Snap Review of Funny People
Posted by Matt Rosenberg on August 3, 2009 at 12:30 am
DELICIOUS
STUMBLEUPON
REDDITMr. Deeds buy This weekend both Craig and I caught the new Judd Apatow movie, ” Funny People.” The movie stars Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, and Jason Schwartman (‘Cool Ethan’ from ‘Slackers’). The film focuses on the theme of what would you do if you had a second chance at life. Apatow, comedy king, brings humor into this deeply serious premise by telling this tale from the perspective of a comedian movie star. If anyone can make light of this type of situation, it’s Sandler and Apatow. Ron Ashley, film insider, was able to share his review of this movie earlier last week. Ron, liked it, I liked it, and so did Craig. Well, both Craig and I wanted to share our thoughts on the movie.
Matt - When I walked out of “Funny People,” I pretty much felt just plain good. It was an incredibly warm movie with a dose of raw humor; almost the complete opposite of what Apatow typically does. I have found that most of his movies usually adapt an overly humorous theme – like not having sex until your 40 or being ugly and knocking up a girl much better looking than you – into a morally meaningful story. Well now, Apatow built the movie in reverse by taking a serious and deeply personal issue and making it humorous.
The movie was smart, funny, sincere and able tell a feel good story about how staring death in the face affects people in your life both past and present. It makes you look back at yourself and assess whether the person you are, is the person you want to be. This movie also had a lot of really great cameos including a hilarious dinner between Sandler’s character and Eminem. Eminem pretty much played himself to a “T.” I also really liked Rogen in this movie as well. After he did “Observe and Report,” I basically got sick of him. However, this movie puts him back in the goofy supporting role where he thrives. Rogen did a great job in this movie. The ensemble of this movie looked like they genuinely had fun making this movie. The visible chemistry really came through.
I spoke about the movie in our July lineup post and was mistaken in my premature opinion not to see this movie. I based it solely off the trailer. This movie is definitely worth seeing.
Craig: This was top 3 movies of the summer. BUT…you have to know what to expect when going into this. It is a more emotional serious draw than previous Apatow efforts and is not the comedy that the Hangover is. This deals with human emotions of both kinds and on different planes. Deals with topics of friendship, love, life and death. The comedy seems were hysterical and a perfect compliment to add humor to the more serious issue; the comedy was more of an underlying topic to break the tension of the real story. A little bit long at 2 hours and 15 minutes but the diverse characters and issues keeps the pace going. It was ironic in a lot of ways to see the characters in the movie change and have a different perspective on life and their ways accept for Sandler’s character who was dealing with the biggest “punch line” of his life. Excellent movie, that will have you up and down with the emotions and comedy, a summer pleasure.
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