FUNNY PEOPLE
Rated R for language and crude sexual humor throughout, and some sexuality.
146 minutes
Universal Pictures
**** out of 5
It’s abundantly clear now that Judd Apatow knows A LOT of funny people. An onslaught of cameos is pretty much the only way to clearly explain what most of Apatow’s third directorial effort “Funny People” consists of. Just to name “some” there are appearances by Andy Dick, Charles Fleischer, Paul Reiser, Norm MacDonald, Dave Attell, Sarah Silverman, Ray Romano, and Justin Long. He also knows some very surprisingly hilarious people such as RZA, Eminem (Marshall Mathers), Eric Bana, Torsten Voges (as a gigantic terrorist-accented doctor) and even James Taylor who serves not only as an uproariously hilarious inside joke on filmmaking but serves up his very own one-liner in a film chock full of real comedians about comedians.
Apatow also heavily uses a lot of his very own band of merry men such as Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann (Apatow’s real life wife), Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, and his two always hilarious daughters, Maude and Iris Apatow. Personally I knew that Eric Bana had some pretty funny bones in his body since I’ve seen a few skits from his early days in Australia on the sketch comedy show “Full Frontal.” Although he has mainly starred in dramas in the past I hope this sheds a new light on his career. But there was one scene towards the end that had me silently wishing someone would spit out the almighty “Hulk” line when his character gets really angry.
“Funny People” is definitely not only about the comedy, which is to be expected from an Apatow production. This guy is the only man who can have so much heart coexist in the same kinds of movies that have Steve Carrell walking around with a hard on in his boxers or give us not just one, but three shots of a baby crowning just for laughs. In this film Apatow shows way more tendencies of having grown as a director if not just in the films length. Having Steven Spielberg’s Director of Photography (Janusz Kaminski) working on set definitely gives the film a more polished look than usual even if his standard editors (Brent White and Craig Alpert) still let the movie go on just a tad too long and wind up shortchanging the big change of heart finale we all know is coming in the end.
George Simmons (Adam Sandler) has just been given the news that he has a form of leukemia and may die. He begins to contemplate what his life may have been only after an hour of the movie has passed and hiring Ira Wright (Rogen), a hopeful stand up comedian, whom he meets while threatening to run him over outside an improv comedy club after Ira spends his act trying to lighten the mood when George spends his first time on stage in five years being depressing and gloomy. This is pretty dark comedy in the first stretch which is a pretty nice change of pace from the anything goes attitude his first two ventures took full advantage of. George calls up Ira who has been working at a deli serving sandwiches and offers him a job being his assistant and to write material for him for some upcoming gigs. Ira accepts the job offer with no clue that he is going to become George’s servant and become the butt of pretty much every line of dialogue to come out of George’s mouth from there on out.
George eventually becomes a part of the 8% of patients who actually get better through the use of experimental drugs imported from Canada. This causes him to realize he has nothing in his life except for fame and money. He is the clichéd empty-souled entertainer. Through Ira, George manages to make his way up to northern California to try to see if he can fan a dead flame back into a relationship from 12 years ago with Laura (Mann), the woman he was going to marry. Why their relationship fell apart all those years ago and what they may think they want to do about things now provides one of many subplots to an already lengthy feature. This provides all of the heart Apatow has been known for but it almost turns into a case of too little too late.
Had Apatow focused more on the subplot with George, Laura, her husband, their two children and maybe gone for more of a romantic triangle between the three adults it would have made the last third of the movie gel more with what has already gone on for almost 2 hours. If Apatow & Co. had stuck to a better mix of the love story/stand-up aspects it would have been a better case of funny people being seriously entertaining. As it is, the stand up scenes are hilarious, Seth Rogen manages to prove that he still has those comedic chops we all loved from “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up” and “Superbad” and Leslie Mann proves again that Apatow seems to be about the only director working who knows how to properly handle his wife’s many abilities. Clearly they were having a total blast digging into their past to provide an interesting glimpse into what it's like to be famous along with those trying to get there.
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