Friday, December 16

My Review - Funny People

From the opening credits itself you get the feeling that this one would be a great watch. Directed by Judd Apatow and starring Adam Sandler and Apatow regulars like Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Leslie Mann etc, Funny People starts on a good note.

George Simmons(Sandler) is a successful stand up comic slash movie star diagnosed with a rare life threatening disease. Simmons has no family or friends, GF or otherwise, leads a pretty lonely life sleeping with random women here and there and is seemingly, selfish. Ira Wright, played by Rogen, is a struggling stand up comic looking to make his mark while his roomies are making decent money with dim witted TV shows. They meet by chance and George takes Ira under his wings as an assistant slash confidant. George gets a friend and Ira gets to write jokes for him and learn from 'the best in the business'. Ira is also introduced to Laura(Mann), George's ex, who is married with two kids. She lets George know that she misses him and her husband(Eric Bana) also cheats on her just as George used to do. Meanwhile, the twist in the story comes from the fact that George starts responding to medicine and is on his way to recovery.

I had a lot of expectations from this one. I like Sandler, however low-brow and crass his movies might seem to be. But this one doesn't make the cut. Sandler is unconvincing as the womanizing George. He does not have 'that' personality. A 'Robert Downey Jr' would have been perfect here. The dialogues have an overdose of the word 'big cock' which get annoying after a point of time. The only saving grace is Seth Rogen, who in a stark contrast to playing a foul-mouthed guy in most of his movies, goes reserved and subtle here. Some of the moments he has with George, his roomies and 'the girl he likes' are the high points of the film. 

At 2 hours and 35 minutes, its too long as well. 

2 stars for the movie and 1 extra for Seth Rogen. *Rajeev Masand style*. Dissapointing!

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