Funny People (Universal Pictures)
Depends On Your Definition of Funny
Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen star in the new Judd Apatow comedy Funny People. Whether the title of the film meets your definition of truth in advertising depends on your definition of the term funny. If you think it means ha-ha inducing and clever then you will be disappointed in this film. If however you go with strange or odd then you might be on to something.
In the film George Simmons (Sandler) is a very successful comic in his forties. One night he hires aspiring comic Ira Wright (Rogen) to be his assistant and to write jokes for him. Shortly thereafter Simmons is diagnosed with a fatal illness. His only hope is some experimental drugs.
While mulling over his mortality George decides to reconnect with Laura (Leslie Mann aka Ms Judd Apatow). Laura was his one true love but now she is married to an Australian businessman (Eric Bana) and they have two daughters.
When not staying at Georges house, Ira shares an apartment with his two best friends Leo (Jonah Hill) and Mark (Jason Schwartzman). They also have aspirations in the entertainment world. Up till the time George hires Ira, Mark is the most successful member of the group.
Nothing much happens in the movie and when it ends, it just ends. There is no message being delivered and no wrap up of the characters. The film just tells its story for two hours and thirty long minutes and then it is over.
The acting in the movie is good. Sandler has never been better but the character he plays is not likeable or enjoyable. Rogen is also good. For the first time in a film he is very likeable, in fact he is the hero of the movie. Leslie Mann shows she is talented enough to have gotten her role on her own and not just because she is married to Apatow. Bana is just okay.
The film is rated R for profanity and sexual jokes.
The film is so obsessed with sexual genitalia and four letter words that it just becomes tiring after a while. The humor in the film is centered on those words and that topic and it isnt particularly funny.
The sharp humor that was present in Apatows earlier films is MIA in this movie. The jokes fall flat and the characters are annoying. There is also the schism between the funny parts of the movie and the dramatic ones. They dont mesh but rather just irritate.
Adam Sandler may want to make it as a serious actor but starring in films that cant make up their mind as to whether to go for the comedy or the drama is not the way. This film and Reign Over Me prove that Adam Sandler has a problem lately when it comes to picking scripts.
I scored Funny People an unfunny 5 out of 10.
