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Funny People (2009)

tomatometer

68

Average Rating: 6.4/10
Reviews Counted: 221
Fresh: 151 | Rotten: 70

Funny People features the requisite humor, as well as considerable emotional depth, resulting in Judd Apatow's most mature film to date.

52

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Critic Reviews: 44
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 21

Funny People features the requisite humor, as well as considerable emotional depth, resulting in Judd Apatow's most mature film to date.

audience

58

liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 745,188

My Rating

Movie Info

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

R, 2 hr. 26 min.

Drama, Comedy

,

Judd Apatow

Nov 24, 2009

$51.8M

Universal Pictures

Cast

All Critics (221) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (155) | Rotten (72) | DVD (9)

Funny People is funny, moving, dramatic, and alternately hilarious. It's a bit like a stand-up dramedy.

May 6, 2011 Full Review Source: Film.com | Comments (2)
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The good parts of this movie are often wonderful, but Apatow never finds the rhythm to keep it going. It lurches from inspiration to inspiration, but always manages to muddy its feet in mediocrity in between, as it drags on toward the two-and-a-half-hour

August 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Film.com | Comments (2)
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) takes some interesting chances in this messy but engaging comedy, which suggests he may yet mature (no, seriously) into a filmmaker of substance.

August 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It walks a perfectly fine line between being funny and tragic.

August 3, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comment (1)
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Apatow has always found a balance of heart and humor in his best films, and Funny People is no exception.

August 3, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comment
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film comes dangerously close to stalling, however, once George and Ira visit George's ex, stuck in an untrustworthy marriage. By the time Ira implores 'Can we just go?' you feel the same way.

July 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comments (9)
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

What exacerbates the ego-driven piece is the not-so-obvious multiple cameos of real-life celebrities. It comes across as Apatow bragging about how many famous people he knows.

June 27, 2011 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comment
7M Pictures

For all its qualities Funny People never quite comes together. It can't quite decide who it wants to be about, whether it wants to be a comedy or a drama and in trying to be all things at once it never quite hits its full potential.

March 22, 2011 Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | Comment
ComingSoon.net

Apatow draws on his own experience to explore behavioral nuances of people that make us laugh, and it's no secret that being funny is not the same as being happy.

February 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Las Vegas CityLife | Comment

Funny People may be deeply flawed, but at least it has an accurate title.

October 27, 2010 Full Review Source: Quickflix | Comment

Es al mismo tiempo la película más interesante de Apatow y también la más irregular. Ambiciosa, agridulce, por momentos brillante, demasiado larga.

February 10, 2010 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | Comment
Uruguay Total

... a character drama in the guise of a show-biz comedy.

December 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Seanax.com | Comment (1)
Seanax.com

If this movie were to be believed, I would conclude that the last people I'd ever want to hang out with are comedians.

November 30, 2009 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | Comment
Window to the Movies

Stand-up saga has a foul mouth but brains and heart, too.

November 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Proof positive that when bad things happen to funny people, they might not be all that funny anymore.

November 21, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

Not exactly a movie about dying of laughter but close to it, Apatow's pot luck mock morbid meditation on mortality, punchlines and male anatomy jokes, is strangely as much about the cutting off of life as castration anxiety issues.

November 14, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

click for full review

October 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | Comment
Movies for the Masses

It's interesting stuff, I feel myself wanting to like it more than I did. Judd Apatow has a lot to say, he just hasn't mastered the tools to say it well.

September 11, 2009 Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National | Comment
MovieTime, ABC Radio National

The film is also an admiring portrait of the artist as Californian solipsist -- unburdened by personal ties or even the need to seem intelligent, free to follow his own random, petty, moment-by-moment train of thought.

September 11, 2009 Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | Comments (3)
The Age (Australia)

Funny People has some very funny moments but don't expect a joke fest. And don't expect a tight film either. At two and a half hours, it is not one but two films... and at least one of them shouldn't have been made.

September 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | Comments (3)
Sydney Morning Herald

It's a good deal more interesting than your average mainstream comedy.

September 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia) | Comment (1)
Daily Telegraph (Australia)

While you believe a lot of what happens in the first part of the film, credibility lessens in the second.

September 9, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | Comment
At the Movies (Australia)

Despite its flaws, this film has a beguiling candour and reflectiveness which is new for Apatow and Sandler.

September 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | Comment (1)
Sydney Morning Herald
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Funny People

I was very much looking forward to seeing Funny People. When I did, I was very disappointed. The film though has some decent laughs, but unfortunately doesn't what it wants to be, and goes on longer than it needs to. The film had a few good performances, and at times was funny; unfortunately the film was too long and

November 26, 2011
TheDudeLebowski65
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

Despite the title, Funny People isn't laugh out loud funny. It's more like a smile inducing drama. A good little drama about life, love and fame. In the same genre as Terms of Endearment...but not as good.

July 30, 2009
kenstachnik

Super Reviewer

    1. George Simmons: I don't really have any friends. You're my best friend, and I don't even like you!
    – Submitted by Tamsin P (8 months ago)
    1. George Simmons: So I'm guessing your friend is the fat version of you.
    – Submitted by rob g (10 months ago)
    1. George Simmons: Are you mad that you died at the end of Die Hard?
    – Submitted by rob g (10 months ago)

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