Well surprise, surprise. The master of sexploitation comedy Judd Apatow can make a serious movie after all.
Funny People opens with George Simmons played by Adam Sandler, a comedian superstar who learns that he is dying from a rare blood disease. Suddenly his life is not so funny anymore. Simmons begin to examine his life which is really sad. He has tonnes of cash but no friends and family. At his last chance to make his life worth while, he takes Ira Wright played by Seth Rogen, a budding comedian under his wing and becomes sort of a mentor to him.
Adam Sandler was great in the movie. I like this formula he's got going where he makes one movie that's completely shitty but comes back and stuns with a really fantastic one. Like remember Click and how I'm sure everyone just went "Whoaaaa" at the you-know-what scene? Yeah. This has got to be one of the most deep roles he has ever done and I thought he pulled it off quite nicely.
Kudos to Seth Rogen to who proves that he can act after all. His character resonates with Anna Kendrick's character from Up In The Air. Did he do a really good job? Not really. But I was quite surprise at how serious he can be. He and Sandler work really well together, it's always fun watching the movie when their both kinda arguing with each other.
Let me be clear right now, this is not a comedy. It's a drama about comedy. It's a look at the lives of people who make a living by being funny and discovering that these people aren't really that happy after all. This is by no means any of the Apatow films you've seen before.
There are a lot of side stories in this movie, one being Adam Sandler's old flame, the girl he was suppose to marry but he screwed it up with her. He tries to reconcile things with this lady played by Leslie Mann, who is now married to Eric Bana but they end up falling in love again at the risk of breaking up her entire family.
I just gotta say one more time that this is a very very well written script. It's got great depth, it has mad plot and character development and it does have some great humor. I'm really quite shocked that the guy behind exploitation films like Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall could do a really god serious drama. I clap for you Judd Apatow!
If you're looking for a really funny film to chill with you're friends.. Funny People is not it. It's a 2 and a half hour long film that humanizes comedians as real, broken people. You will enjoy this film but not in the way you enjoy the other Apatow movies. I think Funny People would have been a perfect film if it dropped about 20 minutes from the 3rd act of the movie. But still.. give this a watch ya'll!
I predict Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay.
RATING: 7/10
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