- This movie feels approximately four-and-a-half hours long, holy Christ. Whatever happened to the ninety minute comedy? I miss the good old days.
- Something that irritates me in a minor way is when they use one take for the trailer and another in the actual movie (e.g. the “Ah, peas” line in Mr. and Mrs. Smith). Something that irritates me in an unforgivably major way is when 75% OF THE TRAILER IS NOT IN THE MOVIE. I don’t mind hearing all those jokes again; I laughed the first time, I’ll laugh again. Or not, if you choose to leave all that on the cutting room floor.
- Most of the hilarity in this movie comes from the brief snippets of routines we witness as George tries to relive his past through the Healing Power™ of stand-up comedy; the supposedly funny people of the title turn out to be not that funny in their real lives. It’s oppressively melodramatic in places, where the only alleviation we get from it is in the quadrillion penis jokes* that George repeatedly tells Ira to axe from his routine.
*Note to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: if you’re going to make testicle jokes, this is a good example of how you do them.
- TOO MANY CAMEOS. For the most part I couldn’t tell if various people were playing themselves or playing actual characters until the credits rolled and it listed “X … as himself”. I mean, I assumed most were playing themselves since George is in show business and clearly these people are his colleagues, but I had no idea that Norm MacDonald still had a career so I assumed he was playing Random Bar Patron #6.
- That said, Eminem harassing Ray Romano was kind of hysterical. I enjoy that Everybody Loves Raymond has shown up in all of Apatow’s films, especially considering how bad that show really is.
- I’ve never really enjoyed Adam Sandler precisely for the reasons that we’re given to pity and mock his less-than-stellar film career in this movie. I suppose, having now seen this, that I could tolerate him in other films where he’s not a baby or a merman or anything else meant to appeal to the intellects of twelve year-olds. The movie clips succeeded in being purposely ironic and amusing; I think I loved the one with the hot dog eating contest and the kid saying “It’s not going to bring her back!” best.
- It’s quite possible that James Taylor was funnier than everyone else in this movie.
- Check that. The ambiguously European doctor shouting “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!” at George’s “P.S. I’m Not Dying” party was hysterical. I say “ambiguously European” because although he clearly has a fabulous German accent, Ira gets off a good Ikea joke at his expense. But maybe I just find Ikea humour particularly funny.
- I enjoyed Daisy a lot. I feel like she’s very different from the usual women in these movies and she was pretty funny in her own right, plus she was awesome, so that plus that equals good times.
- Yo, Teach was awful and amusing in the Boy Meets World way they were going for. Speaking of which, I only realised last week when I was watching The Graduate that Dustin Hoffman’s dad in that movie is Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World. He looks much taller in The Graduate, but I suppose anyone would standing next to Dustin Hoffman.
- Jonah Hill felt really superfluous. He had some good lines, but the Harry Potter joke was bad.
- Sorry, I’m a sucker for a good Schindler’s List joke.
- Wow, Maude Apatow can sing.
- ERIC BANA! I love Eric Bana. He was a ridiculously douchey douche in this, which suited me just fine because while he was over the top and quite hammy, it was a nice break from all the doom and gloom.
- After seeing the trailer four thousand times and having people constantly mutter afterwards “They gave away the whole plot!” because of the reveal that George beats his illness, I had decided quite adamantly that clearly his illness would come back and he’d die at the end anyway. He doesn’t, but he makes one final ambiguous trip to the doctor’s office and emerges with an ambiguous facial expression to ambiguously tell everyone that he’s going to be (ambiguously?) fine. To me this screams that his cancer is back, but perhaps I’m a glass-half-empty kind of person. Maybe this is a Rorschach test. Maybe it’s supposed to be obvious that he’s at Death’s door and I’m giving the audience too little credit.
- I liked the tiles on the back splash at Ira’s apartment.
- I’ve said before that I don’t understand infidelity, but I really don’t understand wanting to be with a woman who decides to have sex with you in her guest house while her husband is in China and your assistant colours with her kids in the kitchen. What kind of people are these? I suppose George and Laura really are made for each other, and good riddance. Ira correctly sported my THIS IS NOT OKAY face when he realised what had gone down (clue: it was George, zing!).
- Mr. Kowchevski from Freaks and Geeks was in this at the very beginning, which was great.
- IMDB suggests that if I like this, I’ll like The Bodyguard. I think this is my absolute favourite suggestion yet, and I can’t wait to see George and Ira cut satin with a samurai sword.
Funny People
Needs more Paul Rudd.
IMDB Plot Synopsis When seasoned comedian George Simmons learns of his terminal, inoperable health condition, his desire to form a genuine friendship cause him to take a relatively green performer under his wing as his opening act.