By movie's end, sort of sweet Seth Rogan's character, Ira, kisses the Lisa Cardinelli Velma from Scooby Doo cute -girl-comedian-next-door-character after learning she's had sex with his ego maniacal and vapid actor roommate, who looks and acts a bit like a girl. Shouldn't Ira be concerned she will leave him for a really funny lesbian comedianne sometime in the near future? This is a happy ending in Apatow-land.
Judd Apatow has his formula down now: take a lovable comedian able to pull off the sensitive and non-threatening everyman, dump them into a crass and sex-or drug-fueled world where we sort of learn something sort of meaningful, once you dig for a really, really long time (2 hours, really?) beneath all of the sex and drug jokes.
There were some funny moments in Funny People, where you laughed even though you know you shouldn't. There were some sort of great moments of vulnerability from Sandler (who I've enjoyed greatly in his previous serious roles due to said vulnerability), and at one point I thought that maybe Apatow was trying to make some meaningful commentary on fame and had a game Sandler to go along with it taking the mirror to his own career. But, nope. Just scratched the surface of that, and instead favors plenty of jokes about getting laid and penis size.
Apatow & Co. want to have it both ways. They give lip service to traditional values, but then regularly discard them in favor of the 'ol comedy tropes of getting laid and living happily ever after.
Apatow does get cudos for accurately portraying the misery and emptiness of the comedy and fame circuit in Los Angeles and for throughly mocking the personality types that gravitate to this industry.
While Eric Bana is very nice to look at, he can't seem to get a break with roles these days which don't seem to showcase his natural charm or talent (Star Trek), but hire him as the misplaced beefcake who seems to be acting in a more serious movie than the one he's actually in.
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