Funny People actually not so funny

Title: Funny People

Rating: R

Released: 2009

Format:DVD (Blu-ray is also available)

Version: 2 disc Unrated Edition

Run Time: 2 Hours 26 Minutes

Purchased: Scarecrow Video
Price: $4



Plot according to imdb.com - George is a very successful stand up comedian who learns that he has an untreatable blood disorder and is given less than a year to live. Ira is a struggling up-and-coming stand up comedian who works at a deli and has yet to figure out his onstage persona. One night, these two perform at the same club and George takes notice of Ira. George hires Ira to be his semi-personal assistant as well as his friend.

Plot according to Allen - Adam Sandler gets sick, and as a result becomes bitter and angry about life.  He then meets a now thin Seth Rogen while doing standup comedy and hires him to write jokes for him.  they become friends.  Sandler reconnects with the love of his life, who comes back into his life because she is  sick and feels bad about how things ended, and that she has moved on with the first Hulk.

Alright first off Funny People is NOT funny.  I can not tell you how many people were misled and frustrated with this movie because they thought it was going to be funny.  Yes it was written and directed by Judd Apatow.  Yes it stars Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Jason Schwartzman, and Jonah Hill, all very funny people.  Yes the trailer looked funny.  However this movie is in no way shape or form a comedy.  Here's how you can tell it isn't a comedy:

1. the main plot revolves around the death of a main character who is very sick.
2. Adam Sandler does not speak like a child except when he is mocking his character's horrible movies.
3. It is over two and a half hours long.

Are there funny parts?  Of course there are funny parts.  You can't get that many funny people in a movie about stand up comedians and not have it have funny parts.  Make no mistake though this is Punch Drunk Love Sandler not Little Nicky Sandler.  And really it is an amazing performance from Sandler too.  he is both charming and sympathetic without losing the fact that this guy is generally not a good guy, but he tries.  Rogen was good too.  The evolution of his character throughout was a lot of fun to watch, especially through his stand up.

As a movie about stand up, an area of life that movies haven't really touched on since Punchline staring Tom Hanks and Sally Fields, you really get into the way these court jesters actually feel through their lives.  the loneliness of living on the road for so long, the pressure of having your entire career hang on whether you are funny that night or not, the cut throat nature of needing to step on those you think aren't as funny as you to get to the top.  It is all there, and it is all dealt with such reverence that you almost don't realize it is there.

Much like 300 this movie does seem a little long in the tooth, the Unrated version is 11 minutes longer too so I recommend sticking with watching the theatrical cut unless you really love hearing about balls, then the unrated is for you.  There were still a few characters I wish they developed more, specifically Elizabeth Mann and Jason Schwarzman's characters respectively, but I can see why they chose to focus mostly on Sandler and Rogen.

I hadn't seen this movie before today when I took it of my shelf to review it.  It was just one of those movies where I meant to see it in theaters, forgot about it then when it came out on DVD other things were ahead of it in my queue and it got lost.  I saw it on the shelf at Scarecrow Video in the middle of one of their used DVD sales and decided that I would risk it because of my love of stand-up and Judd Apatow as a writer and director.  I do not regret that decision.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5