Review

  • Those, like me, who have been graced with the hilarity of Apatow productions such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Superbad and Knocked Up, will most likely feel a little disappointed while leaving a showing of Funny People. Essentially it's about an extremely successful 40 something comedian named George Simmons (Adam Sandler) who has just been diagnosed with a rare blood disease that will eventually kill him. He reaches out to a young and up-coming comedian named Ira Wright(Seth Rogen)to be his personal assistant and write material for him. Gradually a friendship begins to develop between the two and Ira convinces him to open the news of his illness to his family and "sort of" friends. But just as Sandler accepts his fate, he learns that the experimental medication he took to oppose the illness actually worked. So now, after having his near death experience, he begins to rethink his life and reaches out to his old girlfriend, now married with children. All in all the film was solid, funny, but not hysterical. Moderately Touching but its by no means going to bring you to tears. There are several problems with the film, most importantly, There were just too few laughs, especially for an Apatow film, I literally saw the film 2 hours ago and I can remember like just two stand out lines that made me laugh hard, where Superbad and Knocked Up had too many laughs to count. The more dramatic material could have saved it but honestly If you already saw the full theatrical trailer, you already know whats going to happen. So that element of surprise is entirely taken away. So what saves the film? Adam Sandler. His down to earth performance was refreshing and believable. He really shows that he can be a great actor if you give him the opportunity for further proof see Punch-Drunk Love. He out shined Rogen who I love and also gave a good performance. But nonetheless I was disappointed, if Apatow wanted to do a Comedy with a little Drama (ala Knocked Up) that would be fine. If he wanted to do a Drama with a little comedy that would be fine as well. But what you get with Funny People is really a 50/50 of both genres that entirely contradict themselves. Making a somewhat confused experience and film that can't decide what it wants to be. Still, Its overall a pretty solid effort and is boosted by some good performances especially from Sandler and a few good laughs. A mild recommendation in my book.