Funny People (Judd Apatow, 2009)

[oldsheperd]

There are no Christians in Hollywood, only liberal atheists and their Jewish overlords and Obama wasn't born in this country also, too, Alaska!

[Camera Obscura]

Has Mel Gibson moved back to Australia?

[Adam]

I just saw the trailer for this, and it does look pretty awful. Adam Sandler on his deathbed, miraculously gets better, and then discovers the wonders of nature and beauty and all that? Really? Two cliched plot elements in one movie (or at least just in one trailer)...

[Christian]

I just saw the trailer for this, and it does look pretty awful. Adam Sandler on his deathbed, miraculously gets better, and then discovers the wonders of nature and beauty and all that? Really? Two cliched plot elements in one movie (or at least just in one trailer)...

And by "two cliched plot elements", you mean extraordinary circumstances and character arcs...?

[Adam]

I guess those are two more!

No, I meant torturous death bed scenes and corny discovery of love & beauty after recovery. However they were cut so on-the-nose in the trailer that one might hope that the film will do more to make fun of them.

But if, as it seems from the trailer, it is about a Jew who gets "resurrected," and then teaches his followers about beauty and spirituality, then perhaps it is all a Christian parable.

[Antoine Doinel]

Rumor is Apatow based the film on some stuff that happened to Garry Shandling. As the link indicates, Apatow is a close friend and huge fan of Shandling, and worked on the Larry Sanders Show.

[LQ]

AV Club interview with Apatow.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Well....Aziz Ansari is in this as an aspiring comedian and he's always good value.

http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=63357

[pianocrash]

I had a sneaking feeling that Sandler's character was a play on Apatow's relationship with Garry Shandling (and it was especially hard to accept his portrayal's terse treatment of his understudy, even if it was a smidge entertaining to see Seth Rogen be browbeaten a la his Freaks & Geeks days for a minute or two), though finding whatever redemption in the mess is hard going at best. Once Eric Bananana shows up, the clock sort of stops, and what we're left with is less an outcome of the story than a sad punchline to all that wayward discussion about Munich that took place in Knocked Up. And what of hiring Spielberg's go-to cinematographer when the home movie footage is the most engaging set of visuals in the film (I know it's hard to shine a flattering light on a room full of aged comedians, unless...)? Should I talk about the Garafalo doppelgänger, the overt/anticlimactic lameness of Max Fischer, or anything else? When Jonah Hill is your only resultant diamond, something is very very very very very very very wrong with your $70M comedy, right? I can't believe I watch these things anymore.

[LQ]

Pianocrash, you said it perfectly. After a decent start, it just devolved into an interminable mess, a jumble of lackluster subplots, and unfunny cameos. A real disappointment, especially because I happen to hold the opinion that those involved are inherently talented, funny people.

[tavernier]

Even though it's The Onion, this sounds plausible.