Funny People
Universal Pictures | Release Date: July 31, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
12
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
SlateDana Stevens
Apatow answers to no one. His worst enemy as a director is his unwillingness to linger in the dark places from which his comedy springs. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Amusing and engaging yet lacking in snap and cohesion, this insider's look at the world of standup comics in contempo Los Angeles rings true in its view of the variously warped, stunted and narrow lives of its mostly male denizens. Read full review
60
Village VoiceScott Foundas
There's so much that's so disarmingly good and sharp about Funny People that you wish the whole movie weren't so much of a shambles. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
You find yourself wishing that Apatow had managed a script that was either really funny or about real people instead of this half-baked pseudo-memoir that's neither. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Michael Posner
Apatow wants to be taken seriously. Funny People is the attempt to raise his game a notch – and it fails. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Corliss
That heart comes bursting out of Funny People, Apatow's intermittently engaging, 2 hr. 26 min. essay in schizo-cinemaphrenia. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Sandler isn't afraid of plumbing his dark side, but Apatow fails him: Scenes of George's self-pity drag on too long, and as the character loses stature, Sandler recedes from his own vehicle. Rogen doesn't fill the vacuum. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
What’s best about Funny People, actually, is Sandler, who takes the weird, resentful anger that has always coursed beneath his comedy and puts it right on the surface. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The message that comes across is: We're all screwed, and then we die. Ba-DUM. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
There’s something irritatingly self-satisfied about Funny People, which explains why, though it glances on the perils of fame, it mostly affirms its pleasures. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
Any sort of new insight into comedy's darker themes, to say nothing of life's, eludes Funny People. Instead Sandler and Rogen and the rest are left to wander aimlessly, with tedious comedy gigs, an even more tedious faux sitcom and relatively vapid relationships masquerading as a plot. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Funny People is an ambitious, misshapen picture that feels like two, maybe even three, separate movies uncomfortably jammed into one. Read full review
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