Funny People

With a name like Funny People (2009), you'd expect this film to funny, right? Well, I thought it would fare better in the drama genre, because it had a very unfunny storyline: death. I think Judd Apatow just saved his own effort.
George Simmons (Adam Sandler) is a very famous and funny Hollywood actor who has just been told he has a form of leukemia which may just kill him. So before he dies, he plans to go back to all the things that made him happy, including stand-up comedy. There he meets Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), a struggling comedian, and soon employs him to be his assistant. Ira helps him enjoy life again, and helps him find the 'girl that got away' (Leslie Mann).
Most of the films comedy comes from Eric Bana, who plays a hilarious Australian who knows fluent Chinese. The laughs a few and far between, though there was enough drama to keep me entertained. While Funny people was not particularly funny, I thought the story was quite good, and the cast was superb. Everybody who's anybody in comedy film is in this film: Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, even an appearance from Justin Long is thrown into the mix. Adam Sandler is back on form in this, and should consider choosing good films as opposed to crappy trash comedies. The run-time of just over two hours is gruelling, and I can't say that it's all worth it. Has nothing on Judd Apatow's last work, Knocked Up.
6/10