funny people

august 9 2K9

funny people was great. it felt very different from apatow's other films; knocked up and 40 year old virgin are very simple and almost simplistic in the camera angles and movement apatow uses to tell his story. where in funny people it seems during certain scenes/sequences he did want better more interesting compositions; the entire opening sequence felt like something gus van sant would do. it may be because he felt the story needed it or the influence of cinematographer janusz kaminski or apatow decided to work with kaminski for the story also. unfortunately there are one or two moments in the story where it goes on a unwarranted tangent or a scene is 1-3 minutes too long and i wanted the movie to just get on with it; but other than those few times the story keeps you engaged and interested in what is going to happen. considering the movie is almost 2.5 hours they could have cut it down some. adam sandler is wonderful; as he showed in punch drunk love he is a legit actor who can make you care about the character he is playing. jason schwartzman and jonah hill (who i love) feel like they're playing themselves and i could have done with a little less of them. eric bana is annoyingly great; the point is to not like him and you don't and its funny. seth rogen was good. he was better than i expected. there were a few scenes that really didn't seem needed between him, schwartzman, and hill. in those scenes he did things that felt out of character; which is more apatow's fault than his. i think funny people is a definite must see eventually; if you can't catch it in the theaters fo sho rent it.