Sunday, August 2, 2009

The funny and not so Funny People!

In the new installment of the film review I went and saw the movie Funny People by Judd Apatow and read a review from themovieblog .com. Mr. Apatow has been the brains behind some of the funniest films of the last ten years. The last two films he directed were The Forty-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. For Apatow’s new film, Funny People he chose a story of a famous comedian who is dying of a blood disease and through his acceptance of death finds what his life was missing. This realization of what his life could have been is then coupled with the knowledge that he is getting better and will live. The plot of the film is not all that original but what is now a days? In the middle of all this a rising stand up comedian is given the chance to live out a life long fantasy of working with his biggest hero.

First off let me say that I liked Funny People. I thought it had the right mix of funny and serious. The parts where the actors did stand up comedy are laugh out loud funny. The wardrobe in this film was great. The t-shirt that everyone was wearing helped to describe who they are, which can be hard to do sometimes. The story showed a side of comedy that people don’t always get the chance to see, the people behind the curtain. Seth Rogen’s character Ira is a stand up comedian who lives with two other actors, comedians. These people are the ones in Hollywood that write the jokes you hear at the Grammys or Oscars. Their character write joke for other people to use. Ira is asked by Adam Sandler’s character George to live with him and write jokes for his stand up act, and a friendship is formed. Most of the film is about that relationship that builds between these two characters as George finds out he is dying and then getting better. The rest of the movie is the relationship between Ira and his roommates and George and his ex fiancĂ©. One thing this film definitely did not have was a stereotypical chain of events. Just when you think that the guy is getting the girl or that things are starting to work the plot changes, which makes it a more realistic film in my opinion.

Like I said earlier, I liked this film. Although I liked this film I felt that there were a lot of characters that needed more development. I agree with what the review had to say when it comes to most of the lesser character in this movie. Most of the lesser characters have story plots started in the beginning of the film only to have them forgot about and then randomly picked back up on an hour later. There were also some parts where I found myself wondering where the film was going but that not always a bad thing. I did feel though that the film could have been cut from two plus hours to maybe an hour and a half. There were just some very slow and unnecessary scenes. This can be said about the cameo characters also. There were a shit ton of famous people that helped to make this a star studded film but at what cost?

In all I like the way that Funny People is a run of the mill story line with a few choice changes making something more. There are definitely some parts that could have been cut or shortened but there was nothing too painful. The review I read gave this film a four out of ten, but I giving it a seven out of ten.

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