thinkgibson’s review published on Letterboxd:
The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Walk Hard – each of these movies has helped redefine the comedy genre, all thanks to the mind of Judd Apatow. Serving as director, writer, producer, and filmmaker extraordinaire, he is often credited as the funniest man in Hollywood. And yet his latest movie, Funny People, serves only as a reminder that even in the face of likely success looms the dark and gloomy shadow of failure.
Funny People stars Adam Sandler as a hit comedian nearing his late 40s. Though he has all the material possessions anyone could dream of, a cancer diagnose leads him to reassess his life. He takes on young comedian Seth Rogen as a sort of personal assistant/apprentice/pet project, showing him how the Hollywood comedy scene works and gaining a friend in the process. The two tackle various gigs, share telling moments, and do all the different sorts of things you’d expect from a movie-buddy duo. Jason Schwartzman, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Leslie Mann, and plenty of other comedians young and old have various bit parts throughout the movie, making Funny People quite the setup for a comedic slam-dunk.
But Funny People is awful. In this two-and-half hour movie, Apatow tries to hit every single possible emotion and fails miserably. Nostalgia? Here’s an old guy watching the cheesy movies that made him famous. Depression? Watch Sandler fake some tears as his doctor gives him the bad news. Romance? Enjoy the perverted humping of two former lovers. Humor? Well, there’s always an endless supply of jokes about male genitalia.
Funny People serves as a hors d’oeuvre of stereotypical filmmaking. Every scene, no matter the locale or characters, is a badly reproduced version of whatever genre it wishes to imitate. From the cinematography to soundtrack to dialogue, the whole movie just reeks of unoriginality. Wait, scratch that – this movie is original, but only in that it is the worst concocted yet finest produced cinematic smorgasbord ever seen. To sit through this movie is to take a run through the gamut of film with neither clear end nor purpose in sight.
Seeing actors of such high caliber being used in such horrific means is what makes this film a tear-jerker. Though the dialogue they speak is awfully written and the punch lines they deliver hilariously unfunny, the stewards of this sinking ship perform their job brilliantly. It only goes to show that talented actors plus brilliant director/screenwriter does not a blockbuster make.
For fans of Apatow, comedy, or films in general, Funny People is a film to avoid with all haste. To see such a disaster is only to be reminded that in Hollywood, there is no guaranteed formula for success – especially when mixing recipes.