Just saw "Funny People" - not as funny as you think...

Last night, a friend and I went to see Funny People, the new Judd Apatow picture with Adam Sandler, Eric Bana, Leslie Mann, and a couple of the Apakow crew (Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill) shedding a light on the world of traveling comedians and the worlds they live in when they become successful.

My friend and I spoke about the movie and were surprised how nuanced and extended the movie was - not your typical Adam Sandler movie - tho there are plenty of great amusing references to the type of movies he makes (wait for the references to Re*Do and MerMan), some of Sandler's own initial content back when he was starting out and yes, there are fart jokes and other commentary on body and sex organs.

But this is a different kind of movie that Sandler, or his character George Simmons, would be part of - this movie is a melange of a number of things:

• The life of a comic writer (or a bunch of them in LA)
• The life of standup comics
• The life you have after success in comedy
• The life you may have neglected
• and the choices we make, regret and wish we could recover...

All of these threads are obvious in the trailers you'll see online. The warning I give is that the movie is not typical Apatow, it reminds me of an Altman movie, showing you a number of threads that you would not have expected to see, with a number of characters that you did not expect to learn about.

This will not be a normal movie for Hollywood movie fans to appreciate - it will be a movie that you will have to think about later and review in your head. There are great funny bits, incredible cameos (still in love with Sarah Silverman after all these years), and a thread that is incredibly believable when you think of what Adam Sandler's life (or any other successful comic's life) might be and the choice he/she made.

Beware of the Critics Wrath I promise that the statements from the critics will contain phrases like "too disjointed", "too long", "too many characters", "hanging threads" and so on. And, in some ways they are correct. Two hours and 30 some odd minutes did seem a bit long, and there could be some editing left to be done upon wide release.

But enjoy the movie with the expectation that this is a movie about "LIFE" - or at least the threads of life that you may take, you have to climb, and the paths you did not take and wish you had.

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