Top Five Reasons Why I Love "Funny People" Much More Than I Love Funny People

1) Funny People will cost you a set and rather reasonable amount at the box office. Actual funny people have a funny way of costing you considerably more than you would ever imagine. Just ask anyone who's ever gone to a diner with one.

2) Leslie Mann is really funny -- and really hot. Most actual funny people are only hot by virtue of an extremely liberal interpretation of the theory of relativity. Worryingly, Seth Rogen is looking pretty good to me too.

3) In a remarkable central performance, Adam Sandler is significantly better in Funny People than Laurence Olivier was in The Jazz Singer. This clearly means that Adam Sandler is a much better actor than Laurence Olivier, thus ending years of public debate.

4) With the three outstanding movies that he's directed to date -- 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and now Funny People, Judd Apatow has now hit the Human Comedy trifecta, getting ever closer to the core of the human condition without abandoning the dick jokes that would be hard for a generation to live without.

5) Sure, I've seen "Fire & Rain," but I never thought that I'd live to see James Taylor totally kill in a movie comedy. Eminem, on the other hand, I always expected to kill, but not quite like he does here.

Follow David Wild on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Wildaboutmusic

Comments

[mredder4]

Some reviews pan the movie as having a weak or slow or just soft ending, that the story loses it's focus in the last half of the movie. Can you speak to what those reviews might be talking about? How did the ending compare with the beginning or middle of the movie?

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

My take: The movie is more ambitious that Judd's earlier movies in terms of structure. More than anything, it reminds me in tone of James L Brooks work -- or life. So like "Terms of Endearment" or "As Good As It Gets," it is doesn't feel like a formula, but rather veers off in some interesting directions.

Listen, mrredder, decide for yourself. I dug it very much, but I think there's an irony in any critics who want it to be neat and short and obvious -- because if it was, they would complain about that. I think the critics I've read like Denby and Travers have captured it pretty well.

DW

[mredder4]

I probably will, but I just wanted to get your take on the other reviews coming out. Your point about unappeaseable critics is pretty spot-on too.

When I noticed that you were replying to comments, I saw a chance to get an actual response. Thank you very much for the reply.

[redkim]

I can hardly wait to see this movie. I'm loving Apatow and I have always had a little crush on Rogen since 'Freaks and Geeks.'

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Rogen does some excellent and subtle work here, and has great chemistry with Sandler.

[partisanpolitico]

It appears you know the funny. I will take you at your word and see this film/ movie/ epic.
Your reputation however hangs on my sister's (Sister Mary Elizabeth Sheba Miriam Magdalene) opinion.

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Hey what about your Sister's reputation? I think you'll both like the movie.
But to quote the philosopher-queen Joan Jett, I don't give a damn about my bad reputation.

[dougster]

Judd Apatow has been consistently lowering standards. Rolling Stone has been consistently praising those lowered standards. Adam Sandler means "lowered standards" in "retardese."

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Hey at least we're consistent, dougster.
Honestly, crap on me all you like, but I'd put Judd's three movies up against a lot of directors of whom you might approve.
How about you see the movie -- at full retail -- and then complain?

Best,
DW

[Rick Gershman]

Funny post, David. I liked it a lot. Just as an FYI (and a very friendly one), Seth Rogen's name is misspelled in the post.

I'd suggest you blame "the outsourced Indian assistant who transcribed it" for you. That's what I usually do. :-)

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks Rick -- I've fixed it -- and fired my staff

[mudpuddles]

#4 killed me! I too have an affinity for movies that create a good balance of sentiment and dick jokes! Bravo!

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

You will LOVE this movies.
And great music too

[kathy001]

#1 - Too right. I've picked up the tab for far more than dinner over my "funny" friends.

#2 - I've been worried about my own attraction to Seth Rogan. Thank you for helping me bring this out into the daylight.

#3 - Ok, I'll give you an LOL! but I still can't stand Adam Sandler.

#4 - This made me feel so young!!! Cause I really wouldn't want to live without those d#ck jokes, either.

#5 - Proving once again your own comedic genius, David.

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Wow, kathy001 --- thanks so much for the close reading and the free-range praise.

David

[kathy001]

LOL!! It's all free-range with me. There's just no way to keep my mouth (or fingers) caged.

[Sportswoman]

Your # 5 is REALLY FUNNY! It was a kind of double whammy--the JT allusion, followed by the Eminem reference--I see why RS keeps you around!

But, seriously, having dabbled in stand up, while having had the opportunity to hang out with a few comedians, and, having once been married to a musician, I can tell you that musicians are generally much funnier, more livelier in social situations than the former.

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks Sportwoman,

I aim to please, outside the context of my own marriage

[Jazmo]

I can't wait to see it and find out what you're talking about. I feel like this character is "easy" for Sandler to play, and he definitely has the dramedy bone. But you don't mention Eric Bana, who is truly the first hot guy in an Apatow movie.

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Hold on, Seth Rogan isn't a hot guy?
Bana is really hilarious, by the way, but annoyingly handsome
Buy your tickets now, and give this Apatow kid a shot in this business!

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

"Hold on, Seth Rogan isn't a hot guy?"

That's right. Seth Rogan isn't a hot guy. Funny guy? Yes. Hot guy? Not on this planet.

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

"Actual funny people have a funny way of costing you considerably more than you would ever imagine. Just ask anyone who's ever gone to a diner with one."

I would rather have dinner with Barry Humphries than see any Judd Apatow movie. Nothing against Judd's movies. I'm sure they're fine (although convincing me that I won't find Adam Sandler insufferable in something when he's been insufferable everytime I've ever seen him in anything going back over 15 years, would be EXTREMELY difficult; make that "impossible."), but dinner with Barry Humphries would be joyous. I've had drinks with him, and it was very memorable, in only good ways.

I have had dinner with professional funny people many times. (There are even rumors that I am myself a funny person.) One of the best lunches I've ever had in my whole life was with Victor Borge, just the two of us, in 1968, and it was better than any movie I have ever seen. And he picked up the check. The time I lunched with Slim Pickens (also a very funny man) was great also.

And just as soon as it becomes possible to watch FUNNY PEOPLE without seeing Adam Sandler, I'll see it.

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Whether you dare to see it or not, Sandler gives a great and genuine performance in "Funny People."

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

I'll have to take your word on Adam Sandler's performance, because life is too short for me to spend any more of mine watching him.

And it's too bad, as I would otherwise enjoy seeing it if only to see if it at all resembles the actual experiences of my stand-up days, and Eric Bana is always a pleasure to the eyes.

But Sandler is high on my Never-To-Be-Seen-Again list, just below Bruce Willis and John Travolta.

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for noticing ptgkc -- And there I thought I was being so subtle.

[ptgkc]

"... the d*ck jokes that would be hard for a generation to live without."

Nicely done, Beavis!