Funny People

Director: Judd Apatow
Writer: Judd Apatow
Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann
Release Date: July 31, 2009
Length: 2 hours 18 minutes

Hopes and dreams dashed against the rocks. Those are mine of course – not Appatow’s.  Now that Judd Apatow is rich and successful, he is trying different things with his movies, and I don’t like it. After seeing this movie, I wish that Judd Apatow was still writing his outrageously funny movies – like Knocked Up and 40-year-old Virgin -  that made me almost have a heart attack, I would be laughing so hard. Now he has taken a dramatic and confusing turn with Funny People. The movie stars Adam Sandler as George Simmons, a washed out dying comedian and Seth Rogen as Ira Wright, a young struggling comedian. Ira lives in L.A. with his two friends, Leo (Jonah Hill) and Mark (Jason Schwartzman).  After watching Ira’s performance one night, George decides to hire him to write his jokes. As George Simmons is Ira’s basic hero, he agrees and starts writing. As this partnership continues, George and Ira don’t exactly become friends, but likable people to each other and Ira learns that George is dying. The plot outline I just described was for one of two movies that were squished together in Funny People. One of the main characters Laura(Leslie Mann),who had a leading credit was only introduced an hour into the film. Laura is George’s ex from a long time ago, having ended their relationship because he cheated on her. Now she has a husband(Eric Bana) and two kids(played by Mann’s real-life children), living in San Francisco. George realizes he’s still in love with her and tells her he is dying. So all of a sudden Funny People is no longer a comedy, but now tries to be a tragic love story. This film is two different movies, one hour of Seth Rogen living in L.A. with his fellow comedian roommates doing stand-up. He then continues on to meet George Simmons and writes jokes for him, as their friendship grows. The next hour was a completely different movie. This half consists more of an intense love triangle, with Leslie Mann and Eric Bana where everything is depended on if  Laura (Mann) is going to leave her husband or not. Funny People is mildly humorous in parts. The only laughs brought out of me were from the scenes with Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill. Sandler’s character is not likable at all and I found it extremely hard to sympathize for him. Also the movie is extremely long and you should know going into it that you’re not going to laugh that much. Don’t bother with Funny People.

Bruno

Director: Larry Charles
Writers: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Mazar, Jeff Schaffer
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen
Release Date: July 10, 2009
Length: 1 hour 21 minutes

It has been three years and we all have been very patient. But was it worth the wait? It depends on how much silliness you can tolerate. Then again, Borat was pretty ridiculous as well. After gay, Austrian, wannabe model Bruno is dumped by his boyfriend, he decides to travel with his assistant, Lutz, to Hollywood to become a star. When he gets there and interviews with an agent, he realizes his show is going to be a lot harder to make then he thought. So when that plan fails he tries different strategies that other celebrities use. Like starting a charity, or adopting – actually trading – an African baby, or even having a scandalous sex tape. I was afraid that Bruno would try and be another Borat, but I was glad to find differences. Unfortunately these differences were that Borat was all real and improvised and Bruno was mostly scripted. It was definitely not as funny as Borat, but still generated many laughs. You can tell that quite a lot of Bruno is not actually real, which makes it less believable and less amusing to watch. In Borat you knew everything was real, so you would laugh harder thinking “this actually happened? He actually just did that?” But unfortunately in Bruno I didn’t know whether to laugh or not because I wasn’t sure if it was fake or real. Borat had its own originality. Bruno took a different turn, but unfortunately many people know who Sacha Baron Cohen is, and who all of his characters are. Despite my disappointment, I still found myself laughing throughout almost every scene. Sacha Baron Cohen is obviously a comedic god and knows what he is doing. You might find yourself thinking half the time, “this is completely ridiculous” or “why did I pay to see this?” as I had those thoughts as well. But I can assure I was almost in tears because I was laughing so hard in the final scene, before the credits. Bruno is definitely worth the watch, but you might be slightly disappointed.

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

Director: David Yates
Writer: Steve Kloves, J.K. Rowling (author)
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
Release Date: July 15, 2009

Length: 2 hours 33 minutes

Instead of a thrilling adventurous family film, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince was more of a romantic comedy…which is okay, but is that what you think of when someone says Harry Potter? It’s time again, Harry is back and now he’s actually hit puberty. It’s his sixth year and he has just fought Voldemort for about the 18^th time. Now that he knows he is “the chosen one” - meaning the one to kill Voldemort – Dumbledore is going to help him with extra “classes” to prepare Harry to finish him off. In the process though he gets distracted. Harry now believes bully Hogwartz student Draco Malfoy is a death eater – Voldemorts follower – and is doing something  worthy of suspicion within the castle. He is also distracted with his own personal problems, now that he likes his best friend’s sister Ginny Weasley. Meanwhile, his two best friends, Ron and Hermione are having separate romantic issues of their own. Now that Harry is 16, you can take it more seriously, as opposed to when he was 11. Harry, Hermione, and Ron are all grown up now, so that means more love interests,  more wand-fights and more interest from the audience. But unfortunately, for me Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was missing the pulse-shaking fight and spider and werewolf scenes from the previous films. The director of the last Harry Potter came back to his chair for the half blood prince, and I really wish he hadn’t. David Yates almost ruined the 5^th Harry Potter movie for me, and he almost came close with this one. If it wasn’t for the performances of the three main stars, I would have been bored to tears. I much preferred the films directed by Chris Colombus and Mike Newell. I’m just hoping he doesn’t screw up the last two movies, which he is also directing. This installment was definitely an improvement from the 5^th one, but at least the last one had a thought out climax. Although, compared to previous films this one was nicely based off the 6^th book. It didn’t take out too much and kept everything important. This film surprisingly generated more laughs then intrigue. It was very anti-climactic. Towards the end, there isn’t really anything to get excited about. I saw the midnight showing the first night it came out. So you can guess that I was pretty excited. My excitement stayed throughout the film because I was excited, but the film wasn’t exciting at all. I left the theatre thinking, wow wasn’t that amazing. Then I saw it a few weeks later with friends. Having less excitement going in the second time, I realized what I was watching actually wasn’t all that amazing. Still good though. The movie is worth the watch, but be prepared for two and a half hours where, not once are you on the edge of your seat.

The Ugly Truth

Director: Robert Luketic
Writers: Nicole Eastman, Karen McCullah Lutz
Starring: Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler
Release Date: July 24, 2009
Length: I hour 36 minutes

The prettier the stars, the uglier the script, and truth be told, this movie is not going to break that streak.  Know-it-all, needy News producer Abby, who of course has no time for a social life is working at a news show in Sacramento that is doing poorly with ratings. When her boss hires Mike a sexist gross guy who Abby detests, his segment “the ugly truth” about women who can’t deal with the fact that guys are guys becomes a hit, and she is forced to work with him. Mike agrees to help Abby get a date with her handsome neighbor, and if his techniques don’t work she can fire him. The Ugly Truth is the 500^th installment of the predictable cliché “beautiful girl who has no life likes boy and hates other boy, then girl falls for cynical rude but ‘charming’ boy she hated” franchise and the 18^th for Katherine Heigl (producer of this film also).  Frankly I’m getting tired of the “doesn’t have time to have sex or go out because I work so much” character frequently played by Heigl who is young and gorgeous and if wasn’t married could probably get any guy she wants. I’m also getting tired of Heigl doing cheesy chick flicks like this and 27 Dresses and then regretting doing knocked up (which made her career) and saying at one point that she didn’t like the writing she was getting from Grey’s Anatomy. I guess Mrs. Heigl is partly a reason (if you haven’t already guessed it) that I wasn’t the biggest fan of this movie. Also are we really supposed to believe that Heigl – or anyone for that matter – would turn down Colin a very attractive young doctor with a six-pac for Mike, a 10 years older sexist with a pot-belly? Well I didn’t. And, but of course the very good-looking guy Colin who Heigl is trying to go out with is written with no personality and doesn’t hold your interest to make the audience prefer Butlers character more as a love interest.  You’ve seen this movie in every other chick flick before, and if you haven’t? You’re not missing much.