After knowing that he is ill and has about only one year to live, a well-known comedians who enjoys with popularity and fame, struggles against spending the rest of his life in doing good and help other people, so he helps Ira, an upcoming comedian, in order to gain fame before his death.
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
The unique hatred of yourself, and your audience, required of being a comedian is something that Apatow (and Sandler) understand profoundly: That's what this movie is about.
This is a generous, goodhearted, enjoyable movie, loaded with memorable characters and genuine wit. But there's such a thing as giving a little too much.
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.
At over two hours, it moves at the dignified pace of a Bergman film rather than, well, a Happy Gilmore or a Waterboy, but the director can rest easy, it's another hit.
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.
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.