Funny People

Theatrical Release Date: 2009 07 31 (USA) / 2009 (USA)

UPC: 025195053532

Studio: Universal Studios

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Adult Situations, Adult Humor, Profanity, Sexual Situations]

Summary: Judd Apatow casts his former real-life roommate Adam Sandler as George Simmons, a comic superstar who learns in the movie's opening scene that he suffers from a rare blood disorder that will likely kill him within a year. This news gives him the impulse to go back out and work on his standup, something he hasn't done in years thanks to the massive success of his movie career. At a club, he meets struggling standup Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), takes a shine to him, and hires the young man both to write jokes and to be his personal assistant. Ira, who's been sleeping on a friend's pull-out couch and working a day job at a deli, enjoys the glimpse into the superstar lifestyle, but soon the prot?g? discovers how selfish and egocentric his mentor really is. Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill, and a host of famous standup comics make cameo appearances as themselves. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Category: Comedy Drama

Features: Gag reel
Feature commentary with Judd Apatow, Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen

Funny People

Format: DVD

Release Date: 11/24/2009

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo, DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 299 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French,Spanish

Subtitles: French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Funny People
1. Main Titles
2. Otto's My Lotto
3. Raaaaaaaandy
4. Jokes
5. Big House Problem
6. Kill Me
7. Playlist
8. Dr. Lars
9. The Palm
10. Laura's Visit
11. Thanksgiving
12. Get Back To Your Life
13. Talk Me To Sleep
14. Laura's Ranch
15. Clarke's Return
16. Oye!
17. No Pressure
18. Lawn Fight
19. Glad You're Back
20. End Titles

Perry Seibert

As a director/writer/producer/guru, Judd Apatow has been the hallowed king of comedy movies for the last few years -- it seems just about the only complaint people have about his work is that it's too long. Funny People, his third directorial effort, won't change anybody's opinion on that matter. However, he's taking his time for all the right reasons, and the result is a raucously funny and poignant love letter to standup comics. Apatow casts his former real-life roommate Adam Sandler as George Simmons, a comic superstar who learns in the movie's opening scene that he suffers from a rare blood disorder that will likely kill him within a year. This news gives him the impulse to go back out and work on his standup, something he hasn't done in years thanks to the massive success of his movie career. At a club, he meets struggling standup Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), takes a shine to him, and hires the young man both to write jokes and to be his personal assistant. Ira, who's been sleeping on a friend's pull-out couch and working a day job at a deli, enjoys the glimpse into the superstar lifestyle, but soon the prot?g? discovers how selfish and egocentric his mentor really is. The Terms of Endearment-meets-raunchy standup comedy concoction hums along nicely, but Apatow takes an unexpected detour in the last hour when George and Ira travel to see Laura (Leslie Mann), George's ex-girlfriend. The two spend the day with her and her two daughters (age ten and six, played by Mann and Apatow's real-life daughters), and George and Laura rekindle their old romance. However, her resolve to leave her philandering husband (Eric Bana) starts to crumble when he makes a surprise return home from a business trip and joins everyone for a dinner -- a scene that best exemplifies Apatow's ambitious mixture of drama and comedy, and how he can utilize uncomfortable pauses in conversation to achieve the response he wants from the audience. At their weakest moments, Apatow's 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up felt padded with extended comic digressions -- you got the sense that he indulged his performers a little too much. Funny People, on the other hand, is stuffed to bursting with plot details. As if he were borrowing a page from the James L. Brooks playbook, Apatow wants to wring laughs and tears out of almost every scene -- and, more often than not, he pulls it off. This is a testament to his writing skills, as well as to the performers. And Apatow's actors are across-the-board brilliant. Spanglish, Punch-Drunk Love, and Reign Over Me all showed that part of Adam Sandler wanted to expand beyond the man-child comic persona that made him an A-list movie star -- but by playing a character as famous as he himself is, Sandler achieves his finest work so far. He makes George seem naturally funny, but he also never lets us forget that this ?ber-wealthy Hollywood celebrity is a self-hating, egotistical monster. Those two sides of his personality aren't compartmentalized, but rather they feed each other. He's a remarkably unpleasant guy, and Sandler neither sanitizes nor glorifies his pain. It's an impressive portrait of a man who's gotten everything he ever wanted, and then realized he doesn't want any of it. And he's paired beautifully with Seth Rogen, who cuts way back on the smart-ass vibe and instead plays Ira like a potty-mouthed, wide-eyed kid. He exudes an inherent sweetness, even when he's delivering a hilarious routine about his grandfather's genitals. The film is so loaded with great little details, and so full of big laughs, that it's easy to forgive the faults -- and it does have some. Yes, everything resolves itself rather tidily, and the star cameos might be just a bit too self-congratulatory. And at two hours and twenty minutes it might be overly long. But none of these things detract from how entertaining and moving the whole thing is, in large part because he knows so much about this world. Apatow has created a clear-headed and big-hearted look at what drives the people who do exactly what he does for a living. He knows and understands what makes comedians tick -- and he makes us care about them as much as he does. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Ray Romano  Actor 
Eminem  Actor 
Andy Dick  Actor 
Paul Reiser  Actor 
Dave Attell  Actor 
Sarah Silverman  Actor 
Clayton Townsend  Producer 
Judd Apatow  Director 
Judd Apatow  Producer 
Judd Apatow  Screenwriter 
Jack Giarraputo  Executive Producer 
Jason Schwartzman  Composer (Music Score) 
Barry Mendel  Producer 
Seth Rogen  Executive Producer 
Michael Andrews  Composer (Music Score) 
Evan Goldberg  Executive Producer 
Adam Sandler  Actor 
Seth Rogen  Actor 
Leslie Mann  Actor 
Eric Bana  Actor 
Jonah Hill  Actor 
Jason Schwartzman  Actor 
Aubrey Plaza  Actor 
RZA  Actor 
Iris Apatow  Actor 
Maude Apatow  Actor 
Torsten Voges  Actor 
Allan Wasserman  Actor 
Aziz Ansari  Actor 
James Taylor  Actor 

Country: USA