Standing Up for Funny People

I' m talking about Funny People on air today. All in all I'm recommending the film. It's not without some faults, mainly the length and a distracting subplot about a failed relationship.


I say distracting because the best stuff of Funny People comes from the comedy. The craft of comedy. A love letter to the dented souls that decide to get up on stage and make other people laugh. This is director Judd Apatow's most personal film because a lot was taken from his own path. He was the guy, trying to break into the biz. And it was another famous name, Roseanne Barr, who gave him a leg up.





For comedians there's a smorgasbord of stuff here. The cameos are endless. At times it feels like the movie The Artisocrats . Sarah Silverman, Andy Dick, Ray Romano, Norm MacDonald, Paul Reiser (remember him?) and a even a blistering Eminem. No he's not a comedian, but he has one of the funniest moments in the film.


Now the movie is being advertised as an Adam Sandler film. There he is in the middle of the warm and fuzzy poster. But for me this was a Seth Rogen film. Yes, he's funny. There's a scene in a restaurant, where he tries to stop crying, scrunching up his face in a way that had me crying with laughter myself.


But it's also Rogen's mix of vulnerability and intelligence. He comes off as a smart but decent guy. Watching him slowly find his voice and grow as a performer is the best part of the film. Compared to that, Adam Sandler's bitter old rich guy falls a little flat.


One more thing, don't be fooled by the title or trailer, this is a movie with a serious side. With a soundtrack featuring Neil Diamond and James Taylor, you feel Judd Apatow is getting a little melancholy. With my preoccupation with trailers I find it interesting how the original trailer featured Sandler's character jamming with Wilco. The feeling is joyous and celebratory. In the movie we learn Sandler's character has actually paid Wilco, effectively renting them for a couple hours. It's small moment, but heartbreaking and a hint of the some of the darkness hiding under these Funny People. (By that way, the song Sandler's singing in the trailer is actually "Photograph" by Ringo Starr.)


Although it's lopsided, Funny People is worth seeing. For a big Hollywood release Judd Apatow has snuck in a lot of his own life on screen. Talking someone to sleep. A brush with death. The cruelness of crowds. All based on Judd Apatow's own experiences.

Hopefully the fans fall for Funny People the way I did.

First Photo from X-Men: First Class Revealed!

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

I'm on the radio* today talking about how the mutant muddle of a movie Wolverine sets up Marvel's next movie X-Men:First Class.

Hopefully the next movie will look a little more grown up.

Image via Topless Robot, who have a fun list of some of Wolverine's least-than-stellar moments.

(*You can catch me on morning or afternoon shosw for CBC Radio in St.John's, Cornerbrook, Thunder Bay, Regina, Whitehorse, Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Sudbury, Quebec City, Winnipeg, Montreal, Windsor and on Ontario Morning heard outside Toronto.)

Watchmen Will Suck

Sorry.

There's no other way to put it.

Having just watched the new trailer.

It's clear I've been kidding myself.

The director of 300 has taken one of the best superhero sagas ever put into book form and ruined it.

The slow motion shots, the characters calling themselves "Watchmen", the heroes posing like refugees from one of the BAD batman movies...it's all wrong.

Watchmen if you don't know was a graphic novel, actually originally a comic series. It was deranged genius Alan Moore trying to ask the question what would the world really be like with superheroes? We saw how they were compromised by the government, how they sunk into themselves, wallowing in their glory and sadism.

It was a harsh, multi-layered look at another world.

In the trailer, the heroes strut like magazine stars. Their latex outfits glisten. Rorschach the comic's relentless and somewhat psychotic detective now sounds like Dirty Harry with extra hubris.

In the comic you had an idea of what the world with superheros would feel like. Smell like. And some of it was...shabby, awkward even embarrassing. Nothing on earth can make a guy wearing underwear on the outside and Owl Ears look right. Watchmen's writer and artist knew this. Their Night Owl had a middle-aged paunch. He didn't look comfortable putting the cowl on...that was the point.

Instead director Zack Snyder seems to be reveling in it all.

I have a baaaaaaaaaad feeling this is not the masterpiece Comic fans have been waiting for.

Intimate Iron Man

Amazing, intimate and warm pictures of...Iron Man the movie. 

Best of all, shot by Mr.Stane himself, Jeff Bridges. (Link takes you to Jeff's personal website.)

Many of you are fans of the movie I'm sure.  This will solidify that feeling.   We here at G.O.F. have the DVD.  Movie stands up, even for the non-comic geeks out there.  

And speaking of all things comic and geek...I caught Ed Norton's Incredible Hulk.

Ewww boy. That is one bad film.  Hulk is actually one of my fav comic characters.  Hard to say why, maybe because he's so...basic.  Big Green Guy.  Monster Strong. Super Angry.  Plus there's all the great Jekyll and Hyde stuff.  Read some of the good Peter David comic runs if you don't believe me. 

Anyway.  To the incredibly-bad Hulk.  The final fight scene. Wow.  First, I've never seen a multi-million dollar movie like that where I thought the effects were WORSE than a video game.  You got a fine actor like Ed Norton, and then a CGI Hulk that looks like an insert in a Final Fantasy Game or something.  Yeech.  Plus, Hulk grimacing in pain?  Getting his ass handed to him by the Abomination?  Not quite green?  No no no.

(And it has to be said as a Torontonian. That does not look like New York City.  You can go and put up a sign that says Apollo Theatre.  It's still Toronto's Yonge St. and Dundas.  Probably one of the most recognizable intersections in Canada.)

 

Amazing fumble by the Marvel comic company there. I'm now convinced the only way to do Hulk is without CGI. Get a really BIG guy and make him look even bigger using smart camera tricks like they employed in the Lord of the Rings series.  It sounds retro I know but think about it. If they can make John Rhys-Davies appear Gimli-sized, certainly it's doable.  Plus, it gives Hulk what he's missing, the human touch.  CGI has come a long way, but for the moment we're still experts in recognizing true human emotions.  Seems to me a human actor, with the 2008 version of green-screen technology is the best of both worlds.   

 To sum up:  

• Bridges - still a heck of a cool guy and evidently a great photographer.
• Iron Man - solid movie, G.O.F. guaranteed. 
• The Incredible Hulk - steaming pile of gamma-radiated refuse.