I have been eagerly awaiting the release of Funny People ever since I saw the trailer a good few months ago. Having been a huge fan of Adam Sandler's films as a kid I could tell that this would be quite a self-reflexive film looking back upon his back catalogue. Judd Apatow has proven himself a very competent director with the very surprisingly accomplished comedies 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Both films hugely surpassed my expectations with me presuming they would be 'gross-out' comedies like Superbad but they transpired to be much more than that. Both at times quite touching; 'comedy with a heart' if you will.
So anyway Funny People met and arguably surpassed my expectations of what it was going to be. Part of me was worried it would delve too far into 'the dark side', with the title being a clear ironic referal to the clichéd notion of the sad clown-funny people on the outside but sad on the inside. The 'sad clown' idea is pretty much what runs through the film but somehow it worked very well. Sandler again proves that he is a genuinelly accomplished actor as he did in Punch Drunk Love (which I would hugely recommend if you have not seen) with a relatively understated and sombre performance.
I really, really enjoyed all of the humour in the film (most notably Jonah Hill's character) with the exception of the sheer volume of cock jokes. I never-ever thought I would say this but it would seem that jokes about the lengths of people's dicks can stop being funny. I'm as shocked and annoyed as you are. Either way there are some stand out moments in this which had me almost howling with laughter-watch out for a virtuouso cameo from Ray Romano and Eminem. On the subject of good performaces Eric Bana excells himself as per friggin' usual-hearing an Australian man saying 'I shit myself' will (hopefully) never get old.
The references to Sandler's back catalogue is done wonderfully. The opening shows some very old footage of Sandler simply goofing around prank calling people with friends having the time of their lives set against the awful humour of the films later in his career such as Merman and Re-Do (both fictionalised for the purpose of the story). Both clearly representative of his less intelligent films like Billy Madison. I feel dreadful saying anything disparaging about Billy Madison because as a child it was the funniest thing I had ever seen, maybe still is. Don't judge me for that. But I can see that it would be the sort of thing a well respected comedian would find demeaning.
Another worry I had with the film was that it would have some serious closure at the ending and some semblances of a happy ending which Judd Apatow has not been able to avoid in his previous back catalogue. Fortunately Sandler's character in this film is too complex to be afforded any real form of closure, he makes mistakes and lives with the consequences. The ending really supports the emotional weight of the movie without having a message rammed down your throat. Hat's off to Apatow who is clearly a funny person himself having written all that he direct's and being responsible for this photo:
So I would definitely recommend going to see this. It's bordering on being labelled hilarious, but I think that the emotional weight of the film brings it down into the realms of being simply very funny. A solid 7.5 to 8/10. YOU CAN DO IT! BUY A FUCKIN' TICKET.
So anyway Funny People met and arguably surpassed my expectations of what it was going to be. Part of me was worried it would delve too far into 'the dark side', with the title being a clear ironic referal to the clichéd notion of the sad clown-funny people on the outside but sad on the inside. The 'sad clown' idea is pretty much what runs through the film but somehow it worked very well. Sandler again proves that he is a genuinelly accomplished actor as he did in Punch Drunk Love (which I would hugely recommend if you have not seen) with a relatively understated and sombre performance.
I really, really enjoyed all of the humour in the film (most notably Jonah Hill's character) with the exception of the sheer volume of cock jokes. I never-ever thought I would say this but it would seem that jokes about the lengths of people's dicks can stop being funny. I'm as shocked and annoyed as you are. Either way there are some stand out moments in this which had me almost howling with laughter-watch out for a virtuouso cameo from Ray Romano and Eminem. On the subject of good performaces Eric Bana excells himself as per friggin' usual-hearing an Australian man saying 'I shit myself' will (hopefully) never get old.
The references to Sandler's back catalogue is done wonderfully. The opening shows some very old footage of Sandler simply goofing around prank calling people with friends having the time of their lives set against the awful humour of the films later in his career such as Merman and Re-Do (both fictionalised for the purpose of the story). Both clearly representative of his less intelligent films like Billy Madison. I feel dreadful saying anything disparaging about Billy Madison because as a child it was the funniest thing I had ever seen, maybe still is. Don't judge me for that. But I can see that it would be the sort of thing a well respected comedian would find demeaning.
Another worry I had with the film was that it would have some serious closure at the ending and some semblances of a happy ending which Judd Apatow has not been able to avoid in his previous back catalogue. Fortunately Sandler's character in this film is too complex to be afforded any real form of closure, he makes mistakes and lives with the consequences. The ending really supports the emotional weight of the movie without having a message rammed down your throat. Hat's off to Apatow who is clearly a funny person himself having written all that he direct's and being responsible for this photo:
So I would definitely recommend going to see this. It's bordering on being labelled hilarious, but I think that the emotional weight of the film brings it down into the realms of being simply very funny. A solid 7.5 to 8/10. YOU CAN DO IT! BUY A FUCKIN' TICKET.
No comments:
Post a Comment