Funny People

Impressions before seeing it
I like Judd Apatow, and I heard this one was good, but more dramatic than funny.

How was it?
What I enjoyed about Knocked Up and The 40 Year-Old Virgin was the scenes involving the guys just goofing around with each other. I think this is what Funny People lacks. I mean Ira (Rogen) has his roommates that are sort of his friends, but they kind of hate each other so we don't really see them having fun. Most of the humour in this movie comes from the actual standup comedy, which may be Apatow's excuse for having the rest of the movie be almost a drama. Well, actually, the other part I found amusing was George Simmons' (Sandler) filmography, which consists of a bunch of really bad, gimmicky family comedies that would not be the least bit funny if they were real movies, but are hilarious when used in that ironic way as movies within movies parodying real movies that are actually that bad or worse. If you look it up online, you can find fake posters for every movie on George's resume that were used for viral marketing. I imagine they're on the DVD as well, but I watched Funny People on TV so I wouldn't know.

My guess is that the role of George was written specifically for Adam Sandler, not only because he is a friend of Apatow's, but because the character basically is Adam Sandler, albeit perhaps a sadder, lonelier version of him, and a version whose career is worse because where George is nothing but low-brow comedies, Sandler at least has some respectable dramatic performances like Spanglish and Punch-Drunk Love. This gives the movie an interesting meta undertone and makes me wonder whether Sandler ever feels ashamed of his career or burdened by his fame. Anyway, while it does have its funny parts, Funny People is more dramatic than it probably should be coming from Judd Apatow, and I would say longer than it should be, but I just realized that many Apatow films hover around the two hour mark so it's not unusual, though this one verges on two and a half. There was a lot of relationship drama that took a while to get wrapped up.

Recommendation
If you're going for laughs, pick another Apatow movie. Not that it's entirely unfunny, it's just so lengthy and full of drama that after it's over, your recollection of it is that it was a drama. In fact, it might be accurate to say that it is a drama about comedy. If you have any interest in a behind the scenes look at comedy-writing or fame, though, this might be worth a look for you. I did like the movie, thanks to the talented cast, but yes, it could have been shorter and funnier.