3. Funny People (2009)
The problem with this beast is that it feels like two incredibly different films that were squashed together to make one. The first is a James L. Brooks style dramedy about a successful film star who discovers he has leukemia and tries to re-discover his comedy roots and finds a young protege along the way. The second film involves the same person having found out he was disease free try to make amends for the way he has treated his family in the past. The word uneven doesn't even begin to describe this film. The problem is with the fact that he have to spend 146 minutes with such unlikable and more importantly unfunny people, especially Adam Sandler's George Simmons. George is a character whom we simply don't care about. We're constantly told that he was a comedy genius back in the old days and yet we never see any evidence of this. He is immature, childish and incredibly self absorbed. He is also unfunny. He doesn't change one iota when he discovers that he is dying, and then when he makes a miraculous recovery, you don't care for him as he has done nothing to make us sympathise with him. He comes across as a rich, cocky douche who has sold out to make his dreams of wealth come true. If the film ended with him with him changing and trying to make amends for past grievances, it would be easier to swallow at least. But the film doesn't stop there, Sandler returns to his ex-wife, whom he was continuously unfaithful with and then ends up completely destroying her home life by having an affair with her and then realising that he has no feelings for and leaving her. We'd feel sorry for her, if she wasn't played by the incredibly annoying Leslie Mann (Mrs Apatow) and let's not even get started on the talentless children, that if you were at that dinner table with them, you would simply get up and leave because... well, life's too short. Mr Apatow it's great that you love your family, but maybe instead of shoehorning them into your films you could maybe spend some time with them instead? This would have been a perfect ninety minute feature if you just cut his family out of the film, and ended it with Sandler's character dying after making amends for his mistakes. Instead we have this nearly three hour whale of a film. Though judging by the recent This Is 40 (Minutes too long), overstuffing his films looks set to be a trend that Apatow is running with.