Funny People

So today is the release of Funny People, the new Judd Apatow movie. Having seen some of the previews and following a lot of the viral marketing for the movie, it is one I have been looking forward to. However, as the reviews and reports from early screenings come out, there is a lot of negative talk. It kind of makes me a little worried that the film will be a big disappointment. The majority of the complaints about the movie are from the last third of the film.

To give you a little background the movie is about a well established comedian, George Simmons played by Adam Sandler who finds out he has cancer. He struggles with it, but eventually discovers that he just might beat it. In the meantime during this struggle he has met a new up and coming comedian, Ira Wright played by Seth Rogan, and has sort of taken him under his wing. Well as you can imagine, during the period of the movie where George thinks he will die, he has some life revelations and wants to change some mistakes from his past. This is where the girl that got away comes into play. This is also, apparently, where the film goes south.

So does Judd Apatow's attempt at real life issues and a semi-serious movie fail? Well at the box office it probably won't, especially with the cast. Will this movie make you laugh? Yes, because the trailer makes you laugh (if it doesn't you probably don't have a soul). The whole point of a comedy is to make you laugh. Comedies win MTV Movie awards not Oscars. The movie is 142 min long, which is Judd's longest project, and probably too long for any comedy. This might be the real reason complaints about the movie come out in the final third of the movie.

I know, no matter the reviews, that I will see the movie, and that I will laugh. The real test of the movie will be the number of quotable lines that come out of it. If you hear people quoting a comedy, then the movie was a success. Anyway, here is the trailer if you haven't seen it yet.