamoured for advance tickets for: Funny People.

George Simmons (Adam Sandler) is an aging comedian, hating the cards God has dealt him. He has no friends, his career is washed up, and almost immediately after the film starts, is diagnosed with a terminal inoperable disease. Shortly after he begins taking experimental medication, he meets Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), a struggling young comedian trying to live up to his roommates, fellow comedian Leo (Jonah Hill) and sitcom star Mark (Jason Schwartzman). With his life slowly fading, George hires Ira on as his assistant to write jokes for him, and begins to try and make something of his life before it ends.

While it sounds more like a drama than a comedy, Funny People does pack in the laugh-out-loud moments Apatow comedies are known for. While a lot of it looks like it continues the grand tradition of being improvised (with whole scenes dedicated to stand-up comedy routines), there is a great deal that appears to have been written by Apatow himself. Almost every joke kills because of how genuinely funny and outrageous there are. While the gross out humour appears at a minimum here, the graphic content discussed within the dialogue continues to be as uniquely entertaining as it always has been. I found myself gasping for air at more than a handful of comments these characters make to each other; they are just that funny.

But a lot of the laughs come few and far between what is actually going on within this overly ambitious drama. And unfortunately, it is one of the few things holding the film together.

It is clear from the start of the film, featuring old footage of Sandler as an aspiring comedian, that this tale is very special to Apatow. But his desire to tell this story on his terms, while aspiring to pay homage to his past and present as a comedian and filmmaker, seems to come in the way of the film itself. Scenes tend to go on and on for no purpose at all, and whole scenes seem to have been added to give greater depth for some characters, but end up being entirely superfluous and useless. Apatow is well known for having movies that tend to be 20-minutes too long. But with Funny People, he seems to break his own rule and drag the film out 40-60 minutes longer than it needs to be. The entire final act of the film is downright agonizing for how dragged out it comes off, and how ill-paced it becomes as it stretches on. I found myself checking my watch just hoping it would end sooner rather than later. At 145 minutes, this just seems like overkill. There is no reason this movie ever should have been released as being less than ten minutes shorter than films like The Dark Knight or Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

But the key detractor from the film is its tone and consistency. It never seems to be able to balance itself out as a comedy/drama like Virgin and Knocked Up did. Apatow does not let the film gradually let one tone win out over the other; he just crams scenes filled with both elements almost absentmindedly. In one single scene, the film can go from hilarious, to sad, to hysterically funny, to downright depressing in less than five minutes. After years of being part of film crews in some capacity (either as writer, director or producer), you would imagine something as amateur as this would be totally out of the question for Apatow. Surely this sloppy brand of film-making is better suited for an earlier project, as opposed to what should be a crowning achievement in a continually blossoming career?

While the story and pacing is all over the place, the acting fares a little better. Sandler, playing a popular comedian much like himself, delivers a devastatingly excellent performance as Simmons. It seems that playing a character that is so closely similar to his actual career was just what Sandler needed to prove he has not completely squandered away that promising talent he once had. The visual expressions on his face, through pain and sorrow, are almost enough to forgive him for travesties like You Don't Mess with the Zohan and Click. This is a very adult Sandler playing a role more mature than he has ever had before, and he gives some of his best work to date within it. Rogen delivers a fairly well done performance as well, but seems almost deflated in some scenes. He gave his all in films like Knocked Up and Observe and Report, but here he just seems dialed down. Almost like he wants Sandler to overshadow him completely.

The supporting cast, from Schwartzman and Hill to Leslie Mann, newcomer Aubrey Plaza and a surprisingly hilarious Eric Bana, all give great performances, but nothing extraordinary. It was interesting to see Mann in a dramatic role, and while she is imperfect, she does well anyway. The film packs plenty of hilarious cameos too, some of which are just too good to spoil.

Funny People is just fabulous when it wants to be. But for the most part, it truly is a disappointing effort on Apatow's part. It is far too ambitious a project, and just muddled with tonal issues that it just never accomplishes what it sets out for. Which is a shame.

6.5/10.

I'll admit I know this wasn't a typical Sandler movie as the near death experience added a bit of drama, and at first most of the characters were very likable and funny. Sandler kind of comes off as an ass at the beginning but then gets a little more likable as the movie progresses. There were many times where I laughed out loud at the jokes they made, and Sandler bantering Rogan was pretty hilarious. I thought to myself "Okay, this is cute I like it." BUT THEN! After the hour and a half mark hit, it's like the director said "Hey let's throw as much useless crap on the end of this and hope it still stays funny!" WHAT?! Why did Sandler have to go rehash stuff with his ex wife, why did he run around like a pussy for almost an hour and still not get the girl, and why did this movie drag on in no apparent direction for no apparent reason? After Sandler found out he was cured, that where is should've ended, right there and it would've been decent, but noooo! The director decides to torture us for almost another hour on random and unfunny garbage. After the first hour and a half, I started to really hate Sandler and Rogan's characters, they just came off as really annoying. So all in all the first hour and a half was funny, witty, and mostly cute, but after that just turn it off, you'll be glad you did!

Considering Judd Apatow's previous work most people will probably see Funny People expecting a comedy.This isn't the case at all. The film is clearly a drama even though it centers around stand up comedy.George (Adam Slander) is a very successful, famous and rich comedian who learns that he has a blood disorder similar to leukemia and he'll most likely die in a short amount of time. Ira (Seth Rogen) is a struggling up-and-coming stand up comedian who works at a deli.One night George takes notice of Ira and hires him as his personal assistant. Ira gets exited with this new chance and accepts it right away.Besides being an assistant Ira soon becomes George's only friend. Later on the experimental medicine that was given to George by the doctors ends up working and George defeats the disease. With a second chance in life, George tries to reconnect with the love of his life and takes Ira along for the ride. Both of them end up learning some lessons. This is not a bad film, and I think the premise is great, the problem here is that the movie is very,very uneven.The direction of the film changes a few times, sometimes it feels like its going on the right direction and sometimes it just falls flat.As I said, this is more a drama then a comedy, but the writing is what you usually see in the late genre; the characters are two dimensional and poorly written, specially the main character George who towards the end of the movie seems like a completely different person. The acting was a big problem for me as well. Seth Rogen's acting here, lets be honest, it is atrocious, he doesn't seem comfortable at all and delivers his lines in a very awkward way (and I didn't mind him at all in Zack And Miri Make A Porno for instance) and Eric Bana has a serious case of overacting. All in all, it's a very uneven film but entertaining nonetheless and a good change of pace for Adam Sandler.

6/10