Movie #180........................."Funny People"

Movie #180 "Funny People" a comedy? nope. Funny? not really. I felt most of it was either mean or dirty (90% are jokes on body parts or doing the whatever) But it's Sandler, so what do you expect? And what do I now expect from Apatow? I hated "Knocked Up". But I have liked others of his. The jury is still out on Seth Rogan for me...........I loved "Geeks and Freaks" and his humor seems to work when he isn't allowed to slow a film down; here it's 140 minutes (but it's Sandler's style, too) , enough said. I DID like a few things here: Apatow's real wife (Leslie Mann) is Sandler's exwife and she's great --- loved most of the scenes she was in. And their two real kids were a breath of fresh air, acting as her kids in the film. I've never seen Eric Bana like this --- I usually can't stand him and stay away from EVERY film he is in, but he was actually pretty funny here. Esp. when Mann makes fun of his accent, badly. I like the cameos of real comics, like the bit with Ray Romano (I thought everybody liked you!) But really, the rest was not what I would recommend. The two best moments, happen toward the end of the movie. One dealt with the oldest Apatow girl singing "Memory" from Cats and Sandler laughing (while they are crying) saying that it was so strange for such a young kid to sing a song about getting old. Rogan and Mann look at him and think he doesn't get it, and they tell him, "It isn't supposed to be funny." and he says, "Well, it is!" Isn't that supposed to be the whole idea behind this film? I felt that idea of what IS funny and what isn't was the whole concept the guys were trying to write a film about, but they got waylaid a bit. Too bad the rest of the film didn't have the purity of the final scene (the other good moment), when two stand up comics are helping each other out, writing bits for each other, and laughing at what the other one wrote. Were the whole movie.............and the world, like that!




Average rating: 3.142
I gave it 3 stars
Funny People
(2009) UR
Famous and wealthy funnyman George Simmons (Adam Sandler) doesn't give much thought to how he treats people until a doctor (Torsten Voges) delivers stunning health news, forcing George to reevaluate his priorities with a little help from aspiring stand-up comic Ira (Seth Rogen). Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) writes and directs this moving comedy that also stars Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman and Aubrey Plaza.