Funny People Review

Funny People was one of those movies I just never got around to seeing in the theater. I love all of Apatow's work, both film and television. Never been a huge fan of Sandler as a serious actor, he's really one note and honestly not that good. I saw this simply because it's Apatow's and though I think he's a bit overrated, I'm still a fan. The man's brought modern day classics like 40 year old virgin and Knocked Up, but is seeming to take a more dramatic feel to his films. I've noticed both him and Ricky Gervais have been using less comedy in their films, substituting for more drama. Personally I think they should work with what they do best, but it's amazing when a director is able to balance both.

This wasn't that good. It started off fantastic, capturing the life of a stand-up comic in a very funny and real way. When it introduced Sandler's character (George Simmons), it had a rather interesting mentor vibe to it. It obviously something that couldn't be sustained for the length of the film, but it was done really well. Then it shifted focus almost entirely on Sandler's character and all his personal demons. It was ok and essentially necessary for a little while, but it didn't feel right as the sole focal point of the movie. The movie should be about Ira Wright (Seth Rogan) and career as a stand up. Apatow seemed more comitted to making a drama than a comedy. That's fine, but it didn't work. The first act of the movie is so obviously far and above the rest it's hard to see how Apatow saw this as a drama. I didn't care enough about Simmons to visit his past or go really deep into his character. Ira was the main character and the story should have surrounded him.

Having the story about Ira opens it up for all kinds of different directions and characters. Like Raaaaaaandy (yep, count it there's 8 a's in there). Aziz Ansari is fucking hilarious and should have been in that movie a lot more. He plays the stark raving douchebag so well and the character of Randy was a great parody of popular, shitty comics. As someone who loves stand up and hates the amount of garbage comics that are successful (I'm looking at you Jeff Dunham) while hilarious guys go pretty much unnoticed, I found Randy absolutey hilarious. He's spawned off an internet following and rampant demand for a spinoff film, deservedly so. But that's just an example of all the great moments this film missed. Every cameo with random comics (that scene with Ray Ramano was genius) and the intercut standup footage was great. This film naturally occurs in the world of standup comedy, not in the fucked up life of George Simmons.

It got annoying when it became all about Simmons. After a while it was just overkill. We get it, George Simmons is self destructive. It was overstated and took me out of the movie. The entire subplot with his ex-girl was really pointless. I did like how he made Laura drop everything to get back with George, only to realize that he really wasn't any different. It was a cool sentiment on relationships, but it was wrapped up too nicely and handled poorly. Also, fair dues for trying to further you're wife's career Judd Apatow, but please stop giving her lead roles in your films. She's not that great of an actress. This film lost out on developing a lot of great characters to focus on inferior ones. Side characters like Daisy, Randy, Leo, and Mark were all criminally ignored for a cast that simply wasn't good enough to handle hard drama.

Bottom line: Funny People had some really great elements to it, but sacrificed what could have been a great comedy about stand-up for an overlong, plodding, drama.

Overall score: 4 out of 10.