Movie Review – Funny People
Funny People (2009) on DVD/Blu-Ray
Rated R
Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen
Directed by Judd Apatow
2 hours 6 minutes
Funny people, in a vacuum, is a decent movie. But taking into account what they were going for, how much of the film was really good, and who was in it, it ends up falling in mediocre-ville.
Funny People is directed by Judd Apatow, famous for the Knocked Up and 40 Year Old Virgin, and he continues to prove that he is the Seinfeld for Generation X. Many of his movies (either directing or writing) are based on his real life experiences and explore the humor of everyday life. This one included, and even stars his actual college roommate Adam Sandler. Unfortunately, Generation X has proven to be far more self-centered (yes its possible) and vulgar than their Seinfeld predecessors and their lives not nearly as interesting.
But there is genius here, and it’s the first half of the movie. The film is about a comedian far into his movie star prime, Gene Simmons (played by Adam Sandler) who finds out he is dying. The comedian then takes to the stand-up scene and does the typical things movies have people who are dying do (call the ex, etc.). With a great supporting cast and pacing, it truly is interesting and funny for a while. And Gene Simmons is a replica of Adam Sandler, and pokes fun at his off-the-wall style of humor and even how he ended up making lame mainstream movies as time went on. It’s great to see Sandler (one of my favorites as a teenager) and Rogen (in an interesting turn) interact and begin their journey about life and laughter.
But then the second half crashes. I’m not sure if it was the 100 cameos (cameos always break the reality of a film to me, especially with so many that are here so fast) or the stopping of interesting plot lines for one that goes awry, but when a comedy breaks the 2 hour mark it desperately needs a strong second half. Funny People does the first, but not the second.
Not to give anything away, but I will say that Sandler’s character doesn’t learn the lesson from near death that you think he would. In doing so, the morale of the film is one of extreme depression. Not sadness, just cynicism. Though the ending somewhat makes up for it, you start to feel that the whole thing was too contrived and the great beginning is a distant memory.
From a comedy standpoint, there’s some pretty good stuff. It’s not a laugh out loud riot, but there’s some great lines and scenes. Way too many wiener jokes (though they are somewhat making fun of those jokes) and a few poorly used characters, yet some underused ones (you’ll recognize the entire cast from other comedies).
In the end, it is a shame that they weren’t able to pull this off. I generally like Apatow movies (though they are a bit too rauncy even for me) and I always like Sandler movies. The pairing of the two leaned more towards Apatow and lost a lot of Sandler. It’s maybe worth a rental…if you love Sandler or Apatow that’s a probably..but in the end it doesn’t live up to its potential.
It’s not “what I call H20″ if you know what I mean.
You are spot-on as usual with your review. The wife drug me to this movie in the theater, and I left feeling very disappointed I’d spent the amount of money on it I did to see it there. A rent-able movie, but not a “go right now and see it” type movie.
Yeah…make it a 90 minute movie and most of it is forgiven if it’s cut off the end. Unfortunately there’s actually a directors cut that’s like 20 minutes longer than this. Sucks because I think this was a longtime dream of Sandler to get this made…I feel like Apatow kinda had more sway than he did in the final product.