Addendum: Funny People: More is Less

1. OK, so I was wrong about the ending, but I was right about the fact that the trailer gave away everything. In fact, the trailer even goes farther than that: it shows multiple scenes that weren't in the movie (Sandler's joke about sex: "that's just how I do it"; Rogen's guitar hero joke; I'm sure there were more). Not to mention that we only see the fake movie scenes for Re-do, The Champion and MerMan, and none of the other funnier ones. We also don't get to see the better standup routines that were taped for the movie -- most of the good stuff ended up on Comedy Central last weekend (especially Randy's routine).

2. I like Leslie Mann and all, but Apatow's promotion of his family has now officially become obnoxious. First, this whole movie was like a love letter to Apatow's wife (C'mon guys, she was just a small-time actress, but ain't she great? She coulda been something!) Yes, Judd, we know, you're the dorky regular-looking funny guy who scored the hot chick. Let's move on. In the olden days, she was like Hitchcock's daughter, with a small role in every Apatow production (See Virgin, Knocked Up, Drillbit Taylor) -- now she's suddenly Mia Farrow. Second, Apatow's kids are now in the mix, and are given a lot of dialogue. We even get to watch Apatow's daughter sing "Memories" for like three minutes (she was good, I admit). Take it down a notch, Judd.

3. Apatow the Producer is so much better than Apatow the Director. First, his films really fall apart in act three. Rewatch 40 Year Old Virgin -- it stops being funny with about 30 minutes left to go. Second, all of his movies are disjointed -- they seem like they are edited in a rush. Virgin sometimes feels like a series of comic vignettes that are only somewhat related. Third, Funny People is way too long, and it stops being funny after the first hour and a half (and the part after that is not all that interesting). Again, editing.

4. Speaking of editing: The pivotal dramatic moment of the movie takes place offscreen. At some point, George Simmons (Adam Sandler) is an irredeemable asshole, and then at the end of the movie he decides to be nice. How or why this transformation takes place is a mystery -- we're left to assume that merely watching Ira's (Seth Rogen's) comedy routine changes Simmons' mind. But we see no conversation, no contemplation, no moment of clarity. Instead we get a character Deus Ex Machina.

5. Apatow is the Robert Altman of comedy -- dozens of famous comics were in this movie, many of which in one-line cameos, very few of which are funny (Sarah Silverman's vagina demonstration was hilarious, as was Norm MacDonald's AIDS joke). In fact, at times it felt like a dramatization of the much better and more interesting film, the documentary Comedian, by Jerry Seinfeld. In that film, the uber-successful Seinfeld decides to start his routine over from scratch beginning at the very bottom of the circuit and tries to win over club crowds without relying on his fame. I recommend it in place of Funny People.

6. Sandler's performance was quality, but Rogen's was not -- it consisted of probably a hundred dumbly-innocent-faced reaction shots. That being said, it is much more pleasant to watch Rogen play a nice guy (Knocked Up) than a jerk (Pineapple Express, Observe and Report, Virgin, to an extent)