This is a smart movie, one that's very unexpected.

| Original Score: A- | Sep 12, 2017

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Funny People is funny, moving, dramatic, and alternately hilarious. It's a bit like a stand-up dramedy.

| Original Score: B | May 6, 2011

The film is also an admiring portrait of the artist as Californian solipsist -- unburdened by personal ties or even the need to seem intelligent, free to follow his own random, petty, moment-by-moment train of thought.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 11, 2009

Funny People has some very funny moments but don't expect a joke fest. And don't expect a tight film either. At two and a half hours, it is not one but two films... and at least one of them shouldn't have been made.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 10, 2009

Despite its flaws, this film has a beguiling candour and reflectiveness which is new for Apatow and Sandler.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 9, 2009

A boisterous first hour builds good will. Strong performances sustain us through the next uneven 90 minutes.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 6, 2009

The first part of the film is terrific and very funny. Apatow perfectly captures the ruthless competitiveness of young comics.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 1, 2009

An absolute treat. In spite of its disappointing climax, this is Apatow's smartest, rudest and - yes - funniest film yet.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2009

A healthy dose of negativity might have helped to tone this baggy indulgence of a movie into some kind of workable shape. Not every idea is a good idea, after all.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 29, 2009

Fans of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up will find much the same measure of sentiment and ribaldry - ie, too much of both - and, if it's possible, even less of a grasp on what lesser film-makers call "story".

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 29, 2009

One of the most enjoyable films of the year.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2009

The film has some obvious problems - it sprawls, and goes on too long. But it's funny in such a thoughtful, rounded, adult way, and deflects sentimentality so confidently, that it won me over anyway.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2009

Despite it being too long, not entirely convincing and being disgustingly but accurately described as a dra-medy, it's still funny as hell.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 29, 2009

Sandler has gained dramatic weight and variety. But if I want to see him play Hamlet, I'd rather have Shakespeare as the scriptwriter.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 29, 2009

Vulgarity and sentimentality are set up in a fight to the death. I laughed a few times, mostly at Jonah Hill's nerdy but casual smarts.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 29, 2009

This is a kind of cuddly bromance take on Scorsese's The King Of Comedy, in which sentimentality balances bleakness without toppling into schmaltz.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 29, 2009

It's a film that is more ambitious than Knocked Up or The 40-Year Virgin and yet somehow more frustrating, too.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 29, 2009

We've got the first two-thirds of a five-star comedy, followed by what feels like seventeen-thirds of a duff romcom.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 29, 2009

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

| Original Score: B | Aug 25, 2009