Funny People (2009)

Directed by: Judd Apatow
Starring: Seth Rogan, Adam Sandler

**1/2

Judd Apatow, Seth Rogan, Adam Sandler, Jonah Hill, Jason Swartzman, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, hell even Maude and Iris Apatow are all funny people. The way all these actors come into play in this film however just doesn't work and the movie had to get by on the fact that things these people said and did were funny.

I will take it from the top because I feel like its easy for me to be too harsh in this case. After all, Apatow has brought me 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Undeclared not to mention all the movies that he and his "friends" has spawned. There are a lot of things wrong with this movie beginning with it being too long and ending with Seth Rogan's sideburns. What makes Apatow so successful is his understanding of what makes a comedy work so it surprises me that he'd force his audience to endure a two and a half hour movie. However, I understand what he was doing because another thing Apatow does well is tell real stories. He doesn't just put you in a humorous situation, i.e. people hungover in Vegas. His conflicts, regardless of how obvious they are, drive the story forward and he does this in Funny People. It just takes too long.

Things began to go wrong when we were exposed to so much of George Simmons lifestyle and what got him there. Well, introducing it would have sufficed as the casting told the rest of the story. Adam Sandler is an uber rich comedian who's claim to fame is rediculous comedies. This is George Simmons. We didn't need to see what turned out to be the introduction of the movie go on and on and on. That alone would have not only shortened the movie and moved it along to more important aspects, but it would have brought us back to that pace and mood and everything that makes Apatow films, Apatow films.

Considering the amount of running time Apatow had to structure everything in, the movie is really kind of all over the place especially as we draw close to the conclusion. George Simmons and Ira Wright (Rogen) going to visit George's ex-girlfriend (Leslie Mann) seems like an entirely different movie than everything else we've been exposed to. It doesn't feel real while so much else we've seen to this point did. It wasn't nearly as funny and it was just too small a part for such an important element.

The performances in the film were all pretty much spot on. If anyone was a disappointment it would have to have been Eric Bana who was really only a victim of a lack of screen time. (I think he had more in the trailer than he did in the film.) Sandler was good, but not his best. The same can be said about Rogan, Hill and well, Apatow. Funny People, if I'm being generous, was good, but far from his best.