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| Six great performers are aligned on this poster for Judd Apatow's Funny People |
A struggling, young comedian gets an incredible chance, when he gets hired to write jokes and be the personal assistant for comedy legend George Simmons, who, it turns out, is carrying around a serious secret.
Funny People is the third theatrical feature for New-Yorker master writer-director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up (2007)). There is an awful lot that's good and likable in Funny People. It opens dubiously with an old recording of Adam Sandler (Spanglish (2004)) making prank calls, (shot by Apatow, who was his roommate at the time), but it turns out to have a lot more to offer than one might suppose; both in terms of lavish amounts of comedy and laughter, but also with a good story SPOILER about the altered priorities and possible realizations that can come from a near-death experience.
Janusz Kaminski (Little Giants (1994)) raises the film with neat, narrative-appropriate cinematography. Sandler proves again that he can also act, besides goofing around and spouting profanities, and Seth Rogen (The Interview (2014)) is adorable as his very green protege Ira here. Aubrey Plaza (Dirty Grandpa (2016)), Jason Schwartzman (The Polka King (2017)), Jonah Hill (21 Jump Street (2012)), Eric Bana (Troy (2004)) and in particular Leslie Mann (Big Daddy (1999)) are also outstanding. Of the many celebrity cameos in Funny People, the one involving Eminem (8 Mile (2002)) and Ray Romano (The Last Word (2008)) deserves singling out; it's hilarious.
Funny People is undeniably over-long, - in this case indicating a filmmaker who is simply too enamored with his own material, - and although this may be Apatow's most personal film, it isn't his best.
Related posts:
Judd Apatow: Trainwreck (2015) - Amy Schumer's breakthrough is a lot of fun
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Bridesmaids (2011) - Subversive comedy with laughs a-plenty (producer)
The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005) or, Let the Sunshine In
The Cable Guy (1996) - Stiller's dark comedy is a riot (producer)
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 75 mil. $
Box office: 71.5 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Funny People premiered 20 July (USA) and runs 146 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco from September 2008 - January 2009. The film opened #1 to a 22.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell to #5 in its second week and then out of the top 5 and grossed 51.8 mil. $ (72.4 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 5.9 mil. $ (8.3 %) and the UK with 5.5 mil. $ (7.7 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 3½/4 stars, translating to a notch higher than this review. Funny People is fresh at 68 % with a 6.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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