Product: Funny People
Rating: 2.0
Awkward People
Adam Sandler/George Simmons is going to die, so what does a famous actor to do? Go back to his roots and realize the world has passed him by. Sure, he gets the ladies, a large house, and a ton of money/great stuff, but he lost his love to his selfishness, and he has no real friends. Enter Seth Rogen, a struggling comedian who's simply not funny, and happens to be in the right place at the right time to be Simmons's right hand man/joke writer. That's only the first half hour, and trust me, it only gets more tedious and unwelcome after that.It's always a bad idea to set an expectation in a movie title, and 'Funny People' burns in this regard. There's a lot of comedy, but there's very little funny. In fact, when Eminem & Ray Romano provide what is probably the film's funniest moment (James Taylor comes a close second), you have a serious problem. I tend to surround myself with a lot of stand-up comedy, and in studying the comics of today I get a general idea of what works and what doesn't. Guess what, Funny People's comedy doesn't work. Whether it's cameos, Jonah Hill, Adam Sandler, or Seth Rogen, they all come off very awkward and not funny, at all. Another very awkward/uncalled for scene is the one you may have seen in the ads with Sandler brutally roasting a European guy. As someone who also makes some pretty racy jokes, even I found this scene squeamishly uncomfortable.At one point, Sandler chides Rogen's character for using too many d**k jokes because it guarantees chicks won't sleep with you. Apatow should have taken this advice because 95% of the jokes in this movie are about the d**k, and when he's going for this striking personal drama about Sandler stricken with cancer, all emotion is lost with these jokes. It's just uncalled for, and sort of kills the momentum & the movie. No I'm not prudish, I just don't think it works in this context.This brings us to the drama/story. I learned two things from this movie. Everybody in Hollywood is a large a-hole because they let the fame go to their head, or you'll become an a-hole because you want the fame. Make no mistake about it, at some point in this film every character is an a-hole. This not only turns you off from liking the characters, but I found myself cringing or shaking my head several times in this movie because they're just so dumb, or such a-holes. Again, it's awkward. Sandler's character alone starts off an a-hole, gets better, becomes a large a-hole, then comes back down again.Casting is a rather mixed bag. Adam Sandler gives his 2nd best performance (his scene as an old man in 'Click' still wins me over), and the role is almost perfect for him. Sandler's done a lot of stupid movies like the character, and he knows comedy, drama, and being an a-hole. Rogen on the other hand was awful in his stand-up persona, then balanced throughout the film between being a jerk and being the voice of reason for George. In the end, Rogen couldn't win me over to like his character. I personally thought Leslie Mann's best scene was when Sandler went down on her. Besides that, it's always a mistake for the director to cast his wife, and by the time the character shows up in the movie it had already worn out it's welcome, and she helps run it into the ground. Jason Schwartzman also gives a good performance as a jerk, and Jonah Hill is just underused. Eric Bana? Could've done without him.After leaving the theater, I was deeply depressed & conflicted over the movie, then as soon as I looked at my iPod my mind sprang to John Mayer's "In Repair." Listening to this song was really the missing piece for me since it describes George Simmons. He's in repair at the end of the film, he's not together but he's getting there. It certainly works better than a b-side John Lennon track. Still, with the exception of a few moments in the film & the last five minutes, I found little I liked about the film & it still left me rather depressed.If anything 'Funny People' is proof for me that Judd Apatow is purely lightning in a bottle. It worked in '40-year old virgin,' and to a lesser extent 'Knocked Up,' but aside from these, and displayed prominently in this movie Apatow's is a good producer, a hit & miss writer, and an atrocious director. It's painfully obvious Apatow fully expected the drama and comedy elements to mesh together, but they never did thanks in part to a barage of d**k jokes and as a result I was wanting to leave the theater over 40 minutes before the film ended. 'Funny People' is just too moody/messy to recommend.