Funny people -My movie review

So I saw "Funny People" the latest Adam Sandler movie which also had Seth Rogen and Leslie Mann.

Before I get on to the review, its funny how I got the free tickets to this advance show of the movie. Usually I never win any contests or such, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this mail that I had got 2 free passes to the movie in a newspaper contest. The only irritating part was that I had to go all the way to the newspaper's office to collect the passes myself.

So just came back from the screening and these are my two cents on the movie. The plot is pretty simple-a "supposedly" dying stand up comedian realizes how shallow his life is and tries to catch up with all the important people he forgot about(his sister, family, his ex girlfriend etc).

Adam Sandler plays the part of the comic while Seth rogen plays his protogee who he tries to groom before he fades away from life. The good parts are that the dialogues and people are funny and elicit many a chuckle from you. The bad part is that sometimes the pace of the movie really drags and some editing could have worked wonders. I though the second half of the movie loses its way completely as if the director finally realized that he had no story to tell us in the first place. However I especially thought that jonah Hill who plays Seth Rogen's room mate was hilarious. The way the guys talk to each other was so natural and a good highlight of the story.

I would rate the movie as slightly better than average and almost close to good. It could have been a lot better if the story had led the viewers somewhere. The ending didnt leave that big an impression on the audience and thats something that hopefully the director Judd Apatow will take care of next time.

If I had to rank Apatow's movies, Knocked up and 40 yr old virgin are definetly more higher than this one. Funny people is funny but in bits and parts.

Here are few(of the already very few) funny quotes from "funny people"-a movie that took itself way too seriously :)

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Mark: When my grandfather died, there was one candle next to his bed. And the candle started flickering. We all thought it was him going to Heaven, you know?

Leo: You don't pass through fire to get to Heaven. I think he went to Hell.
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George Simmons: Is your act designed to make sure no girl will ever sleep with you?
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George Simmons to Ira: "You're my only friend," he tells Ira, "and I don't even like you."

"500 days of Summer" aka The Flasback of a lost love

Saw an advanced screening of "500 days of Summer" yesterday. Outside the theatre, the Harry Potter fans had laid seige to the entire place decked up in Harry Potter costumes and it looked more like a HP party for the fans waiting for the 12 am show of Harry Potter.There was even a TV crew filming the HP fans and their excitement.

Coming back to our movie, 500 days of Summer is based on a very nice premise. And as they say in the title its not a love story, its a story about love.

Before the movie began, the promoters distributed Tshirts and Los Angeles Lonely Planet guidebooks when we were waiting in the line. That was really cool and a fun
way to start the movie experience.

The viewers keep going back and forth with Tom(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as he goes over all the events in the 500 days of his relationship with Summer(Zooey Deschanel).

Its the age old cycle of events we rehash in our mind after we break up with someone special. What really went wrong, what were the warning signs, did I miss something etc.

Summer does not believe in love and being tied down to relationships while Tom is the eternal hopeless romantic looking to fnd the one. He meets Summer and falls in love completely. Their romance is cute and quirky but runs into rough weather when Tom expresses his desire to have a more serious relationship.

The characters make you feel connected to the story and are right in their individual ways. Both the leads have very good chemistry and are perfect for their roles. Zooey looks a bit jaded in this compared to another movie of hers, "Failure to launch" in which she looked much better and fresher.

There are a couple of very cute scenes like when Tom wakes up to a happy world after spending the night with Summer, the Ikea post marriage shopping etc.

I like what Tom's friend suggests so wisely to Tom when he is grieving about losing Summer. She asks him to look back at not only the good times but also the bad times which is so important cause the heart cleverly filters out the bad parts and only makes you remember the good parts after a break up.

500 days of summer is worth watching once for sure. It will make you think about love and why it means different things to different people based on the situations that happen to you. Again a very beautiful tag line-Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t.

Recommended viewing.