Product: Funny People
Rating: 3.0
Worth watching atleast once
Judd Apatow's third film after The 40 year old virgin and Knocked up ventures in to serious cinema territory. Supposedly Adam Sandler was his former roommate and the film's opening scenes show them making crank calls to people.Adam Sandler plays George Simmons who is a top stand up comedian and revered by young aspiring comics because of that he is disconnected from reality and does not have a real friend. He lives surrounded by yes-men and a lot of women. Suddenly he is diagnosed with a fatal disease which is similar to leukemia. George Simmons meets a struggling comic Ira Wright aka Ira Weiner (Seth Rogen) at a local club and hires him to do his writing and become his almost live-in attendant for 1500 dollars a week. Ira is not so funny and has been struggling a lot so he quickly takes up the offer much to the chagrin of his roommates (Jason Schwartzman & Jonah Hill) who had been moderately successful till Ira landed this job.Ira gets to travel with George and gets to experience firsthand the privileges that come with success and also face the tantrums and mood swings that successful people are expected to have. Ira does a good job despite being humiliated constantly by George Simmons. Unexpectedly an old flame - the one that got away enters George's life again, Leslie Mann, she still loves him but she is married.Seth Rogen as the assistant Ira delivers a great performance as the submissive, yet helpful attendant to George Simmons. I thought the performance was great because he could have been pathetic in many scenes but is not. I have not seen many Adam Sandler movies but this was great acting as he played it with such great care. In my opinion, the role of a dying man who is famous and does not have any friends could have been a flop, but Sandler does a great job. Leslie Mann as Simmons former girlfriend is good as someone who is caught between old love and the security of a family with children. Eric Bana is the surprise of the movie- Loved him as the obnoxious husband to Leslie's character. The movie tries to offer a realistic portrayal of a standup comics carrer and has been strewn with appearances by many celebrities such as James Taylor, Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman, Ray Romano, Eminem (Hilarious) The music is great and has great tunes by Lennon & Warren Zevon. I am thinking of buying the soundtrack. This is not the best movie you can watch but it is still watchable considering it is almost 2 hours and 26 minutes long. I gave it three stars because the first half was enjoyable but the second half....... 6/11/10