Just saw this film with Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen.
First of all - make sure you have enough vacation time available at your work because this film is L O N G! I felt like I watched both the original and the sequel rolled into one! The audience made a mad dash for the restrooms the minute the film credits started rolling.
That said, it was actually a pretty good movie! I am not a huge fan of Adam Sandler, but this was a damned good performance - he showed he actually has some serious dramatic acting talent. Same goes for Seth Rogen. Although this film is billed as a comedy, there were quite a few serious parts and both of them handled those scenes quite well!
Nice story, found that I actually cared for the characters more than most comedy plots and the film didn’t end predictably.
You might want to wait to see this on DVD, so you can stop and take bathroom breaks and make dinner, walk the dog, pay your rent and mow the lawn, but other than the excruciating length, it was a pretty damned good film!
It was surprisingly long for a comedy, wasn’t it? According to IMDB it has a running time of 2:26. That’s nuts, considering the genre. I really liked it, though.
If you like Sandler’s dramatic performance, see Punch Drunk Love and Reign Over Me. Both are excellent and rather underrated. People continue to underestimate Adam Sandler because he made lots of dumb comedies. (But Happy Gilmore rules.)
Just saw this last night and liked it a hell of a lot. It could have been cut down a bit in length, though I am not sure what they should take out, but it is a great movie.
I think that Sandler is going to end up being one hell of a dramtic actor. He totally suprised me in Reign Over Me and he is great in this film as well. Sandler is rapidly becoming one of my favorite actors. I like his comedies but his serious stuff is better.
Now I am going to have to go rent Punch Drunk Love.
Slee
I had forgotten about Punch Drunk Love - that really was quite a good movie.
At any rate, Sandler did a good job on the “serious moments” of this comedy (as well as the comedy parts, of course) which made up for the length of the film.
I’m at a loss as to watch this movie or not. I love Adam Sandler comedies, and despise his so-called ‘serious’ roles. Punch Drunk Love was stupid, Spanglish was nonsensical and boring, and Click made everyone watching cry at the end.
It was pretty good, overall. A bit long, yeah, but as I read in some review, each scene works alone and is pretty watchable. It could have ended about 3/4 through and been quite good.
I’m sure a lot of comedians and writers will appreciate it. (Basically anyone who works in Hollywood and hates Entourage.) Despite his recent success Judd Apatow had a pretty, er, bumpy start. Lawsuits, cancellations, falling outs, re-printed e-mail fights with That '70s Show creator Mark Brazill (it’s one of my favorite things ever).
The ending was nice, in that he was still pretty much a prick and didn’t get his ex back. I guess it was possible Seth Rogen’s character would have hooked up with their cute neighbor eventually. She seemed bored, so why not?
Their lady comedian neighbor – is there a more classic case of ‘How can she be hot? She’ wearing glasses and her hair is in her eyes’? Aubrey Plaza is actually quite a good stand-up comedian (see her Sara Silverman impression here) so it was a bit annoying that she got maybe two lines of stand-up, though I’m sure there’s more in the DVDs.
Like so many of the movies Apatow’s associated with, the best bits were the banter with the supporting cast (Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman) and the surprisingly funny people. Who the hell thought James Taylor was a scene stealer, or that Eric Bana was hilarious? I also couldn’t help but love Yo Teach and all Sandler’s characters fake shitty movie clips and posters. I know George Simmons wasn’t supposed to be Adam Sandler, but he was quite gutsy to poke fun at some of his recent work (coughClick *cough).
The name of the movie is hard for me to get over. I can’t help but think of it as 2 and a half hours of Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Judd Apatow patting each other on the back about how funny they are. Even if it’s nothing of the sort, that’s all I’ll be able to think of it as in my mind, at least until I see it, which very well may be never.
I saw Punch Drunk Love as an exercise in what would happen if you took the protagonist from an Adam Sandler movie and stuck him in the real world (or at least the world of a more serious filmmaker).
Just got back from this movie. Eh. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, seeing as how I absolutely loathe Sandler, Rogan and half the supporting cast. Too long, but I don’t really see what they could have cut that wouldn’t undermine the character development (or lack thereof).
They could’ve lost the whole story with the ex-girlfriend? It seemed to eat about 45 minutes for no reason. I guess it would’ve helped to make the girlfriend somewhat appealing.
I cannot stand Adam Sandler, but I loved this film. I don’t think the commercials really let you know what you were in for, but I’m glad I was dragged to go see it.
It isn’t much of a comedy, or even a dramedy. It’s pretty much a drama with a few painfully terrible jokes in it to remind you that the subject of the film is a comedian. OK, I probably laughed once or twice, but that’s not enough to make it a comedy in my eyes. It was overall much more awkward than funny, and as has already been well-covered, way too damn long.
I actually like most of Apatow’s movies, but this is probably his worst yet. He should just stick to the formula.
Well, his formula consists of making comedies over 2 hours, so at the very least he should ditch that. Nothing is funny for more than 2 hours, and even if it was, my stomach hurts from laughing and I need a break at that point.
Not usually, according to IMDB. His feature comedy credits as a producer and their respective runtimes include, in chronological order:
The Cable Guy (96 minutes) Anchorman (94 minutes) Kicking & Screaming (95 minutes) The 40 Year Old Virgin (116 minutes) Talladega Nights (108 minutes) Knocked Up (129 minutes) Superbad (114 minutes) Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (96 minutes) Forgetting Sarah Marshall (111 minutes) Drillbit Taylor (110 minutes) Step Brothers (98 minutes) Pineapple Express (111 minutes) Year One (97 minutes)
Of those the only one over 2 hours is Knocked Up, and just barely. By contrast Funny People is 146 minutes. Looking over the list though I have to retract my statement about it being his worst yet. I didn’t even realize he was involved with The Cable Guy (and several of those I have not seen and am not interested in seeing).
Geez, silenus, and I thought I was a masochist by seeing a film almost every Friday, even when there is nothing really great…but if you really hate almost everyone in the film, why did you go see this? Were you forced at gunpoint?
