MovieChat Forums > Funny People (2009) Discussion > Did we really need to see 3 mins of Apat...

Did we really need to see 3 mins of Apatow's daughter performing Cats???


I like most of Apatows work but this movie just came across as so self indulgent. I can get past him casting his wife & kids in a lot of his movies because they are good actors but did we really need to watch the entire performance of her singing from Cats? It came across as so self indulgent because he purposely showed the whole thing to show us what a great performer she is. They could have showed maybe 10-15 seconds of it and moved on and still showed Sandler not being fully interested to get that point across. Sandlers reaction in the film was the exact same reaction i had.

This whole movie was so self indulgent. Do comedians really act like that when they hang out? It was as if they all were performing their stand up the entire time. Sarah Silverman with the floppy vagina bit, Charles Fleischer with the voices, it just came across as a outlet to perform their standup and didnt come across as the way real people act. It was as if this movie was a way to get celebs exposure. Norm McDonald, Paul Reiser, George Wallace, Dave Atell. Eminem was mediocre at best. What he said to George was 100% correct about them not being able to do normal people stuff like go to the mall or whatever but am i really supposed feel sorry for this guy? The only good part about it was the Ray Romano jokes. And am i supposed to believe that Eminem says the F word every other word out of his mouth? The guy is much more intelligent than that and speaks well in real life.

I can get past all the penis & fart jokes (to a degree but this movie tested my limit for how many dick and ball jokes i could take) and the constant reminder that these guys are all Jewish (has Rogan ever done a movie where he doesnt inform everyone he's Jewish? WE GET IT), but the laughs in this movie are few and far between and the movie is just all over the place. Most of the funny parts come more from response lines either from or towards Jason Schwartzman's character, Eric Bana and also Ray Romano's short spot. And also if Aziz's character was in it a little more because Aziz is a funny guy as is his character Randy.

I actually thought Aubrey Plaza's character was just unfunny with her standup but she's really that unfunny in real life with her stand up. And i usually love that very dry humor stuff. Mitch Hedberg is one of my favorite comedians of all time (may he rest in peace). But she's just not funny. Shes ok on P&R and some other stuff but ive seen her standup and its almost sad to watch because shes just not funny. Just because you speak monotoned doesnt make what you say funny. You have to have some substance behind the joke or something to your observation that is actually funny. Same goes for her character in the movie. The joke about rappers telling women to shake their ass all the time starts off with potential, then it falls flat when she starts giving examples of the women telling men what to do (Brush your teeth, etc.). Sadly thats how her comedy is in real life.

I get that the comedians in the movie werent really supposed to be too funny since they are struggling comedians trying to get a break but this movie really had no laughs. So then it must be a drama then right? Well the movie falls flat there. They give you this character that is dying that is also a huge jerk who you really can't feel sorry for and really doesnt learn anything or change other than the last 2 mins of the movie just to give the audience a little closure. You got this likeable character in Rogan who just gets dumped on the whole time and in the end is basically back where he was at the beginning of the movie.

You have a relationship plot with Ira & Daisy that Apatow does not take advantage of. We get introduced to this girl that Ira clearly likes, shes there later on to set up a date, shes there later on after things went south between the two, then shes there later on when they make up. You dont get much interaction between the two to develop a connection or let the relationship between the two grow.

Instead we get this pointless 2nd half of the movie with George and Laura. She clearly has feelings for him, he still likes her, him and Ira go to her house, theres a lot of pointless stuff, her husband comes home, the two get caught with what they were doing, she turns George down and stays with the life she has and George & Ira leave. Completely pointless. It really served no purpose for the film. The only good thing about those scenes was Eric Bana who steals the show. He was the funniest thing in the whole movie. And his character was so likeable, even though he was getting rub & tugs, that you actually felt like rooting for him over the jerk George and the hypocrite Laura.

The whole scene of them going to Lauras can be taken out of the movie and no one would notice because it really has no impact on the plot whatsoever. Its just 30 mins of Apatows family.

1st time i saw it in the theaters i somewhat enjoyed it. I was disappointed a little because i expected it to be funnier, but i thought it was an ok movie. Now its been on HBO a lot so ive watched it a couple more times and it was on again tonight and as i flipped past it i was thinking about the movie and just how bad it really is. A lot of times you'll see a movie in the theaters and right away its a great movie to you. Then after you see it a 2nd or 3rd time you really get the true sense of how good the movie really was and if your initial reaction was overblown because it was just that, initial reaction.

The plot sucks, the comedy sucks, the drama falls flat, the characters are not likeable people, too much worthless stuff in there, too self indulgent, the funniest character in the movie was the one guy who wasnt a comedian, overall just a below average movie.

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I only read your first few sentences, so I'm not going to respond to most of what you wrote. But it definitely wasn't three minutes of her singing - I'd be surprised if it was even 60 seconds.

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point is it could have been 10 seconds but Apatow instead chose to make sure he showed us the whole song to show off his daughter. It reminded me pretty much of what her character does in the film, the parent that always talks about and brags about their kid. It was much longer than it needed to be and came across as really self indulgent.

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Wow that was a really long post and I didn't read it all because I just couldn't commit.

Agreed with Bleachnj that it was *maybe* one minute of the little girl singing "Memory"... and also I have to say it was important to the second half of the movie and Laura's realization that she and George would never be able to make it work a second time around. She is a mom now who, like any normal mother, is so proud to share a video of her little girl singing in the lead role of a school play and he's a twit who is more interested in his text messages about another baby movie. After she leaves the house to go to the airport we see her in the car by herself singing bits of "Memory" and coming to this realization. It was an important scene and not just some gratuitous home video as you make it out to be.



"Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream..."

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I know that YOU don't want to hear about someone's Judaism but a lot of people (not you, you're obviously unbiased) complain that Jews HIDE their religion by assimilating with the masses. Seth Rogen lets it be known so that people UNLIKE you don't be hating on him deep down.

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Aubrey Plaza never did stand-up in her life before this movie, so not sure what stand-up of hers you claim to have seen.

"It's 'cause you're tired and you don't give a sh*t, it's not supernatural"

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[deleted]

I'm blown away by the overwhelming amount of irony I found in the OP's post and how lengthy it is. And I'm sure there are some good thoughts and compelling arguments in there, but I couldn't bring myself to read all of it.



"Stwike him, Centuwion ... vewy Wuffwy!"

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I stopped reading after the first sentence. I automatically assumed all of it was going to be about the director's daughter and her 2 mins on the big screen. personally, couldn't care less.

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Apatow featuring his family is actually kind of nice. Why wouldn't you cast your own wife and kids in a movie that calls for it? They're good. They bring chemistry most movies lack when dealing with a casted family. Note in Knocked Up how much of a unit they all appeared to be. Same goes with this one. It's easier, it adds realism.

As for the CATS part... it was Leslie's most subtle and heartbreaking moment... because Judd played it real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-pr9c_Ebt0 HALLOWEEN II trailer (Canadian Fan Film)

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"the characters are not likeable people" Sigh. You wouldn't like Detour (1945).

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