Funny People - Not so much...

[Animalor]

Saw this movie last night and I can't particularly recommend it.

The director seems so much in love with himself and his movie that he's become unable to do his job in the editing room.

What we're left with is 2.5 hours of a famous comedian his pining for the one he let go and tries to get her back and an up and coming comedian and his absolutely useless to the story social circles.

Take a look at metacritic, ( http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/funnypeople ) look at all the reviews that are 50% or lower and you'll have a good idea of what I thought of the flick.

I was bored after an hour of the flick and the other 90 minutes made it all the more excruciating.

We chose between this, GI-Joe and Ugly Truth that were playing at the theater near my in-laws. We chose poorly.

[Xouqoa]

Too bad, I was really hoping this would be good. The idea for the story seemed interesting.

[Sylvus]

Well, #1, this wasn't intended to be a comedy. It was a drama with dick jokes. I laughed at a few parts and thought it was a really good movie, up until the part of the time they were in Marin County, when I totally agree that it needed to be edited or written differently. That was about 15-20 minutes too long, and the story unraveled a bit there.

Unfortunately that part kind of killed it for me, and I think it could have been a really good movie if they just changed a little bit of that dynamic between George and Laura and Laura's husband.

[Animalor]

The bigger problem was that the movie worked a better when it was trying to be funny than it did when it was trying to be sad. You never really feel anything for any of these people.

The only actors that displayed what looked like real emotion were Adam Sandler at the beginning and Eric Bana at the end.

Also, the fact that in the first 15 minutes of the movie is a complete infomercial for Apple products was completely annoying. (Seriously, there was more product than cast in the first 30 minutes. The Laptop, the cinema display, the tower, the iMac, the iPhone is in it, iPod AND iTunes are talked about. It got aggravating)

[Sylvus]

I'm not sure why I'm arguing for a movie that I didn't particularly like (it's probably because I like everyone associated with this movie and really wanted it to be good), but...

I hardly even noticed anything Apple, let alone got annoyed by it. There was a part where Ira was making George a playlist, but the iPod and iTunes are pretty ubiquitous in our culture right now and that scene seemed pretty organic to me.

I felt for both George and Ira, and stand by that it would have been a good, touching movie if they had just changed the ending a bit.

For example, I think the following would have worked better:

[Show]

Instead of the husband showing up instead of the pizza, make the pizza guy show up. George and Ira go back to LA the next morning, and it turns out that George hasn't actually gotten better. His illness made him atone for his previous sins - he reconciled with his family, reconnected with Laura, and made a new friend and protege in Ira. His (false) belief that he was cured gave him hope again and allowed him to feel good, bang Laura one last time, etc. He dies and everyone is sad, and the movie is 15 minutes shorter than it was.

[Animalor]

For example, I think the following would have worked better:

[Show]

Instead of the husband showing up instead of the pizza, make the pizza guy show up. George and Ira go back to LA the next morning, and it turns out that George hasn't actually gotten better. His illness made him atone for his previous sins - he reconciled with his family, reconnected with Laura, and made a new friend and protege in Ira. His (false) belief that he was cured gave him hope again and allowed him to feel good, bang Laura one last time, etc. He dies and everyone is sad, and the movie is 15 minutes shorter than it was.

You're right. That would have improved the movie greatly. My wife usually loves these types of movies and ever she was "meh" walking out of this one.

[Syenye]

The only actors that displayed what looked like real emotion were Adam Sandler at the beginning and Eric Bana at the end.

Eric Bana is in this? This just went from a bottom of the Netflix-queue to something I might actually see some day.

[Canelek]

I thought they abandoned the Adam-Sandler-tries-to-act project years ago.

That said, I do like Seth Rogan.

[Animalor]

The only actors that displayed what looked like real emotion were Adam Sandler at the beginning and Eric Bana at the end.

Eric Bana is in this? This just went from a bottom of the Netflix-queue to something I might actually see some day.

He shows up in the last 45 minutes or so of this 2.5 hr movie.