After spending part of my afternoon at AT&T Wireless replacing my piece o’ crap BlackBerry Bold with a BlackBerry Curve 8900 (without much grief, I must admit … the guy helping me was prolly the nicest AT&T person I’ve ever worked with), I met up with Josh, Darion and his friend Eric for a movie last night. We decided to see Funny People … which, IMHO, was a terrrrrrrible mistake:
At 2 1/2 hours, Funny People is about an hour too long … and entirely not that great. The film is really 2 movies in one … the first half is kind of entertaining, marginally funny and really touching. The strength of the film lies in the poignancy of the story of a comedian who learns he has a deadly disease that will most assuredly kill him. The second film, and THIS IS A SPOILER SO DON’T READ THIS IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED, is about how the comic beats the odds and beats the disease … and then he immediately reverts to being the cheating asshole he used to be before he thought he was dying. To be fair, I kinda liked the first half of the film … the strongest performance came from Adam Sandler when he played that poignant part when he thought he was dying. After an hour and a half more of the seemingly unending movie, I really was trying to think of ways to kill myself in my seat to end my suffering. Judd Apatow is really trying to make this film his masterpiece, his comedic Lord of the Rings if you will. While, in my opinion, I have to say he failed miserably I do give him props for taking the risk. The movie starts out OK and then falls apart and drags on endlessly … ruining any of the good stuff that exists in the film. Not even Eric Bana‘s hotness could save it in the end. It’s a shame, I had high hopes that this movie would be good. Blah!
I was much more entertained yesterday when I was finally able to watch in full the 13th episode of Dollhouse titled Epitaph One. This ep will be included on the Dollhouse Season 1 DVD set and is NOT TO BE MISSED:
I don’t even want to give hints about the ep because it really works best, I think, if you see it cold. I will share that the ep takes place 10 years in the future after the last ep, Omega, of Dollhouse Season 1. Joss Whedon is a damn genius, I loved EVERY SECOND of the ep. You simply MUST pick up the Dollhouse Season 1 DVD set which is available for sale NOW!!
Tonight David and I are going to a special preview screening of Julie & Julia. The movie looks cute so, I’m excited. Happy Mondy, y’all!!
I haven’t seen the movie, but am not surprised. The trailers look completely boring and not funny!
Agreed about Funny People. My bf and I felt that the comic relief was rampant in the first half during Adam Sandler’s sickness but was entirely absent for the second half during the whole affair portion. Towards the end I realized I hadn’t laughed in 45 minutes! It was like a switch was turned.
I went and saw Funny People with high hopes. And, boy, was I thoroughly disappointed. It was way too long, and just as I thought that it was going to end, something happened that made it drag out even more. :P Ugh, the more I think about it, the more I regret seeing it.
Yes yes yes. The first part of the movie I actually really like. The opening scene of Adams home video of prank calls had me in pain I was laughing so hard.
But then it dragged, dragged and dragged some more. When I left I went “Holy cow! Its 430!”…the movie started at 1:30. Wooow
Trent, whenever I think of ways to kill myself to end my misery, I think of the movie Airplane where the person in one seat talks so much that they guy in the next seat hangs himself. That always makes me laugh.
I’ve never found Adam Sandler to be very funny and will probably wait until this movie hits TV. I’m dying to see Julie & Julia…..I love Meryl Streep!
Ugh! Funny People is TERRIBLE. This is the first movie in years that I actually got up and left before it was over. FAIL.
that’s interesting about ‘Funny People’. the trailer looks really boring and unfunny yet critics seem to like it. thanks for saving me $10, Trent. i’m with Debho, i’d like to see Julie & Julia.
That movie is far too long. My friend and I spent a bit of time after just trying to figure out what we had just seen.
Cannot WAIT to hear about Julie & Julia! I have been looking forward to this movie ever since I first saw a preview. Not so much Funny People. Glad to hear my instincts were right on that one. And 2 and 1/2 hours long?? That is so, so, so ridiculous.
Guys, Funny People is not supposed to be funny. It was marketed wrong, and because it has guys who are usually funny people expect it to be a laugh riot like Pineapple Express. It’s a drama with sparks of comedy here and there. I liked it, I found it to be good. It’s not funny, but it was a sweet and realistic movie.
@Sarah — Realistic? A deadly disease that is vanquished with a drug regimen with an 8% success rate. Uh huh.
I also liked seeing new sides of Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler. Seth is usually a prick, unresponsible dude in his movies, and Adam is usually the sweet underdog. In this movie it was Seth who was the semi responsible one, and the sweetheart of the movie, and it was Adam who was the successful prick (his character reminded me of the bad dudes from his movies like Wedding Singer and Happy Gilmore).
Hey Sarah, I saw the Inside the Actor’s Studio with Judd Apatow and he did intend it to be a comedy, or a “dramedy” really (that word is ugh). So, I respectfully disagree with your opinion. I think the movie wasn’t as successful as it could have been.
@Jamie — He may have been going for a “dramedy” but what he made was a “crapedy”
I want my money back. The movie was definitely not as good as it could have been. It failed as a comedy and as a drama. I’m not sure if it’s a comedy trying way too hard to be a drama or a drama trying way too hard to be a comedy.
@Trent- Agreed. See second post from the top.
YEAAAAA…I love everything Meryl Streep. Keep us posted as to the movie. It looks so good!!!
I’m torn on this movie – some parts were really good and some were snore worthy! The prank calls in the beginning were hilarious!! It made me want to pick up the phone and do a few myself!
@Jade — They should’ve ended the film after he got better, it just dragged on from there :(
Perhaps Sarah is right. I mean, Punch Drunk Love was a movie everyone ASSUMED was going to be funny because Sandler was in it, and it is found in the COMEDY section of almost every video store, yet it is really, really more of a drama.
I liked it enough. I though the trailers looked AWESOME though. I was disappointed mainly because the trailers looked so much better than it actually was. (Same with Harry Potter. I liked it, but the trailers played it up and made me think it was going to be the most awesome movie ever…. And then it wasn’t.)
And I know it’s good that he’s all healthy and everything now, but Seth Rogen looks weird skinny. And his weird sideburn things were NOT helping anything.
Hang on a tick. Don’t you have one of the new iPhones, Trent ? Are you just so awesome you’ve gotta rock two phones at the same time ? I fully support it if you’ve got the means. More power to ya !