Funny People (2009)

Funny people is the latest offering from the Apatow team. This is actually my second viewing of this movie. Frankly I really did not like it the first time I saw it. "Funny people is not very funny" was my initial conclusion to Funny People. I really did not like Knocked Up (Unrated Widescreen Edition) as much as some other people I know. Just thought it wasn't that funny and a bit long winded. Judd Apatow must have run out juice finally I thought. So, I chucked the movie in favor of something else. That was until I heard the guys at Filmspotting.net doing their take on Funny People and viewing it from their perspective, I realized I was watching the movie from the wrong angle. I watched it expecting a simple slapstick comedy but this is not even just a comedy. It's really a comedy about comedy, about the inner workings of the comedy industry. First time around I thought that Adam Sandler in the role as George was a bit of an ass. No one really watches a movie expecting Sandler to be ass so it was understandable I got put off.

So did I like it the second time around? 100% yes! This is a great movie! I like it much more than Knocked Up and I have to say this is the most mature offering from team Apatow as well as from Sandler. He serves up a great role here as George Simmons and really puts up a convincing performance as George Simmons the mega comedy star. The aloofness and the misuse of stardom goes a lot into making this character come alive. I wonder if Sandler did much acting at all but here it's not in a bad way as his performance was just what this movie needed. It harkens a bit to the other movie Tropic Thunder's protagonist Tugg Speedman where both the movie is a movie about the movie industry, but there is where the resemblance ends as this movie is a much better movie in terms of a realistic look behind the comedy movie industry.

Roughly the plot is about George Simmons a jaded mega actor who just got diagnosed with a form leukemia. There is a great scene lauded by Adam and Matty from filmspotting of the scene where George is leaving the clinic after being told the news of his mortality. He is met with a bunch of reporters and even with news on his head he puts up a 'movie face' which mirrors real life exactly. A performer's life does not end after the director yells cut. Scenes like this lends this movie a realistic feel and lifts it above Apatow's other offering in my eyes.

Anyway, George then meets up with Ira Wright (Seth Rogan) and employs to write a few jokes for him, in which Ira ends up being much more of a Personal Assistant to George. George confronted with this new reality begins a journey of reexamining his life and trying to mend his fences with his fiance (very well acted by Leslie Mann). Halfway through he discovers that he might actually have a chance of beating his fate. Now the question here is would the lessons he learned still have the same meaning or would we witness a reversion to the old ass George we see at the beginning of the movie.

Do not watch this movie expecting a rehash of the character from "Water Boy" or the "Wedding Singer". This is a very sombre and aloof Adam Sandler. I like this. It shows a depth to Sandler's acting ability that is not usually there in his other archive of work, though one might argue how hard exactly it is to be yourself on camera ... In terms of direction, I wished that Apatow was tighter with his reigns as some scenes could have been shorter. The Eric Bana character I wonder was absolutely necessary and while it wasn't bad it remains the weaker side to the plot as well as the movie. In summary though, I like this movie a lot and now it has become the best Apatow movie I have watched now. I think I have seen nearly all of them, Knocked Up (Unrated Widescreen Edition),The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Unrated Widescreen Edition),Superbad (Unrated Widescreen Edition) and some other movies where he was involved in other roles such as Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (Unrated Full Screen Edition) and Forgetting Sarah Marshall [Blu-ray].

This one gets a 4.5 out of 5 for me and is a very very good movie. Watch out also for the multitude of cameos in the movie ... highly recommended!