After two hours and 20-odd minutes of Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” it’s hard not to ask, ” … and your point is?”
Apatow, the comic maestro behind “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” injects a deadly serious note into his third comedy.
Adam Sandler plays a famous movie star who beats back a potentially fatal disease and tries to win back the girl who got away.
But the character is a tough sell, a tag that equally applies to Apatow’s latest comedy.
“Funny People” stars Sandler as George Simmons, a stand-up comic turned blockbuster star who seems to have it all, except he’s dying. Not at the box office or with the ladies. He’s doing great with those. He’s diagnosed with a fatal blood disease leaving him speechless – for a moment.
But the show, and the laughs, must go on, so he hires an unknown comedy writer named Ira (Seth Rogen) to flesh out his act.
George is understandably distraught by his condition, but his biggest fear is that he’ll never reunite with his former flame (Leslie Mann).
“Funny People” feels like a self-loathing project, a commentary on how dead the comic soul tends to be in modern Hollywood. It’s the tale of a clown making money hand over fist on the outside but weeping on the inside, intensified by a robust performance by Sandler.
So why don’t we care about George’s life and death battle, let alone his fractured love life?
The meandering story doesn’t help. The film’s first half concentrates on the George/Ira dynamic, but the rest of the movie details George’s attempt to win back Mann’s character, a lovely woman who seems to ignore the fact that she has two little girls with her current husband (a whacked out Eric Bana).
Rogen, freed from his surly “Observe and Report” role and that of the stoner action hero, is immensely appealing here as the audience’s surrogate, a fly on the wall watching how a megastar like George lives.
The film packs plenty of gut-busting lines as well as comic cameos, including a revealing scene featuring Eminem as himself, and Apatow delivers a crush of great comic lines. Yet for every truth telling moment, like George describing why his generation of comics will always outperform the new cut-ups on the block, we get ham-fisted ones which telegraph the emotions we’re meant to feel.
Much of “Funny People” feels fresh and bold, and it never takes the maudlin turn you feel from the opening sequence. But Apatow’s latest ultimately can’t decide if it’s a warm and wise dramedy or a cynical look at the modern showbiz mindset.
(Photo: Adam Sandler, Leslie Mann and Seth Rogen star in writer/director Judd Apatow’s third film behind the camera, “Funny People”, the story of a famous comedian who has a near-death experience. Photo Credit: Tracy Bennett Copyright: © 2009 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved)
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
So here’s the big question – is it funny? Or maybe it’s “Virgin funny” vs. “Pineapple Express funny.”
I’m skeptical about this one. I’ve enjoyed a bunch of the Apatow films (“Knocked Up,” “Sarah Marshall,” “Superbad,” etc.) but the sex jokes mixed with syrupy drama formula feels like it is wearing thin for me.
Diff formula this time, James.
Yes, it is funny. Not consistently so, and not nearly as funny as Virgin or Knocked Up
Just got back from the theater after seeing a Saturday matinee with my wife. About half-way through I leaned over and whispered, “I’m loving this movie.” Then, as Christian notes, the plot shifts to George’s attempt to win back the love of his life. And it wasn’t soon thereafter that I started to feel that the movie was getting overly long. And that’s a big problem.
Apatow should have cut at least 20 minutes from this 2.5-hour film. Editing this film down to a reasonable length would have greatly improved the experience of the audience, but would have involved cutting screen time from his wife and children. No can do.
The stand-up scenes, the interplay between Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman and Aubrey Plaza were great. Comedy gold. The movie needed more of that — especially more Jonah Hill! — and less of the Leslie Mann and Adam Sandler plotline.
I’d still recommend the film. And if you need to go to the bathroom, hold it until a little after half-way through. You’ll know when that time comes — and believe, me, you’ll have plenty of time to get back to your seat without missing anything.
Frustrating is how I’d describe this movie. I loved it, in all of its unevenness, up to the trip to Marin County. Actually, the comedy show they performed up there was fine. I could even get past all the “member” jokes – this IS a Judd Apatow movie after all. I knew what to expect there.
Once they arrived at his ex’s house though, it just got frustrating, and went on, and on … and on. By the time they left I didn’t even care if he got the girl back or not. I missed the guys and girl back in LA.
Worth it for some great moments, but it could have been so much better with some serious editing, cutting out a good 1/2 hour at least.
Speaking of the length, Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood notes:
Mmmm hmmm! It’s not just me. This is a bad sign, but so typical of Hollywood. String along a few hits, and the studios indulge your every whim. Apatow may think he knows better than studio suits (and he’s probably mostly right). But on length, they might know what they are saying.
For Pete’s sake, Universal let him cast his wife, his kids and his parents in the film. What more did he want?
Amazing, but decisions like this (Apatow refusing to cut length, casting relatives, etc.) are one reason why the movie star is dying. There is no longer a studio system full of professionals who do nothing but manage, nurture and place stars in roles deemed to be suitable for their talent, instead it’s all done based on said star’s whim (which is why a Lindsay Lohan blows off a part in “The Hangover” to do some straight-to-TV crap for ABC Family). I’m not one to decry the loss of personal freedom, but it’s apparent the new faux-movie star’s ego, in most cases and certainly not Will Smith’s, isn’t capable of seeing past its own resume and handlers to make the right decisions or recognize their own limitations in too many instances.
Now, we get hours on end of Apatow’s masturbatory masturbation jokes. What joy.
Beware “Harlem Nights,” Mr. Apatow. Remember that stiff, a movie written, produced, gaffed and then some by Eddie Murphy at the peak of his commercial powers. I bet he shrugged off lots of advice on that project, too.
As bad as Harlem Nights was, I loved Arsenio.
I find it intersting all this anti-Apatow/Rogen/Leslie Mann senitment over @Nikki Stinks’s site (and surely others), yet there didn’t seem to be similar hostility over last year’s Spike Lee stinker “Miracle at St. Anna” (except maybe at Big Hollywood), which cost just as much, ran just as long/longer, and ended up making far less than “Funny People” will; wouldn’t surprise me if most of those haters had no problem with the Transformers sequel, and flocked to it like the lemmings they are…
i liked the film not Apatow’s best but i found it funny. i thought the interaction between rogen,hill and schwartzman was great and i thought the film needed more of the character “Randy” i saw a special on hbo that showed a lot of his stand up material and he is hilarious.
I def. hold a film like this to a higher standard, and I appreciate the fact that Apatow is reaching, striving for fresh creative ground. But the second half of the film simply didn’t work for me.
Agree it is innovative, but both my wife and I disliked the movie intensely. Far too long and far too few laughs.