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Mixed or average reviews - based on 36 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 190 Ratings

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 36
  2. Negative: 2 out of 36
  1. Funny People is a true brass ring effort, a reach for excellence that takes big risks. It's 146 minutes, with a story that's more European in feeling than American.
  2. Reviewed by: Mark Dinning
    80
    An absolute treat. In spite of its disappointing climax, this is Apatow’s smartest, rudest and -- yes -- funniest film yet.
  3. Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    60
    There's so much that's so disarmingly good and sharp about Funny People that you wish the whole movie weren't so much of a shambles.

See all 36 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 63 out of 99
  2. Negative: 25 out of 99
  1. Funny People is a intelligent, funny adult film. Now a days the genre of comedy is now sex. We get a number of new movies every year trying to milk the success of Judd Apatow films. Some of them are good and I can name a few. However they need to rely on crude and vulgar actions to get laughs. We get so many of those antics to the point of feeling disgust for the characters, but when the third act comes up we have to cheer for them it's dumb. Apatow's movies are different there fresh in orignatly and the crude and vulgar comedy is kept to a restrictive level. Thus giving us time to know the characters in between the big laughs. The movie starts with George Simmons played by Adam Sandler, he's a successful comedian and actor. He has stared in many films and is a prodigy to all standups. He lives alone and does mostly everything alone. One day he's sitting in a doctors office getting the news that he's been diagnosied with a rare form of cancer. His doctor firmily says it, he needs to try out expermental medicine. We then meet Ira played by Seth Rogen who's a up and coming comic trying to get out of the deli that he works at. One day George performs at a standclub that he has'nt been in three years. He notices Ira's performance and takes him under his wing as a assistant. They form a friendship and where George goes Ira goes. He trys to make ammends with his famliy and with the girl that got away, played by Leslie Mann who is married to someone else. So when George is thinking the worst his doctor tells him your getting better and tells him get a hold of your life again. You must think in a clinched kind of way he changes his personality and treat people better and go for the girl right? wrong, he exploits his condtion and tries to go for the girl. These are characters in a realistic plot. With problems and smart dialouge. Yes theirs crude and vulgar actions but it's done in a way that everyday people talk, with your friends, with your spouse. Judd Apatow did a very mature film proving you can mix vulgar and adaptable characters. This movie is based on everyday people with the only difference is that there Funny People. Collapse
  2. A more dramatic turn from Judd Apatow sees Adam Sandler playing what is essentially an exaggerated version of himself. The performances are great, and it's one of the few films which I can happily sit through despite its huge run time. Expand
  3. DotFail
    5
    This would've been much better if Apatow had left his wife, kids and 30 minutes out of it.
  4. bird
    4
    This movie had some gut-bustingly funny lines, but it is at least 30 minutes too long and veers wildly between being funny and being wince-inducing. Hard to recommend. Expand

See all 99 User Reviews

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