Funny People

Everybody's looking for the end of Judd Apatow. Ever since The 40 Year Old Virgin came out (and people rediscovered the genius of Freaks and Geeks), Apatow has been somewhat of a golden boy in Hollywood. The only problem is the law of diminishing returns in Tinseltown, meaning, the more stuff you slap your name on, the higher the possibility is that the stuff your slapping your name is going to be crap. In a way, that's one of the things that Funny People is about, but its also an attempt, by Apatow, to marry his brand of humor with more mature storytelling.

Adam Sandler plays George Simmons, a famous comedic actor who is dying from an unnamed "blood disease". He's taken a lot of things for granted in his life, and he decides that in his final days, he wants to take as much advantage of life as he can. When he makes a surprise visit to a comedy club to do some stand up, he meets Ira Wright, played by Seth Rogen, a struggling comedian who gets some laughs for making fun of George's rusty attempts at stand up. George hires Ira to write jokes for him, and the two bond with each other as Ira helps George prepare for his last days. Everything begins to fall apart, though, when George finds out that the experimental drug treatment he has been taking is actually working.

Sandler is a decent actor, pretty much always (its his choice of roles that tends to keep him down), and I really liked Rogen in this film because it felt like he was finally not playing the same old douche bag that he does in every Apatow movie that he's been in (which is most of them). The direction is pretty good, but if I had one complaint about this movie, its just that the story is just not up to par. The first half of the film is pretty good, but then, when George learns he's going to live, every part of the film becomes this uber-predictable jumble of who cares? I feel that if Apatow would have taken a bigger chance and either killed of George, or took him to a place that wasn't so obvious, maybe he would have had his perfect "mature" movie, but, unfortunately, he didn't. Funny People's biggest fault, for me, at least, is the fact that it is funny but it is also terribly predictable.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Writer/Director Judd Apatow seems to have his name on everything lately, and now he has teamed up with Freaks and Geeks team mate, writer/director Jake Kasdan, to produce Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Apatow co-wrote the film with Kasdan, and Kasdan directed.

Walk Hard is a parody of the life of Johnny Cash, famously brought to the screen a few years ago in the James Mangold film Walk The Line. John C. Riley plays Dewey Cox, a country boy who accidentally kills his piano phenom brother, by cutting him in half with a machete. From then on, he makes a pledge to be as good a musician as his brother, and win back the love of his father, who continuously reminds him that "the wrong kid died". The story follows Cox from his first appearances in a band, through his initial success, his drug years, the destruction of his marriage, and his comeback. All of it is told with trademark Apatow "one step to far" humor, and Riley plays Cox completely balls to the wall.

Walk Hard is funny, like pretty much everything that Apatow has his hands in, but, it reminds me a lot of Knocked Up. It's the kind of film that you watch once, and think - "Well, that was funny", and then you don't really ever think about watching it again. Cox's whole life is thrown at you in an hour and a half, and, by the time it's all over, you feel tired and satisfied, but not wanting for more. With other Apatow-related films, Superbad, Talladega Nights, and The 40 Year Old Virgin, I was always ready to watch it again. Walk Hard, though, left me uninterested in a second viewing.

Tim Meadows, of Saturday Night Live fame, plays an amazing supporting role in the film as the member of the band who always seems to be getting Dewey into whatever his next vice is. They go through a couple of drugs, and every time Meadows, as Sam, is caught doing the drugs by Cox, he tells Cox - "You don't want to get involved in this shit", and then goes on to list all of the reasons he shouldn't do the drugs that Sam is doing. Oddly enough, all of the reasons Dewey shouldn't do them always end up coming off as reasons Dewey SHOULD take drugs. For some reason, this gag never ceases to be funny. 

Riley inhabits the role of Cox like a second skin. By the time the film is halfway through, you don't even question Riley as an actor playing a role anymore. You just, automatically, see him as Dewey Cox. Like Will Ferrel in Talladega Nights, Riley plays Cox as close to a talented moron as he possibly can. Jenna Fischer, of The Office fame, also does an incredible job as Darlene, the June Carter character in this Cash take off.

But, here's the question - With all of the great performances, all of the hilarious jokes, is Walk Hard worth seeing in the theater? I can't answer that question, because I prefer seeing everything in the theater, as opposed to watching it on a TV screen. But, if I was more fickle about my theater going, honestly, I would probably wait for DVD on this one. It is funny, but it's not a Superbad, or a 40 Year Old Virgin.