DVD Review #22 Funny People

Funny People (2009) Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan Directed by Judd Apatow

Finally catching up to this one wasn’t easy, not a single person rushed me into it by telling me it was good, much less great. For me it was also the one that got lost in the shuffle of some really bad summer movies, so it was disappointing to hear from so many that this was miss-able and not the smart comedy I hoped it would be. Judd Apatow who was so hot at the time, (having participated in some way to like ten straight big hit movies such as the 40 Year Old Virgin and Superbad) that he probably would’ve been green-lit to make anything (like a re-boot of Clash of the Titans…is that a good idea?) and he probably parlayed some of that hotness to sneak this all too realistic and all too un-funny script past the smell test and launch it into production. Funny People isn’t a horrible movie, in fact it is a good film, I think the problem with this film is that it was sold to us (the audience) as something it was not…A Judd Apatow film. This film is an attempt to tell a realistic version of a young comic’s struggle, while also attempting to paint us a realistic picture of a jerk-off famous comedian. It lacks laugh out loud moments and it is too realistic for comfort…though again a pretty good attempt at trying to be honest by Apatow. (People don’t want the truth…they prefer, at least at the movies, to be entertained with B.S.)

Funny People is a film the follows a young struggling comedian Ira Wright (a mediocre and whiny Seth Rogan) through his journey as the famous movie star/comedian George Simmons (the actually solid Adam Sandler) assistant. The film is essentially 3 acts, and it is not shy about it. Act 1-George meets and hires Ira Act 2-George is sick and tries to make changes Act 3-George F’s everything up…it is weird watching it unfold. I think it is awkward and at times annoying to watch. In the last Act there is a conclusion that tries (rather quickly) to wrap the events and actions of the characters up nicely, but really even that fails due to the fact we never really feel sorry for any of these imperfect character They all have flaws and there isn’t enough there for us to go out of our way and forgive any of them. If it were real life maybe we would, but this is a film and we are leaving to go dinner now, so we don’t have time to forgive this group. (Does that make sense?) Anyway it’s good enough to watch and despite there not being enough of them, there are some choice funny parts (SPOILER ALERT-the best one in my opinion is the great (and big time Red Sox fan), James Taylor who upon being asked by Comedian Ira (Seth Rogan) “do you ever get tired of singing the same songs?” Replies “do you ever get tired of talking about your dick?”) Priceless…there are a few more moments in the film, check out the outtakes for an even better James Taylor moment. (A Great Soundtrack and some great Cameos should get you through it on a rainy night)

(The Shawshank Scale 1-10) It is very real, almost like this happened to Judd Apatow and he wrote down basically what happened…hmm, but I will give him some credit for trying to make something realistic, and I guess I don’t blame Hollywood for marketing it the way they did…how about an honest 6.0 and a very mild recommendation…and I would love to hear your thoughts on it…Comment Please!

Food For Thought: Seth Rogan shows up in 2010 as The Green Hornet so we look forward to that. Adam Sandler has Grown-Ups coming up real soon which will pair him up with Kevin James (again) and the Great Chris Rock. As for Apatow he hasn’t lined up anything to direct as far as I can tell but he’s producing like 15 films, his next will feature Russell Brand reprising his role from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Aldous Snow, in the film Get Him to the Greek.