George Simmons is a comedian who finds out of a terminal health condition and he attempts to then make a real friend to help him accept what is happening to him.
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Funny People is a comedy/drama which tries to keep those two genres mixed throughout which at times seems to work pretty well but other times it does not work out in the best way. I did not want to be cliche and say that its called funny people but it really isnt funny. As I did laugh in parts but some of it was very deep, which was nice to see. But the ending spoilt all of the hard work the deep parts brought out in the character.
Geroge Simmons (Adam Sandler) is a famous actor/comedian who finds out he has a terminal illness and is put on trial mediciation. He has no friends or family as his star lifestyle caused him to push everyone away. He makes an appearance at a comedy club and ends up befriending Ira (Seth Rogan) who is a struggling comedian. George takes him on as his assistant and gets him to go on stage before him.
Some of the stand up comedy moments are rather amusing and it is good to see George being deeply upset and willing to change his life around as he is dying. Which he does very well (and I thought Adam Sandler, put in some very good acting in these parts) until he finds out the disease is no more after the mediciation he was trying out. He then goes straight back to his pre-ill state and pretty much annoys everyone and pushes everyone away again. (Which I thought just ruined the hard work of the previous scenes, and proving the point that people cannot really change).
I found the funniest performance in this movie came from Eric Bana, who was Clarke the husband of George’s first love Laura (Leslie Mann). Hearing him speaking with his Aussie accent was just brilliant, and kinda overacting was so cool as well. He actually made me laugh a lot.
I am really starting to think that I do not have the right sense of humor to watch an Adam Sandler or Seth Rogan movie, as for the most part of them I do not really find them very funny. But I went into “Funny People” with an open mind and wanting to find it funny. A lot of the jokes were defiantly aimed more towards men which didn’t really annoy me, just I found I was not really in the target audience for this film.
I am curious to find out other peoples opinions on this movie, as I see it has shot straight to number 1 at the box office after it opening on Friday.
Anyone else seen it yet?
Let's Go To The Movies 
I’m sort of torn when it comes to “Funny People” because I feel like it was two very different movies jammed together. This strategy almost never works, and it certainly doesn’t here because the first movie — with Sandler and Rogen doing the heavy lifting — is so bittersweet and dark. It’s almost as if halfway through Apatow became paralyzed by the fear that he’d alienate his target demographic and changed gears. Still, the acting is so good (particularly Sandler) that I can’t dismiss the movie as a whole.
M. Carter at the Movies
http://mcarteratthemovies.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/fine-performances-redeem-uneven-funny-people/
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Yeah, I get what you mean. Its like they should have picked one of the ideas and stuck with it throughout the movie and it probably would have been so much better overall.
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It was a mis-fire for me. I found the entire subplot involving trying to get laura back into his life to be a complete distraction from the story about “funny people” and what their lives are about…for better or for worse.
And why in the world did they put the whole “disease goes away” turn in the trailer? felt like a pretty important development, no?
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It’s funny in the first act, then it goes on to become too serious, but still very very funny. Check out my review here: http://dtmmr.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/funny-people-2009-2/ Nice Review!
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