Back from funny people

[Danny]

I'm going to keep this short, i love judd apatow movies as much as kevin smith's flicks, superbad?, loved it. Knocked up was a hoot, and i whent into funny people expecting the same. Though lets get this straight, i do NOT like adam sandler, as a standup hes great, but as an actor he was great in rain over me, aside form that hes the same guy in every movie. But that said seth rogan and jonah hill are the two funniest guys to come out the recent generation of on screen comics. So i was expecting a hoot.
For the first hour it was great, somehow a story about a dying comic was filled with some great jokes and the 5 people that made up the resst of the crowd laughed nonstop.
However then adam sandlers character is cured like in the trailer of his fatal illness and decides to turn the story down a romance route by breaking up a family because he wants to, the character just becomes this unrelatable dick with rogan as his pet man-child who only stays in the movie form then on for one liners. Theres a sub plot with a girlfriend that gets ignored till a final shot at the end, a sub plot with jonah hill thats forgotten and a third characters story with a show that has no purpose at all.
So for this agonizingly long 30 minutes the whole audience was whispering some variation of "this has gotten SO boring". I will watch any old shit but even i was looking at my watch waiting for the end.
Then just as your ready to walk out apatow decides to end it just because, no story is resolved, they make a joke, the acoustic guitar starts and the camera pulls back END. If youve not seen it i might sound harsh but this goes from a really funny film into this depressing, boring waste of the audiences time with no pay-off, and i wasnt left mad, i was left disappointed. I didnt care about these characters and spent over 30 minutes waiting for the film to end. To sum it up its like apatow took a bunch of toilet humour from his past films that didnt make the cut and thought "now how can i string these together into a plot?" and used "safe" actors he knew would draw an audience. This is hands down his worst film to date and i wont be seeing this again, and honestly i recommend watching this online or something, im seeing district 9 tomorrow and moon on saturday, wish id saved the ticket price off this for one of those.

[MikePizzoff]

In my honest opinion, the trailer looked like shit. I'm a huge fan of Superbad, Pineapple Express, and Anchorman, but this movie just looks really uninspired and dull.

Thanks for the review, now I know for sure not to give it any of my time.

[bassman]

I haven't seen the movie myself, but I'm not surprised. The advertising makes it look more like a straight forward comedy, but the director always says in interviews that it's a drama first and foremost. The comedy takes a back
seat the drama. So most people were expecting a 40 Year Old Virgin and got something totally different.

Actually...I remember reading one interview where he said he expected the film to not fair as well as his first two and that it was a one time deal. Next he'll have to make another raunchy flick.

And on a personal note.....Apatow has only directed 3 films now, people. He only produced all those others, so they don't count as his. That's the way I see it, anway.:) Little pet peeve of mine. They just slap his name on there to sell tickets.

Kinda like...

Quentin Tarantino's

HOSTEL

Directed by Eli Roth

[Danny]

QUENTIN TARANTINO PRESENTS

jet li's hero

a beautiful film most people would watch 5 minutes of, call bullshit and say tarantinos lost his game and ignore one of the most beautiful martial arts films ever made.

[bassman]

That's another good example.

I once had this guy argue with me during a game of poker that Hell Ride was Tarantino's. I tried explaining it to him but he argued for a good 10 minutes that I was wrong and that "his name is on the cover!":rolleyes:

I guess that marketing strategy works on most people. Another great example is Cloverfield. Everyone praised JJ Abrams for the film while poor old Matt Reeves sat in the corner. It must be nice to be a successful producer that can take credit on someone else's work.....

[Danny]

That's another good example.

I once had this guy argue with me during a game of poker that Hell Ride was Tarantino's. I tried explaining it to him but he argued for a good 10 minutes that I was wrong and that "his name is on the cover!":rolleyes:

I guess that marketing strategy works on most people. Another great example is Cloverfield. Everyone praised JJ Abrams for the film while poor old Matt Reeves sat in the corner. It must be nice to be a successful producer that can take credit on someone else's work.....

and lets not forget not one emo kid knows about "henry selicks the nightmare before christmas":rolleyes:

[bassman]

and lets not forget not one emo kid knows about "henry selicks the nightmare before christmas":rolleyes:

You mean Tim Burton's Nightmare! Tim Burton's Coraline, too!:annoyed:

Anyway...sorry to derail the thread. Hopefully I can check out Funny People in theater. Looks like I may have to wait for dvd, though...

[MoonSylver]

Back when I was in retail the DiCaprio/Claire Danes version of "Romeo & Juliet" was coming to video. I kept having dipshit kids calling up asking for "Romeo & Juliet, directed by William Shakespeare" :annoyed::rolleyes::lol:

[MinionZombie]

My thoughts on Funny People:

http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2009/09/funny-people.html

...

And yes, that "so-and-so presents" bullshit is annoying, but I can also see how it helps the actual filmmaker along in the world a bit ... still though, they need to make more effort to distinguish between who is merely "presenting" and who actually made the damn film.

I saw an advert for "Hell Ride" and looked all over and there was not a single bit of text that said who actually directed it, it was just QUENTIN TARANTINO!!!!!!!!!! all over.

[MikePizzoff]

And on a personal note.....Apatow has only directed 3 films now, people. He only produced all those others, so they don't count as his. That's the way I see it, anway.:) Little pet peeve of mine. They just slap his name on there to sell tickets.

I can see how MAYBE you can get mad over the movies which he just produced and have people (such as myself) referring to it as an 'Apatow movie'. However, there have also been a good amount of movies which he wrote, so don't forget that.

As for me, I don't see anything wrong with calling a producer's movie THEIR movie. After all, producers find all of the funding AND hire most (or all) of the talent, correct? If it weren't for the producers, the movies would have never been made.

[bassman]

After all, producers find all of the funding AND hire most (or all) of the talent, correct? If it weren't for the producers, the movies would have never been made.

Oh no doubt....but imo the director is the head hancho, so it's his credit.

Look at it this way.....Richard Ruben$tein's Dawn of the Dead?:p

[MinionZombie]

Oh no doubt....but imo the director is the head hancho, so it's his credit.

Look at it this way.....Richard Ruben$tein's Dawn of the Dead?:p
With Apatow, it's really referring to a gang of people - the Apatow gang.

The likes of Seth Rogen and so on, they're all in each other's movies in various roles and it's all exploded as a result of Apatow's leadership over the last decade or more.

It's a rabble of various movies, that are all linked by Apatow, and various actors/writers/producers (roles which aren't exclusive of one-another in the Apatow gang).

[bassman]

With Apatow, it's really referring to a gang of people - the Apatow gang.

The likes of Seth Rogen and so on, they're all in each other's movies in various roles and it's all exploded as a result of Apatow's leadership over the last decade or more.


I understand where you're coming from and it makes sense. But people tend to think that if it has those certain actors, that means it's an Apatow film. Take 'I Love You Man' for example. It's two of the "Apatow gang members" in the lead roles, but to my knowledge Apatow has nothing to do with that film.

You know what I mean? It just seems like "Apatow" has become a selling point like "Tarantino" has. Just because his friends and actors are in a certain movie doesn't mean he's involved. 'Horton Hears A Who', 'Monsters vs Aliens', and 'The Green Hornet' all involve Rogen.....How much you wanna bet that most people think those are Apatow films? :p

I imagine "Apatow's gang" sometimes get's a bit annoyed with being called "Apatow's Gang"...

[Danny]

I understand where you're coming from and it makes sense. But people tend to think that if it has those certain actors, that means it's an Apatow film. Take 'I Love You Man' for example. It's two of the "Apatow gang members" in the lead roles, but to my knowledge Apatow has nothing to do with that film.

You know what I mean? It just seems like "Apatow" has become a selling point like "Tarantino" has. Just because his friends and actors are in a certain movie doesn't mean he's involved. 'Horton Hears A Who', 'Monsters vs Aliens', and 'The Green Hornet' all involve Rogen.....How much you wanna bet that most people think those are Apatow films? :p

I imagine "Apatow's gang" sometimes get's a bit annoyed with being called "Apatow's Gang"...

technically there known as the frat pack.

[MikePizzoff]

technically there known as the frat pack.

Nah, The Frat Pack is used to refer to Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, the Wilson brothers, Ben Stiller, and a couple of others.

[Danny]

Nah, The Frat Pack is used to refer to Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, the Wilson brothers, Ben Stiller, and a couple of others.

ive heard them all get counted in the same group so to speak, though really the only comedy actors ive heard not included are steve carrel, will ferrel and jhon c reilly, the nerds of the comedy high school class. :lol:

[MinionZombie]

ive heard them all get counted in the same group so to speak, though really the only comedy actors ive heard not included are steve carrel, will ferrel and jhon c reilly, the nerds of the comedy high school class. :lol:
Nah, I've heard Rogen et al referred to as "the geek clique" ... the frat pack is definitely Stiller et al.

Well, whoever Rogen etc are, they're from the Apatow stable, if you will. Plus it is an easy short-hand to explain to someone very briefly what some new movie is - "it's got a bunch of the Apatow lot in it" and then you go see it and like it for it's own merits.

It's different from the "Tarantino Presents" thing, which has gotten way out of hand I think ... e.g. that advert for Hell Ride, which didn't have the actual director's name on it, just QT's.

Although I'm sure QT doesn't have control over the advertising departments who put these ads together.