It's not so funny

Lovers: Taken from IMDB

“The new comedy, Funny People raises the bar on both Apatow and Sandler movie. Both of them nicely switch their roles around. While Apatow has been making mature movies with Knocked Up, The 40-Year Old Virgin, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, this is way mature than any of those. Sandler, on the other hand has been making a lot of immature movies (no offense, Adam, I love your movies). He now takes on a more dramatic role. Sandler plays George Simmons, a comedian who figures out he has ALM, a rare type of cancer. He hires a less famous comedian named Ira (Seth Rogen) to be his personal assistant. Ira feels bad when George only tells him about his disease. But George soon tells all his comedian friends to unexpectedly discover his medicine actually fought the disease off for the moment. He sucks in his ex-girlfriend, Laura (the fantastic Leslie Mann) with his disease. They soon fall in love even when he's not sick anymore. Laura's husband, Clark (Eric Bana) figures out. The movie is both sweet and funny, and such cameos as Eminem, Ray Romano, Andy Dick, Sarah Silverman, Aziz Ansari, and many more keep the laughs coming. This is definitely a movie worth checking out.”

I agree with this guy on the Adam Sandler fron but not so much to Apatow one…

Haters: again taken from IMDB

“When I went to see this movie, I was expecting a comedy. With the impressive line up of comedians in this film I thought there would be a lot of humor. However, this film left me wanting to run for the nearest exit. The trailers lead you to believe this film would have you rolling on the floor with laughter. I found myself utterly bored. And it was difficult to find ways to keep myself awake during the film.

I do enjoy a lot of Adam Sandler's works. I am not that fond of this film. This film has too much drama that drags on and on. The only funny lines seem to be used as fillers to wake you up when the film starts to lag. I do not understand why they would have such an all-star cast of amazing comedians with a story line that is so lack-luster Where is the comedy? Well at least it wasn't a total loss...the popcorn was good.”

This review is titled “too much drama, not enough comedy” I couldn’t have put it better myself but I think this review is overly harsh.

What I thought:

Funny people is a very strange Judd Apatow film, its not really feel good at all. That has to be down to the subject matter, I mean how many laughs can you get out of death? It’s not that there’s no laughs to be had its just not very feel good comedy. You join George Simmons a successful comedian in a bit of a transitional stage in his career and he has just found out he is dying from cancer.

On one point the lover’s review is so right; the best thing about Funny People is a career best performance from Adam Sandler. It’s astounding that an actor who makes a career out of playing idiots can pull a performance like this out of his hat. It has its moments its just not as laugh out loud as other Apatow films. Makes you wonder what he will tackle next? 40 year old virgin was sex, Knocked Up was pregnancy and Funny People was Death.
Watch this knowing that it is Judd Apatows and Adam Sandlers most dramatic turn yet and you’ll enjoy what is actually a very poignant movie.