I was raised in a household where Adam Sandler was heightened to an almost god-like status of comedy, as I regularly watched The Waterboy and Happy Gilmore. The earliest memory I have about this film in particular was watching the first fifteen minutes and my mother walking in the room to promptly shut it off. I can understand now why it would be bad for a nine-year-old to view this film. But after finally getting around to watching it as a college student, I still don't understand why one might want to voluntarily sit through another Adam Sandler movie, especially one that attempts to deal with mid-life crises and existentialism. Funny People has a comedy powerhouse cast but a bad story, and it lacks many aspects to make it engaging enough to sit through.
The story throughout this film is honestly very off-putting for the actors involved. While it is true that some actors are talented enough to switch genres and still be impressive, the same can not be said for Adam Sandler in this film. This entire movie had a very existential tone, as it was reflecting on his character George's career and impending death. At times, it almost makes it seem like Sandler is reflecting upon himself, but it is still not believable. Sandler is definitely one of the most innovative comedic minds of our time, but he should stick to dumb, politically-incorrect comedies. As funny as some of his movies are, he simply can not act in a serious role, especially in an emotional and introspective film like this one. The writing throughout the movie desperately tries to make George as likable as possible, but I just simply could not get to that point. His character is written so awfully and awkwardly that it is impossible to relate to any part of him. Seth Rogen's character Ira is the best character in this film, and Rogen even gave a great performance. The pacing of the story itself was bad as well, and forced too much in the time given, which was already way too long (two and a half damn hours). After George found out that his disease had been cured by the treatment, all of the characters' motivations became very unclear. There seemed to be nowhere for the story to go, but it went anyways. The pacing suffered due to this, and it placed the final "fight" right at the end of the film. This scene concluded with a very forced re-bonding of the two main characters for the sake of a happy ending, which was very unnecessary. Some more of the technical parts that I despised were the Native-American headdress dancing scene, Seth Rogen's ungodly sideburns, and a very poorly-aged Robin Williams joke, unfortunately.
Despite many flaws surrounding the story, this film still had some interesting aspects. My favorite part was seeing the relationship between Ira and George develop throughout the movie. The comedic relationship between George, who was more of an unforgiving asshole, and Ira, who was a progressive and appreciative comedian, was fantastic. Sandler and Rogen contrasted each other very well in this movie, as their comedy styles in real life vary quite differently. This contrast provided a lot of good scenes between the two, and were the only scenes that brought out any emotion, if any. Many of these scenes feature George appearing done with life and Ira trying to help him through whatever he may be going through, for the sake of being his apprentice. This character trait is the only one I don't understand about Rogen's character, because he was put through so much trouble, but with practically no benefits for him. Other great elements of this movie were its cast and setting. This film is chock-full of comedians, from Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler to Aziz Ansari, Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Rec reunion), and Jonah Hill, among many others. This full house of characters worked very well together in this overall group setting, and it was interesting to see them all interact, because many have not worked together on any projects before. Other small cameos that were great included Norm Macdonald, Ray Romano, Sarah Silverman, Bo Burnham, and even Eminem. The setting of this film was great, and the world that was built was impressive. The writers managed to incorporate all of these fictional movies into this world and made it seem like they were all so real, which was very impressively developed.
Funny People is a very unnecessarily dark, existential comedy that succeeds in having a great cast but fails in providing a decent story. Although Seth Rogen was great, he doesn't make up for the lack of anything interesting in the story.
My Rating: ★★
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