Movies about stand-up comedians are far and few between, but the ones that work ("Punchline", "The King of Comedy") know they're movies ABOUT stand up, and nothing else. The problem with "Funny People" is that it starts out as a story about people trying to be comics, and goes into a whole new direction that bares no resemblance to funny-anything.
Adam Sandler stars as the Jim Carrey of our day, who is told by his doctor he has a rare disease that is going to kill him shortly. Discouraged, Sandler decides to keep on going on with his stand-up acts by hiring a would-be comic to help write his jokes. Enter Seth Rogen, who has blown to Will Ferrell heights since "Knocked Up" made him a household name. Rogen is a timid, boring sap who struggles to make his personality work on stage, while also living in Los Angeles with his two more successful roommates. The scenes involving him and his two friends are by far the funniest bits in the movie, and a direction the director should have stayed on- along with the sharp screenwriters who obviously HAVE seen what its like to be a stand-up comedian, but try to fit too much "access baggage" on top of the plot. Rogen becomes Sandler's assistant, and in one of the movies funniest scenes, shares a night in his mansion with two chicks who are star hungry. Sandler gets the hot black chick, and Rogen has the Caucasian groupie. She tells him she has a boyfriend and won't sleep with him, but really its because Rogen lacks game and is kind of a loser, so she also has sex with Sandler.
To make a long story short (and the film clocks in at a painful 155 minutes), Sandler teaches Rogen to gain more confidence (I guess- their relationship is a bit passive-aggressive), and Rogen teaches Sandler to respect women better? Honestly, I don't know. All I know is once Sandler finds out he's going to live, we're at the 90 minute mark and have had a VERY successful and funny film.
Unfortunately, this is where the story takes another path and Sandler tries to get back with his ex-wife who is now married to an Australian prick who treats her with no respect. So Rogen follows Sandler to his ex's suburban home to try to get back with her, and 70 minutes later we're still in this pointless triangle. I won't tell you how it ends, but suffice it to say we didn't need this extra stuff that should have been used in the deleted scenes pile.
The movie feels like 2 films in fact- the first one being a up-roaring, FUNNY and well-paced treasure, with one of Sandler's best performances and Rogen getting into his subtle side. But the second "film" is a tiresome bore, with only a few scenes here and there that work (the dinner table scene with the little girls speaking Chinese, and the lawn fight in which for the first time I think ever in the history of comedies the two alpha males actually fight like normal people would, and not how The Hulk and Terminator would on your average Saturday night).
Two stars out of four, because this one really had potential to be the best comedy of the year but fails once we have to sit for nearly three hours to see pretty much nothing change. (R, 155 minutes- **)
Adam Sandler stars as the Jim Carrey of our day, who is told by his doctor he has a rare disease that is going to kill him shortly. Discouraged, Sandler decides to keep on going on with his stand-up acts by hiring a would-be comic to help write his jokes. Enter Seth Rogen, who has blown to Will Ferrell heights since "Knocked Up" made him a household name. Rogen is a timid, boring sap who struggles to make his personality work on stage, while also living in Los Angeles with his two more successful roommates. The scenes involving him and his two friends are by far the funniest bits in the movie, and a direction the director should have stayed on- along with the sharp screenwriters who obviously HAVE seen what its like to be a stand-up comedian, but try to fit too much "access baggage" on top of the plot. Rogen becomes Sandler's assistant, and in one of the movies funniest scenes, shares a night in his mansion with two chicks who are star hungry. Sandler gets the hot black chick, and Rogen has the Caucasian groupie. She tells him she has a boyfriend and won't sleep with him, but really its because Rogen lacks game and is kind of a loser, so she also has sex with Sandler.
To make a long story short (and the film clocks in at a painful 155 minutes), Sandler teaches Rogen to gain more confidence (I guess- their relationship is a bit passive-aggressive), and Rogen teaches Sandler to respect women better? Honestly, I don't know. All I know is once Sandler finds out he's going to live, we're at the 90 minute mark and have had a VERY successful and funny film.
Unfortunately, this is where the story takes another path and Sandler tries to get back with his ex-wife who is now married to an Australian prick who treats her with no respect. So Rogen follows Sandler to his ex's suburban home to try to get back with her, and 70 minutes later we're still in this pointless triangle. I won't tell you how it ends, but suffice it to say we didn't need this extra stuff that should have been used in the deleted scenes pile.
The movie feels like 2 films in fact- the first one being a up-roaring, FUNNY and well-paced treasure, with one of Sandler's best performances and Rogen getting into his subtle side. But the second "film" is a tiresome bore, with only a few scenes here and there that work (the dinner table scene with the little girls speaking Chinese, and the lawn fight in which for the first time I think ever in the history of comedies the two alpha males actually fight like normal people would, and not how The Hulk and Terminator would on your average Saturday night).
Two stars out of four, because this one really had potential to be the best comedy of the year but fails once we have to sit for nearly three hours to see pretty much nothing change. (R, 155 minutes- **)