Funny People – 2-Disc Collector’s Edition

Posted May 24, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

George Simmons is a seasoned comedian who started doing stand-up comedy to move onto blockbuster movies. When one day he gets diagnosed with a terminal blood disease, he finds out that his life has been filled with plenty of mistakes. He decides to do some stand-up comedy again when he does his first gig again in a club, he takes notice of the relatively “green” performer Ira Wright who he decides to hire as assistant and opening act for himself. Ira, who has always been the mockery among his comedy friends, suddenly finds himself being envied while George is trying to better his life.

Sound and Vision:
The image is a bit on the soft side and lacks some detail. Technically we also spotted some ghosting here and there and some minor edge enhancement. Nothing really too bothering though.

The sound comes with a 5.1 Dolby Digital track which hardly ever uses the surround system. It could have almost been a 2.1 track as the rear speakers hardly ever get any action.

Extras:
- Commentary
- Gag Reel
- Deleted Scenes
- Extended & Alternate Scenes
- More Gag Reel
- Line-O-Rama
- Documentary: Funny People Diaries
- Featurette: Judd’s High School Radio Show
- Featurette: Raaaaaaaaaaaandy!
- Music Performances
- From the Archives – Stand-Up Performances
- The Films of George Simmons
- Prank Call 1990 – Annoyed Guy
- “Yo Teach…!” Behind-the-Scenes

A buttload of extras that will please the fans without any problem.

Conclusion:
Funny People is marketed as a comedy but as so many comedies featuring Seth Rogen these days, it’s more a drama packed in a piece of comedy paper. The jokes mostly come from the stand-up gigs and you really need to be into those to appreciate them as they’re not always that good. The rest of the movie is more a romantic drama with plot twists you can see coming from miles away and don’t offer any surprises. When the whole love affair pops up in the last hour or so, the whole movie starts to fall apart and becomes plain boring. Funny People really isn’t that funny.

To describe the movie in one sentence: it’s a behind the screens look at the world of stand-up comedy that in the end turns out to be only funny for a small select group of people and we’re not part of that.

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