This was on TV last night, so I watched it again….. and cried. Great film indeed. I think the reason it gets you is because it’s a comedy and then by the end of the film, you’re wiping tears away. If you haven’t seen it, the trailer says it all – a workaholic gets a remote that can control his life.  Great film with excellent scenes with the grandad/father and son. hmmmmm

Memorable film quote :

Will you still love me in the morning?
Forever and ever, babe.

ManCry star rating ******** 8/10

*Spoilers*  The last time he saw his father and the ending rain scene below – enjoy them while they last.

Bonus – Henry Winkler back in the day as “The Fonz” on Happy Days – CLASSIC stuff

Interview: Judd Apatow (Part One)

Read Part Two of this interview right here

Funny People was the latest in Judd Apatow’s ongoing series of summer comedies, but it was anything but a typical summer comedy: following a successful comedian (played by Apatow’s longtime friend Adam Sandler) who reflects on his life after discovering he’s going to die, the film offered lots of humor but with decidedly heavier themes lurking beneath the yuks. The film debuts on Blu-ray in a 2-Disc Collector’s Edition next week, and the contents are amazing, showing how Apatow combined lighthearted fare with more serious ideas in the service of exploring something substantive.

Cinematical was lucky enough to catch up with Apatow via telephone one recent morning to discuss the process of putting together the film’s home video iteration. In addition to discussing the bonus materials, extras, featurettes, and a documentary that’s the most thorough and thoughtful ever produced about a comedy production, Apatow talked about finding the right ending for his magnum opus, discovering and deconstructing the process of producing laughs, and front-loading the film’s universe with outside content about the supporting characters.

Cinematical: One of the ideas highlighted in the Blu-ray bonus materials was the fact that you knew this was going in a different direction than your previous films. Even knowing that while you were making it, were you surprised by the reactions of audiences and critics when it was released? Or does it matter?

Apatow: Well, while making the movie it was exhilarating to think we were doing something different that would elicit a wide range of reactions. I’m the first person to get thrown when Bill Murray makes The Razor’s Edge, but I did love the movie and then I read the book. But it took some work to understand what he was trying to do with his career, and only now that I’m older am I not angry at Woody Allen for making Sleeper 25 times (laughs). I’ve been through it with a lot of my friends, watching them take risks and attempt to grow; when we made The Cable Guy, it threw a lot of people because Jim [Carrey] was basically saying I want to have a varied career and do a lot of different things that you wouldn’t expect of me, and it paid off well for him with that movie and Eternal Sunshine and The Truman Showand a lot of ambitious movies he went on to make. It throws people at the time, but it’s great; who wants to watch me or anyone else do the same thing every time out? And it’s been fun. People overall have had a really more intimate relationship with the movie than the other movies; it definitely makes you think about things most people are trying to avoid thinking about most of the time (laughs). They write books called like A Year To Live, where people try to figure out their priorities by imagining what it would be like if they had less time, and in a strange way this is a comedic-dramatic version of that. It makes you think about how you would look at your life differently if suddenly you got sick and then got better.

Cinematical: You and Adam both say that he went anywhere you asked him to. Would you say that’s because you knew him well enough to be able to challenge him effectively, or was he just game for anything, with or without you pushing him?

Apatow: I think Adam is a brave artist. He said to me, “I’m going to do whatever you ask me to do and I’m not going to question it. I want you to make the movie you’re going to make.” And there’s nobody in show business who will do that! That was during the writing process, shooting and editing – he never came into editing and said, “don’t do that – it makes me look like a jerk.” He wanted me to fully express that character and was willing to do whatever it would take to help me – which included writing an enormous stand-up act, performing all of these songs; he really put himself out there. Some days he used to joke, “you’re really getting the full package of me on this one! I’m giving you everything!” To me that was one of the best parts of making the movie, feeling that trust from Adam; Adam loves the movie so much, and the fact that he was happy with the outcome means a lot to me because as I was making the movie I thought ‘I hope the movie’s as good as what Adam’s doing right now’.

Cinematical: Among other things, the Blu-ray for Funny People documents your long history examining and reflecting stand-up comedy. Do you tend to intellectualize comedy or deconstruct how things work, or to see what works better or worse? For example, in one of the documentaries, Randy says it’s funnier if he spins around seven times instead of six; that’s obviously a joke, but do you think about your work or comedy in general that way?

Apatow: I have the ability to talk about comedy in as full of shit a manner as anybody on the planet, but I try not to break it down because it just dies in front of you if you think about it intellectually. And I’ve seen people have conversations where they explain why people laugh; I watched a whole conversation between Alan Alda and John Cleese at the Paley Center where they were able to break it down. But that makes me want to never work ever again if I think it’s actually possible (laughs). It really is about your gut; sometimes afterwards you can explain it, but it is about just a feeling you get. It’s not that different than probably like when a batter is at the plate and he just somehow knows how to read a certain ball to get a hit; you’ve just got to feel for it and it becomes muscle memory. Some people like to talk about it afterwards, but I try not to (laughs). When you’re making a movie, you kind of have to sit and think, why are we telling this joke? What does this joke say? But I don’t like talking about, like, why is this joke funny.

Cinematical: When the film was released in theaters there was a huge wealth of supplemental material that was used as marketing. Even though not a lot of it ended up directly in the movie, what purpose do you feel was served by creating all of this content around it for characters who may not appear on screen a lot?

Apatow: Well, at heart I’m just a fan of comedy, so there’s a lot of hilarious people around and I just want to make a lot of stuff with them before they leave me. So if I’m making a movie, I have unlimited time with Aziz [Ansari] around, and I don’t know when I’ll get to hang out with Aziz again, but I know in this period, he has to come to work (laughs). I thought to myself I loved what he does in the movie, and the movie really can’t contain everything he could do with his character, so let’s make more stuff with Aziz. We paid for that with our own money; we were just so excited that he had come up with this hilarious comedian character that we felt like we had to max out what you could do with it. You’re aware it will be fun to put on the DVD and put on the web and hopefully it makes people more aware of the movie, but the main reason I do it is I just find it funny; I just want to see what Randy would do. I’m excited to see Aziz and Jason Waller, the guy who directed it, I’m excited to let them go nuts with no restrictions just because that’s exciting for me as someone who loves comedy. And people don’t necessarily get that many opportunities to do that; it’s rare for someone to just write a check to someone and say, “go crazy with Randy!”

So we did that, but it’s almost like a video game where you could just walk into other rooms and learn more about certain aspects of these characters. I mean, for me I see the Blu-ray as the new comedy album, so as soon as somebody says I’m allowed to put things on a Blu-ray, my mind goes crazy. What else can we put on it? Can we clear Adam on Letterman from the early ’90s? Can we clear me on The Dennis Miller Show? Can we put all of the phony phone calls from back then on there? As someone who loves these DVDs, I think, how can I make the best comedy DVD that’s ever been made? Before we started the process of making the movie, we decided to try to make a very strong documentary that wasn’t like your normal, generic making-of that you see all of the time. So we hired this amazing documentarian, Chris Wilcha, who was the director of the television series This American Life, and we tried to give him all of the access he could ever want, and the tools to really capture what this process was. It’s an oddly powerful documentary; you see how the movie was made, and there’s something very emotional about it because the movie is also a summation of all of our relationships.

Cinematical: In the commentary track Seth Rogen called the final scene of the film “a real motherf*cker.” How tough was it to determine where the story would and should end up?

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Apatow: One of the first ideas that I had was that the movie would end with a small gesture of Adam writing a joke for Seth. Everything is always about George’s character and he’s never willing to help, and at the end, that would signal to the audience that at the very least he has some understanding of how damaged he is and he’s not forcing Ira to get out of his life. He wants an honest voice around, and maybe he’ll change slowly. Or not, maybe he won’t, certainly it’s going to be difficult, but the fact that he tries to keep Ira around is what the movie’s about. But I thought the movie was this slow reveal of who George actually is. You have some sense of what he is and what his problems are, and as the movie continues, you realize oh, he’s really much more damaged than I thought, and has limitations when it comes to maturing and finding a way to be happy, and then when it ended, you would think I know everything about this person.

Cinematical: Is it hard to surround yourself with people who can be that honest with you?

Apatow: I make a point of only working with people who are very excited about this type of process. Leslie [Mann] is a very daring actress who’s willing to go there at all times, and in a lot of ways she sets the bar for how emotionally raw you can get, and how much you can expose. It’s really exciting watching her act and watching her interact with other actors. Seth, I’ve been working with him since he was 16 years old, so he knows the drill better than anybody. And Adam has shown over and over in his career that he’s willing to commit fully to what he’s doing; Punch-Drunk Love is one of my favorite movies ever, and I love what he did in Reign Over Me, and he has this side to his work that is very vulnerable – and that was what I think was most exciting about working with him.

Check out Part Two on Monday, where Apatow talks about the film in the context of his career, and examines the emerging themes that seem to run recurrent in his work.

by Todd Gilchrist

Cheap Web Hosting Plans

Interview: Judd Apatow (Part Two)

Read Part One of this interview right here

When Judd Apatow’s latest film, Funny People, was announced, many critics and audiences hailed it – even before they saw it – not only as an evolution of the filmmaker’s style, but a return to the kind of drama-laced comedy that flourished in the 1980s and early ’90s thanks to folks like Cameron Crowe and James L. Brooks. When it was released, the film more than satisfied those expectations, offering an unflinching but frequently hilarious portrait of an A-list comedian rediscovering himself, but there seemed to be a sense that audiences knew themselves less well than they felt like they knew the film’s main character, resulting in a less enthusiastic response than perhaps even they expected.

The film arrives on Blu-ray this week, offering what is indisputably the most complete and comprehensive look behind the scenes at a comedy ever produced, and offers audiences a second chance to check out Apatow’s most meaningful and resonant work to date. Cinematical got a chance to catch up with the writer-director via telephone to discuss the contents of the expansive, 2-Disc Collector’s Edition; in the second part of our chat, Apatow talks about precisely what made the movie so personal for him, and offers a few insights about its place in his growing body of work, and its potential influence on his future films (including a Harry Pottermovie, maybe?).

Cinematical: With or without talking to you at the time of the film’s release, people seemed to assume that this was a very personal film, I think because it was more serious than your previous work. Was it really personal, and if so in what way or why?

Judd Apatow: Well, I find that things can be very personal without pointing out to people what is taken directly from your life. If I do it right, it shouldn’t feel like I’m just talking about personal experiences that happened to me or people in my world. So it’s good that it doesn’t seem – that you can’t track it (laughs). But the ideas are very intimate and they relate to a lot that’s happened to me over the decades, but it’s all thrown into a blender to make it more amusing or dramatic. But yes, it does feel very personal, to the point of being embarrassing, but it’s because it’s how you feel about the world that’s out there. It’s kind of showing one’s pleasant side and one’s crazy voices; I’m just better at hiding them in a character that can act them out. You make a movie and think, ah, this is about other people, but slowly you realize it’s all about you. It’s also about everyone who’s involved in the collaboration, but it surprises you when it’s done how much is based on things that you’re struggling with.

Cinematical: Given the sort of line-o-rama process by which you work when shooting scenes, how do you decide what ends up in a film or works best for it?

Apatow: Every joke is meant to illuminate something, whether it’s how funny someone is or a piece of their back story or how they’re feeling on that particular night. So there’s literally no punchline that wasn’t in there that wasn’t debated for hours and hours, but how I like to shoot it is to shoot Adam or Seth doing half an hour of material, not obsessing about what I will use when we’re shooting, and then decide what fits best after. But when you keep it loose and the comedians are really in character, other things happen on stage that are surprising and they do fit into what you need. People do subconsciously start living the story, so Adam one day said, “hey, tonight I’m going to improvise something on the piano,” and he just sits down and sings this mad song. The audience doesn’t know that he’s sick, but in a way it’s a strange goodbye to his audience, and it’s really sad and filthy. I never could have written that in a million years, and Adam did it off the top of his head; and because it’s improvised, it’s sloppy and emotionally raw in a way that’s very truthful. He just went there, and that’s why I try to create some extra space for those moments to happen.

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Cinematical: How much is there a degree of sort of self-satirization in this film, whether you’re taking direct jabs at your or Adam’s movies? Or, even if it’s not in the movie, how much do you guys sort of rib one another about the movies you make?

Apatow: Every time you make a movie, it’s a risk. It’s easy to take for granted the work of comedians, but it’s insanely hard to make people laugh out loud and be really happy for an hour and a half straight. And sometimes you do it with the silliest thing in the world and sometimes you do it in a more thoughtful way or emotional way, but it’s hard as hell (laughs). How I looked at that aspect of the movie was that this character valued being on top more than the quality of his movies, so he tried to make decent movies, but his ego made him try to hit a home run every time out. That being said, while we were making the movie, we kept saying, “we’d make Mer-Man right now!” There’s a funny version of Mer-Man, there’s a funny version of Redo. And it genuinely made us laugh; even though we knew we were goofing on movies like that, we also thought, we could probably do a good one of these!

But one thing I appreciated from Adam was that he never said, “oh don’t do that – people will think you’re goofing on me.” The truth is, I’m not goofing on Adam because Adam has a ridiculously wide range of movies he’s made. He’s just covered so much ground. Some are incredibly silly, some are truly experimental art films, and his level of success is so high he’s just been amazing for a very long time, and I don’t think George Simmons would have tried most of what Adam has tried to do. Again, there’s a subtle difference there, so it’s easy for people to say, “oh, you’re goofing on your own movies,” but I really thought what was more interesting to me was what happens when a shallow person gets sick? He doesn’t want to be thoughtful, so his movies can’t be thoughtful; he’s not making introspective comedies. When he gets sick, he doesn’t tell anybody, he doesn’t know how to talk about it – he’s not that kind of person. He’s more like a Rodney Dangerfield kind of person; he’s telling jokes and being silly.

Cinematical: What I think is one of the things he and the film communicates is that comedy is a way for someone to conceal their true feelings, and ultimately a prison that keeps them from being able to express them.

Apatow: Sometimes it’s easier to hide when you’re that famous. It was strange when Michael Jackson died and there were so many similarities to how we were presenting this fictionalized comedy star in our movie and what was coming out about Michael Jackson. The opening conversation about our movie is Adam having a conversation with his doctor about sleep medication. And all of these images of this rich guy alone in this giant house, never feeling satisfied with the amount of affection he’s getting from the world – which is an enormous amount of affection. A lot of times people want to make you laugh not because they want to make you happy but because they want to know if you like them. Your laugh signals “you’re okay” – and that’s a tough way to live. I think a lot of us as we get older think, is there a healthy way to do what we’re doing? We didn’t start this [for our] mental health, but can we spin it at some point and be creative for normal positive reasons?

Cinematical: Having done this movie which was so much more personal and serious than your other films, do you feel inclined to continue going in that direction?

Apatow: I try to be very passionate about the movies I’m making. I can get passionate about something that’s ridiculous and absurd and silly in the same way I can be passionate about something that’s more intimate and thoughtful, but I just have to care about it. So I don’t know; as of right now, I’m trying not to think too much about what I’ll do next and see what strikes me, but every once and a while I think it would be great to do something really dumb next, really goofy, and just make people happy. Create a joy machine. But most of the time I think let’s do another really dark, melancholy movie about a different subject, and then I think, you know what? Maybe I need a longer rest (laughs). So I don’t know; I’ll just wait until someone needs a director for the 14th Harry Potter movie and hopefully I’ll be at the top of the list somewhere.

Cinematical: Do you have any idea what the next thing is going to be for you?

Apatow: I really don’t. I’ve never had two ideas in my head. I mean, my brain is completely blank. I covered a lot of ground with these last two movies, so I may need something to happen to me in life before I can write again. But I don’t know – then something hits you out of the blue and it could happen in an eighth of a second; oh, it’s that! And then you’re off to the races.

Cinematical: Whether they’re conscious or not, do you see ongoing or repeated themes emerging in or from your growing body of work?

Apatow: I don’t think about it consciously, but there are certain ideas that recur and then you start thinking to yourself, well, should I make sure that never happens in Cinematical: How much is there a degree of sort of self-satirization in this film, whether you’re taking direct jabs at your or Adam’s movies? Or, even if it’s not in the movie, how much do you guys sort of rib one another about the movies you make?

Apatow: Every time you make a movie, it’s a risk. It’s easy to take for granted the work of comedians, but it’s insanely hard to make people laugh out loud and be really happy for an hour and a half straight. And sometimes you do it with the silliest thing in the world and sometimes you do it in a more thoughtful way or emotional way, but it’s hard as hell (laughs). How I looked at that aspect of the movie was that this character valued being on top more than the quality of his movies, so he tried to make decent movies, but his ego made him try to hit a home run every time out. That being said, while we were making the movie, we kept saying, “we’d make Mer-Man right now!” There’s a funny version of Mer-Man, there’s a funny version of Redo. And it genuinely made us laugh; even though we knew we were goofing on movies like that, we also thought, we could probably do a good one of these!

But one thing I appreciated from Adam was that he never said, “oh don’t do that – people will think you’re goofing on me.” The truth is, I’m not goofing on Adam because Adam has a ridiculously wide range of movies he’s made. He’s just covered so much ground. Some are incredibly silly, some are truly experimental art films, and his level of success is so high he’s just been amazing for a very long time, and I don’t think George Simmons would have tried most of what Adam has tried to do. Again, there’s a subtle difference there, so it’s easy for people to say, “oh, you’re goofing on your own movies,” but I really thought what was more interesting to me was what happens when a shallow person gets sick? He doesn’t want to be thoughtful, so his movies can’t be thoughtful; he’s not making introspective comedies. When he gets sick, he doesn’t tell anybody, he doesn’t know how to talk about it – he’s not that kind of person. He’s more like a Rodney Dangerfield kind of person; he’s telling jokes and being silly.

Cinematical: What I think is one of the things he and the film communicates is that comedy is a way for someone to conceal their true feelings, and ultimately a prison that keeps them from being able to express them.

Apatow: Sometimes it’s easier to hide when you’re that famous. It was strange when Michael Jackson died and there were so many similarities to how we were presenting this fictionalized comedy star in our movie and what was coming out about Michael Jackson. The opening conversation about our movie is Adam having a conversation with his doctor about sleep medication. And all of these images of this rich guy alone in this giant house, never feeling satisfied with the amount of affection he’s getting from the world – which is an enormous amount of affection. A lot of times people want to make you laugh not because they want to make you happy but because they want to know if you like them. Your laugh signals “you’re okay” – and that’s a tough way to live. I think a lot of us as we get older think, is there a healthy way to do what we’re doing? We didn’t start this [for our] mental health, but can we spin it at some point and be creative for normal positive reasons?

Cinematical: Having done this movie which was so much more personal and serious than your other films, do you feel inclined to continue going in that direction?

Apatow: I try to be very passionate about the movies I’m making. I can get passionate about something that’s ridiculous and absurd and silly in the same way I can be passionate about something that’s more intimate and thoughtful, but I just have to care about it. So I don’t know; as of right now, I’m trying not to think too much about what I’ll do next and see what strikes me, but every once and a while I think it would be great to do something really dumb next, really goofy, and just make people happy. Create a joy machine. But most of the time I think let’s do another really dark, melancholy movie about a different subject, and then I think, you know what? Maybe I need a longer rest (laughs). So I don’t know; I’ll just wait until someone needs a director for the 14th Harry Potter movie and hopefully I’ll be at the top of the list somewhere.

Cinematical: Do you have any idea what the next thing is going to be for you?

Apatow: I really don’t. I’ve never had two ideas in my head. I mean, my brain is completely blank. I covered a lot of ground with these last two movies, so I may need something to happen to me in life before I can write again. But I don’t know – then something hits you out of the blue and it could happen in an eighth of a second; oh, it’s that! And then you’re off to the races.

Cinematical: Whether they’re conscious or not, do you see ongoing or repeated themes emerging in or from your growing body of work?

Apatow: I don’t think about it consciously, but there are certain ideas that recur and then you start thinking to yourself, well, should I make sure that never happens in one of my movies again? For instance, I like when sad people find a way to get happy, even if it’s only for a moment; should I avoid that now that I’ve noticed that in a bunch of my

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movies? That’s an interesting question for me as I walk around the house. I can see the stitching on the ball now more than anybody, and then you start thinking about new terrain, but you also don’t want to suddenly make a movie about Icelandic people just because no one expects you to do that. I would like always to write about things that matter to me and I understand, but I was reading this graduation speech that Larry Gelbart delivered at UCLA a few years ago and a big hunk of it was about writing about things you don’t know anything about and how ultimately it will still become a personal story. I usually go against that, but I thought, well, if Mr. Gelbart says that then maybe my philosophy is wrong.

Cinematical: What was the thing that you took away from this experience that was maybe different than your other movies?

Apatow: Well, it’s much more challenging to make a movie that’s meant to be more than just fantasy fulfillment. It is hopefully a big, funny, enjoyable experience but it’s also kind of an independent movie, you know; it’s a character study, and it is a different world when you’re trying to have that relationship with the audience. A lot of people got to the movies just to numb themselves out from whatever other difficult things life is presenting to them, and I’m exactly like that; when a girl broke up with me, the first thing I did was run to see What About Bob? But this is the first time for me where I tried to share a more complicated experience with people. And you get a larger array of reactions to it – some people, it completely knocks them out, other people, you can tell that they emotionally shut down from thinking about any of this, and the movie is hard for them to tolerate. And that’s the point of it: it’s supposed to stick with you for a while. That’s all I thought about when we were ending it, and I hope people talk about this for a while. I hope it’s something that stays on people’s minds.

by Todd Gilchrist

Cheap Web Hosting Plans

Funny People

Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana
Directed by Judd Apatow
Rated R
Run Time 146 mins
Genre: Comedy/ Drama
4 out of 5 frames

Adam Sander heads up this Judd Apatow comedy/ drama as an aging comedian George Simmons, that has been diagonised with a life threatening illness. He takes on a young comedian, Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) to be a companion in his last days. When he gets word that he is going to be fine, George sets out to correct past decisons that have haunted him.

Although this runs a tad on the long side and some scenes drag on, there are so many funny moments and excellent appereances by comedians young and old.

Things to watch for: The who’s who of comedy. Suprise guest appearances by those who you would never expect to be in a Judd Apatow movie.

Rent it or buy it: If you’re fan of Apatow or Sandler, this is a must have for your collection.

You’re channel-surfing. There isn’t a whole lot on television that you really want to watch, but suddenly you come across a movie that you’ve seen at least 52 billion times. Rather than turn off the TV and do something else, the nature of the movie is such that it sucks you in. Doesn’t matter where you catch the movie along its plot line, you’re hooked.

That happened to me this weekend with Adam Sandler’s “The Wedding Singer.” I can’t deny the appeal of the movie’s 1980’s theme, complete with music and clothing of the era. I was a teenager then. Daughter asked if we really dressed that way, insinuating that we were peculiar for doing so. Yes. We really dressed that way, plus we overdid it with the hairspray in order to achieve our big hair.

It’s not simply nostalgia, though, that sucks me into particular movies. I can’t always put my finger on what precisely draws me in repeatedly. Rather than try to figure it out, Hubby, Daughter and I put together a list of movies that insist we watch them over and over.

The Wedding Singer

Any of the Legally Blonde movies

Miss Congeniality

The Princess Bride

Rambo: First Blood (not so much me, but Hubby and Young Son are addicted)

Shaun of the Dead

Airplane (also not one of my favorites, but Hubby can’t resist)

Not Another Teen Movie

Pretty much any James Bond movie

Any in the Pirates of the Carribean series

Any in the Harry Potter series

The Shawshank Redemption

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Psycho

Monty Python’s Meaning of Life & Life of Brian

Down with Love (one of my favorites, particularly for the fashion)

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

The Hudsucker Proxy

Indiana Jones movies (only the 1st and 3rd for me, don’t care for the 2nd)

National Treasure

Sister Act

Your turn. What movies suck you in over and over again? Do you know why they have this effect?

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older
Then we wouldn’t have to wait so long
And wouldn’t it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong
You know it’s gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together”

(Wouldn’t It Be Nice - Beach Boys)

Em Como Se Fosse a Primeira vez (50 First Dates), Henry Roth, interpretado por Adam Sandler, é um solteirão que não quer assumir compromissos. Vive no Havaí, onde trabalha como veterinário, em um aquário, cuidando de morsas e outros seres marinhos, e é famoso pelo grande número de turistas que conquista – sua maior especialidade é mentir para conhecer as mulheres que visitam a região e sumir da vida delas quando as férias chegam ao fim.

Mas sua vida muda completamente quando encontra Lucy (Drew Barrymore) no café local. Henry logo percebe que não está diante de apenas mais uma missão de seduzir e abandonar: primeiro, porque ela não é turista; e segundo, porque Henry parece ter visto algo mais nela. A primeira abordagem é um sucesso – os waffles do café da manhã dela e as mãos dele cheirando a peixe se tornam o elo da conversa -, mas no dia seguinte a jovem moça age como se nunca o tivesse visto antes.

Logo Henry descobre que Lucy sofreu um grave acidente que tirou sua memória de curta duração, ou seja, ela se esquece dos fatos recentes durante a noite e passa a viver sempre o mesmo dia. Dessa forma, ignorando sua própria regra de não namorar garotas da cidade e esquecendo o seu lado Don Juan, Henry sente-se apaixonado e percebe que será obrigado a conquistar Lucy, dia após dia, para ficar ao seu lado. E para isso, não mede esforços e vive muitas loucuras.

Mas nem tudo sai como planejado. O jovem veterinário tem o sonho de navegar para o Alasca para estudar a vida submarina das morsas, mas com as conquistas diárias, precisa abandonar o seu plano. Lucy, percebendo o esforço de seu ‘namorado’, resolve acabar o relacionamento com o rapaz. Apaga-o de seus diários e passa a viver como se ele nunca tivesse aparecido em sua vida.

Dessa forma, Henry pode viajar (mesmo com o coração partido) e Lucy passa a ensinar arte – sua profissão antes do acidente que a deixou sem memória – na clínica médica que recebe tratamento. Só que o amor acaba sendo mais forte e os dois vão descobrir isso, de alguma maneira.

O final do filme, obviamente, emociona os mais românticos e mostra que o amor – independente de todos os problemas – consegue sobreviver quando é realmente verdadeiro. Pode ser clichê sim, mas este longa-metragem tem muitos aspectos positivos. Reúne dois ótimos atores (Drew Barrymore e Adam Sandler), tem bons diálogos (ingrediente essencial para o gênero comédia-romântica) e participações bem especiais, como no caso de Rob Schneider, no papel de um velho havaiano muito bobo e, às vezes, engraçado.

Para encerrar, há dois personagens fofíssimos: o pingüim e a morsa. Um mais engraçado que o outro… A-DO-RO!

Lucy: “Nothing beats a first kiss”
Henry: “That’s what I’ve heard.”

Dirección y guión: Judd Apatow.
País: USA.
Año: 2009.
Duración: 146 min.
Género: Comedia dramática.
Interpretación: Adam Sandler (George Simmons), Seth Rogen (Ira Wright), Leslie Mann (Laura), Eric Bana (Clarke), Jonah Hill (Leo), Jason Schwartzman (Mark), RZA (Chuck), Aubrey Plaza (Daisy), Aziz Ansari (Randy), Maude Apatow (Mable), Iris Apatow (Ingrid).
Producción: Judd Apatow, Clayton Townsend y Barry Mendel.
Música: Jason Schwartzman y Michael Andrew.
Fotografía: Janusz Kaminski.
Montaje: Craig Alpert y Brent White.
Diseño de producción: Jefferson Sage.
Vestuario: Betsy Heimann y Nancy Steiner.
Estreno en USA: 31 Julio 2009.
Estreno en España: 4 Septiembre 2009.

“Hazme reír” relata la historia de un famoso cómico, interpretado por Adam Sandler, que descubre que tiene una enfermedad terminal, y que decide apoyar a un colega de profesión (Seth Rogen) que está empezando en este mundillo.

Vaya decepción, así de claro, leí Adam Sandler, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogeny Jason Schwartzman bajo la firma del siempre querido Judd Apatow y me apasione tanto que casi me da un tabardillo, pero al leer la descripción de la película en internet, me mosqueo cantidad eso de 145 minutos, me dio en la narizota que una película de la gama Apatow no podía durar tanto. Y más me dio cuando vi eso de Drama/Comedy.

¿En resumen?, sin alardear de ser crítico de cine ni ostias, UN GRANDISIMO CAGADO DE PELICULA, UN GRADISIMO MIERDA DE DOBLAJE (Como siempre pifian la voz de Seth Rogen) Y SOBRE TODO, UNA GRANDISIMA PERDIDA DE TIEMPO.

Pedro dixit

Zohan è un film del 2008 commedia con Adam Sandler. Zohan Dvir fa parte dell’esercito israeliano, commando terrorista che finge la propria morte, al fine di perseguire il suo sogno di diventare parrucchiere a New York City

Leggi altre notizie su: | Dennis Dugan | Adam Sandler | Emmanuelle Chriqui | John Turturro,

Punch-drunk Love is Paul Thomas Anderson’s smallest film– it isn’t an epic, or a mosaic, it is a romantic-comedy, a miniature masterpiece that barely tops an hour and a half. It is also, arguably, his most sophisticated film: It’s a love story, but also a parable for a particularly modern malaise, a film in which love is posited as the answer to loneliness, anger, and disconnectedness.

It’s also unwaveringly weird– the film involves not just a romance, but a mysterious harmonium and an airline scam involving Healthy Choice pudding. There’s Jon Brion’s score, of course– as odd and beguiling as any heard this decade, and as much a character as the ones played by Adam Sandler and Emily Watson– and, yes, there is Sandler himself, in a role that isn’t just dramatic, but dramatically different from any other he’s taken, before or sense, channeling his SNL mania and comedically short fuse into a troubling performance marked by severe alienation and obsession.

But it all has a purpose, and the film isn’t symbolic so much as richly suggestive. My favorite scene is when Sandler’s Barry Egan calls a phone sex operator, not for arousal, but simply as a final, last-ditch effort at establishing human connection. It’s devastatingly sad, profoundly off, and ultimately, oddly affirming. And then there are the several allusions to Robert Altman’s Popeye– clever homage, but also thematically enriching to the story being told.

But as acute as the alienation is felt here, Punch-drunk Love is ultimately an optimistic film. It’s the only romantic comedy I know of that portrays love in very concrete terms, not as purely a matter of feeling but as something that has real power, and real consequences. It’s a a heartbreaking, funny, and ultimately joyful little movie that is blissfully unlike any other that I’ve seen.

#7. Lost in Translation (Coppola, 2003)

The one time that Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler, actually aren’t funny.

Famous and wealthy funnyman George Simmons (Adam Sandler) doesn’t give much thought to how he treats people until a doctor (Torsten Voges) delivers stunning health news, forcing George to reevaluate his priorities with a little help from aspiring stand-up comic Ira (Seth Rogen). Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) writes and directs this moving comedy that also stars Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman and Aubrey Plaza.

Funny People is a movie that I’ve wanted to see for a very long time now. I love Sandler, Rogen, and most of all Judd Apatow. And when I heard they we’re all goin to be in the same film together I could not believe myself. Finally I got the DVD and watched it and I’m quite glad.

This is Apatow’s third written & directed film, and in his last two showings (Knocked Up, The 40 Year-Old Virgin), he showed a great way of blending hilarious comedy with some moving drama. However, in this film he doesn’t show his best directing abilities. I felt like he was being more serious with this film, as this is probably one of his more serious and mature pieces of work cause it is about dieing. I just didn’t feel like this film hit every single point it could have. Apatow over-uses the slow-motion zoom in to show his characters being emotionally effected by something, and it really starts to become a little too obvious.

Still, his humor does hit the mark. I felt like there were a little bit too much of those jokes about boners and such, but really I wasn’t expecting much different. The humor blends in really well, where at points in the film they are actually making little jokes about death, and it lightens up the mood.

Apatow also does a great job of blending in fiction with non-fiction to evoke compelling realistic performances from the cast. I think this is a role of a lifetime for Sandler, because the character he plays is a goofy comedian he gets to indulge in the zany side of his comedy, but also he gets to play the characters darker parts and he does a fantastic job at it. Seth Rogen is really great in this film as he isn’t playing the usual Seth Rogen you see in every other film, he is actually more serious and believable as a very awkward and nerdy geek who is just trying to be funny. Surprisingly, the funniest out of this whole cast has got to be Eric Bana. Yes, out of a cast filled with Jonah Hill, Adam Sandler, and Seth Rogen The Hulk ends up becoming the funniest guy. He comes late in  the film but plays this stereotypical macho-man guy and really gives this film the extra laughs it deserves.

There are two films in Funny People, one about Sandler and Rogen, and the other about Sandler and Leslie Mann. It’s less of a buy one get one free deal, as much as it is a buy one and get one you really didn’t ask for. The latter part didn’t feel like it was supposed to be put in the film, and just added on to less comedy and more drama.

Consensus: Funny People is not Apatow’s best, but still has a great blending of comedy and drama, with some realistic performances. I just felt like this was two movies rolled into one, and lack of cohesiveness between the two separate stories is what stops it from being a great movie.

8/10=Matinee!!!!!

Connie, Carla and me standing behind Ken Ober in 1989.

As editor of a college newspaper, you work hard, learn a lot about the industry (as it was at the time) and discover what it’s like to be accountable to your reading public.

You also get to have a little fun.

I was editor of the Northwest Missourian at Northwest Missouri State University for two consecutive years. During those two years the college brought in several celebrities – speakers, bands, comedians – and in many cases I was the one who would show them around campus. I met the likes of Brit Hume (ABC White House correspondent at the time) and members of the Hooters and Ramones.

None was quite as memorable, though, as the day the crew from MTV’s “Remote Control” came to campus.

It was 1989 and Ken Ober, Colin Quinn and a still relatively unknown Adam Sandler brought their game show – kind of a laid back and funny version of “Jeopardy” in which contestants sat in recliners and controlled the board with a remote – to campus. There was an autograph session after the show and my roommates Connie and Carla and I got our picture taken with Ken Ober.

After the autographs my chief photographer Joann and I got to take the three guys out and introduce them to Maryville. Ken found a group of guys he wanted to play pool with and Colin was the life of the party darned near everywhere we went.

Adam, Joann and I sat down to have a drink and Joann and I started talking about our living arrangements: she was a 40-something mother of three daughters, wife of the ROTC instructor who went back to college. Their oldest daughter was in college and they had a room/suite to rent, so they offered it to me and I took it for my last semester.

Adam asked to see it so we got into Joann’s car and drove to the house. Joann’s husband Jerry was there and we all poured a drink then showed Adam around the house.

When we all got to my suite, he looked inside, yelled, “Waterbed!” and ran and started jumping on the bed.

It’s a story I continue to tell 20 years later, and one that became more relevant this week. Ken Ober, the host of the game show who would go on to become a comedic writer for various television shows, died at the age of 52 last weekend. His death hit the social media sites and was initially thought to be a hoax until family members confirmed it.

Godspeed, Ken. Thanks for being part of a great story in my life.

Racconti incantati è un film del 2008 commedia diretta da Adam Shankman che ha come interpret principale Adam Sandler

Leggi altre notizie su: | Adam Shankman | Adam Sandler | Keri Russell | Guy Pearce

A meandering mess of a movie, Funny People is all the more disappointing because early scenes sparkle with brilliant potential, crisp comedy and poignant drama. The movie is Judd Apatow’s third directorial project, continuing the producer/director/screenwriter’s tendency for overlong pictures with its 145 minute runtime.

One of the key problems with Funny People is its uncanny ability to kill its own momentum. Apatow starts with an interesting, humorous and touching premise and sets it up beautifully, drawing characters we care about and letting us into the world of stand-up comedy with some unique sequences. He uses his stars well, too, having them perform comedy in front of live crowds and shooting the reactions. But it’s when Apatow creates a mountain out of a subplot that Funny People loses everything it could have been.

Adam Sandler stars as comedian and actor George Simmons. He is, essentially, playing a slightly different version of himself. Simmons’ career has been built on a series of lowbrow comedies and he lives a luxurious lifestyle. The problem is that George is suffering from a rare blood disease and is, as a result, expected to die. He’s isolated himself from family and true friends, so he decides to use the situation to better himself.

In bettering himself, Simmons takes an interest in a young comic, Ira Wright (Seth Rogen). Wright is working a day job at a deli and lives with roommates who are in various stages of success in the entertainment industry. Simmons eventually hires Ira to write some jokes and the two bond with George telling Wright about his medical predicament. This relationship develops and remains an interesting component until Apatow forces an angle with George’s ex-wife (Leslie Mann) and her Aussia husband (Eric Bana) that drags things to a standstill.

When Funny People focuses on George’s return to his roots as a stand-up comic and with his relationship with Ira, it is actually a good movie. Unfortunately, Apatow abandons the premise for something else only weakly linked to Simmons’ illness and this abandonment makes for a bizarre, unfunny, boring second half punctuated by Mann’s abysmal performance and Sandler’s inability to drum up chemistry with her.

There are a ton of guest spots here, too, but those are confined to the better portions of the movie. Eminem shares a hilarious moment with Ray Romano, while comics like Norm MacDonald, Sarah Silverman and Paul Reiser drop by. There’s also a performance by James Taylor in the mix, which helps cement the aura of celebrity Sandler’s Simmons exists in. It helps things feel real that Sandler tries his best, too, but in the end there’s little to be done with Apatow’s bloated script.

Rogen keeps to his usual self, never quite reaching for much and never quite hitting it, but he does reasonably well when he works with Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman. He’s tossed an unnecessary bone in the form of a small romantic angle with comedian Aubrey Plaza’s character, but this goes nowhere and remains completely uninteresting after it’s swept up by Apatow’s need to give his wife something to do.

In the end, Funny People is its own worst enemy. It becomes a bloated waste of talent, completely abandoning the momentum drawn up by a pretty good first half. It’s ambitious, overly so, and tremendously long all things considered. While it does have the support of a good Sandler performance, there’s just not enough other stuff here to recommend this movie.

3.9/10

Trailer:

View the world of the comedians. Maybe like a punch line this movie has a pace where it seems to slow and maybe about to die then suddenly it picks up along. I was thinking of the evolution of Adam Sandler from earlier movies like Airheads and Billy Madison. My favorite was Big Daddy. To me a dark comedy like Punch-Drunk Love was some strange side of Sandler. It rears its ugly head again with Funny People. I occurs to me how comedians take life situations good and bad for their punch line. Similar to writing it takes honesty about yourself and to voice your opinion and that fear how will others take what I say? I have seen other movies about comedians I believe Billy Crystal did one. Similar at least to me it had a dark side. I don’t know if this is bad but like facing the truth about your self to me isn’t the greatest thing, sure after you get to the other side you usually feel great. The stand up from different comedians was good to appreciate their work. I would be terrified a whole crowd and no one laughing. Seth Rogen plays such a wimp its sad but It makes sense for the movie. I know its me I don’t want to be some guy with lots of emotions. Leslie Mann is funny but I think her roles are all too similar. It works she is a sexy mom. Eric Bana was not funny. Maybe I’m stuck with flick like Munich, Black Hawk Down and Star Trek. He plays a bad ass so well. Good movies have great villains as Nero in Star Trek he nailed it. This move definitely had me laughing through out. We could all use more laughs! I did love Aubrey Plaza as Daisy. A peculiar young lady. Her stand up was good. I guess I should say George Simmons (Sandler) gets sick and may die. This leads him into this journey with Ira Wright played by Seth Rogen. Ira is struggling to be a comedian he becomes an assistant to George Simmons which leads to finding himself and Oh! So much more!

Continuing on the series of excellent, serious films with comics in lead, here’s another one.

What defines a man? Is it his bank balance, the house he buys or the car he drives? Or is it his job? The smart ones would disagree with all that and tell you it is the friends and family that make a man, not his bank account, or his car or even the house. A man could lose all his money, his house, his car, his job, but if he has his family and friends with him, he’s gonna come through any amount of difficult time with ease. And that’s what the most experienced of men would tell you. But what happens of a man who has all the money in the world, a great job, a beautiful house in one of the most amazing cities in the world, but has lost all those dear to him. How does life change for him? This is definitely one of the most difficult questions and one that nobody would like to learn about through a personal experience or watch it happen to someone very close to them.

Dr. Alan Johnson (played by Don Cheadle) gets a chance to watch it happen to a very close, old friend Charlie Fineman. Dr. Charlie Fineman, who has lost his wife and three daughters in the 9/11 attacks, was Alan’s roommate in college. Johnson found out about Fineman’s loss through the network of friends from dental college that both attended as younger men. Johnson remembers Fineman as a man full of life, his best friend. Johnson runs into Fineman on the street one day, a couple of years after the Manhattan incident and is shocked at Fineman’s behavior, his refusal to even recognize his old college roommate. Johnson finds out that Fineman is living out a strange life – playing video games, banging on drums at a shady night club and constantly listening to loud music, tuning out the world and his tragedy from his thoughts. Johnson sees that he’s hurting inside and decides to help him out. What he does not realize is that he himself is looking for a reason to find meaning his own life with his wife and two daughters.

Adam Sandler as Charlie Fineman, Reign Over Me (2007)

Charlie Fineman is played marvelously by none other than Adam Sandler. Yes! Adam Richard Sandler. Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, Adam Sandler. And it would be an understatement to say that he was brilliant in portraying the man who has nothing to live for and yet is somehow alive, breathing, hardly ever talking to anyone, living in his own little world of a shady night club, banging on drums with the band, riding his motorized scooter, playing video games to the point that his eyes start to hurt and still going on and on with it, trying to lose himself in what’s left of his existence and tuning out the hurt and pain from the overwhelming loss of his loved ones.

Never could I imagine a man like Sandler in a role so complex, something which he actually glided through it with relative ease. A must watch, especially if you hated any of Adam Sandler’s earlier performances.

คุณเคยสงสัยมั้ยว่า คนเราโตเป็นผู้ใหญ่กันตอนไหนและใช้อะไรวัดกัน ช่วงเวลาใดที่เราหลงลืมความฝันและจินตนาการวัยเด็กไว้ และก้าวต่อไปในเส้นทางใหม่ เป็นไปได้มั้ยที่ช่วงรอยต่อระหว่างวัยรุ่นกับตอนที่เราเริ่มทำงานนั้นเป็นจุดเริ่มต้นของการเป็นผู้ใหญ่ และจบสิ้นวัยเด็กอย่างสิ้นเชิง ไม่ใช่เด็กน้อยคนเดิมอีกต่อไป แต่ทฤษฎีนี้คงใช้ได้ไม่ได้ เพราะก็ใช่ว่าทุกคนที่อายุมากเกินกว่าจะเรียกว่าเด็กไปแล้วนั้นจะทำตัวน่าเอาเยี่ยงอย่าง บางคนก็ทำตัวยิ่งกว่าวัยแรกเกิดเสียอีก หนักกว่าเด็กตัวจริงด้วยซ้ำไป หรือแท้จริงแล้วนั่น การเป็นผู้ใหญ่นั้นไม่ได้ขึ้นอยู่กับอายุหรือวันเวลาที่เปลี่ยนไป แต่การกระทำที่แสดงออกของเราที่บอกได้ดีว่าเราโตหรือยัง และสำหรับบางคนนั่น ไม่ว่าเวลาจะเปลี่ยนไปเท่าไหร่ บางทีใครบางคนอาจไม่เคยโตขึ้นเลยก็ได้

ตัวอย่างแรกของ Grown Ups ที่ค่ายโซนี่ปล่อยมานั้น เอาใจแฟนหนังตลกโดยเฉพาะและเป็นการประกาศตัวตั้งแต่เนิ่นๆ เพราะหนังตลกรวมดาวเรื่องนี้ มีทั้ง Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Chris Rock, Steve Buscemi,Kevin James และ David Spade ที่รวมพลกันมาเจอกันในว่าที่หนังฮิตกลางซัมเมอร์ปีหน้านี้ และยังแวดล้อมไปด้วยดาราสาวสวย Salma Hayek,Maria Bello และ Maya Rudolph ที่มากเป็นพิเศษด้วย ซึ่งกลายเป็นจุดเด่นขึ้นมาทันที เพราะผู้ชมคงคุ้นเคยกับทีมดาราตลกชายฝ่ายบนกันเป็นประจำอยู่แล้ว ยิ่งสามรายอย่าง Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider และ Kevin James นั้น เจอกันบ่อยยิ่งกว่าอะไรทั้งนั้น และนี่เป็นการกลับมาเจอกันแบบทีม ไม่ได้มาเจอเสริมให้ใครเหมือนในเรื่องอื่นๆ

หนังเล่าเรื่องถึงเพื่อนเก่าสมัยอดีตที่กลับมาเจอกันอีกครั้ง และใช้เวลาสังสรรค์ระหว่างเพื่อนไปพร้อมๆกับการพาครอบครัวของตัวเองไปพักผ่อน

หนังกำกับโดย  Dennis Dugan ผู้กำกับขาประจำของนายหัวไข่ ที่ร่วมงานกันแล้วหลายเรื่องอาทิ You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, The Benchwarmers, National Security, Saving Silverman, Big Daddy, Beverly Hills Ninja, Happy Gilmor  และ Sandler เองยังร่วมเขียนบทกับ Tim Herlihy (Bedtime Stories, Mr. Deeds) และ Fred Wolf (Dickie Roberts, Without a Paddle) ด้วย

จากตัวอย่างบอกไม่ได้ว่ามันจะกลายเป็นหนังฮิตอีกเรื่องนึงรึเปล่า เพราะขนาดรวมพลังพลพรรคฟักไปวันๆใน Funny People ผลลัพธ์ออกมาก็ยังไม่แจ่มแจ๋วเท่าที่ควร เพราะตัวหนังเองที่ไม่ได้สุดๆอย่างที่ควรจะเป็น มาเรื่องนี้ที่ฉายวันที่ 25 มิถุนายนปีหน้านั้น อาจจะเป็นการเอาคืนของ Sandler ก็ได้ ก็ถ้าทำงานกับคนรู้ใจในทุกๆด้านอย่างนี้ ทั้งตัวผู้กำกับ นักแสดง และทีมเขียนบท แล้วหนังยังออกมาไม่เปรี้ยงล่ะก็ คงคิดหนักแล้ว

Funny People Review

And so the Seth Rogan-Judd Apatow comedy machine rolls on, resulting in this – Apatow’s third writer-director feature.

The likes of overly-shmaltzy-but-just-about-amusing-enough-to-get-away-with-it The 40 Year-Old Virgin and the downright hilarious and loveable Knocked Up really should have prepared us more for this. While Apatow may know some of the hottest names in comedy, he’s actually a very poor comedy writer, leaving it entirely up to the talents of his actors and their improv as to whether or not a film is funny. With his previous two films, the cast had a great variety of material to work with. This time, not so much.

When world famous actor George Simmons (Adam Sandler playing something eerily like himself) is told he might only have months to live, he sets out determined to enjoy what time he has, recruiting promising young stand up artist Ira Wright (Seth Rogan) to write him new material and work for him. As the two travel the country together, Ira comes to believe himself as more than just an employee to Simmons, while George himself is trying to patch up the broken heart of the only woman he ever loved, Laura (Leslie Mann), who is now married.

It’s not a promising situation for any comedy, much less one that proclaims itself to be hilarious in its own title, when one of the opening scenes is a man being told he’s going to die. Make no mistake about it – this film is a tragedy starring comedians.

Halfway through the film, the gear shifts with an audible clunk as Simmons is cured of his disease, changing the tone of the film completely and losing what little comedy there was in it in the first place. More annoyingly, several scenes are laced into the film for the sole purpose of showing off Judd Apatow’s family. Wife Leslie Mann wears tight jeans for Adam Sandler to comment on how hot she looks and one of his daughters sings a song in a home movie – it’s like he’s sitting next to you asking you what you think.

Most criminally of all, the always wonderful Jonah Hill barely features at all and when he is on screen it’s so pointless and unnecessary you might find yourself wondering why he was even put in there in the first place. Also, most of the genuinely funny lines from the trailer have been replaced with less amusing ones in the final film, making this the most blatant case of false advertising since Alone in the Dark was billed as a horror.

Granted, it is a sweet story told by great actors and Adam Sandler has never been on better form. But when your hot comedic talents are outshined by Ray Romano and Eminem bickering at each other across a crowded bar, you know you have problems. Amusing in places, but don’t expect anything worthy of the hype. Maybe next time the Rogan-Apatow comedy machine rolls into town, they could remember to pack some laughs along with the emotion.

Two stars

You may recall, a very, very long time ago, that MTV was a fun place to visit. It wasn’t full of teens unknowingly having babies in their pants, awful debutante princesses screaming at their fathers, or 40 year-old reality program stars trying desperately to hold on to dignity that clearly doesn’t exist anymore. 

It was an MTV of the eighties, garish in its colors and primitive in its music video special effects. MTV was an innovator in its field, and music fans of all types were glued to the neverending stream of videos and interesting hair. And somewhere, around the late eighties, MTV decided to branch out a little, you know, add some programming in.

In 2009, we see that the “adding some programming” experiment proved to be arguably the network’s downfall, since there’s very little to be found in the way of music at all on the network these days. But in 1987, you may remember a four-year run of a pop culture-based game show named Remote Control. If you’ve never heard of it, you might as well stop reading here. If you have, slap me some skin. Because I know you dug it as much as I did.

We would be remiss today, as a pop culture blog, if we didn’t pay our respects after Sunday’s passing of Ken Ober, the host of that distinct game show. Remote Control was not only a mecca of and homage to all things television, music and eighties-culture based; it also served as a launching pad for a young Adam Sandler (known as the character “The Stud Boy,” among others), Denis Leary (perfecting the cigarette-smoking rants which would later put him on the map), and Colin Quinn (just plain loved in comedy circles, even if he never quite hit his proper stride in the mainstream). 

The premise of the show was pure madness — contestants strapped into souped-up La-Z-Boys would choose “channels” and answer pop questions appropriately from categories like “Private Dicks” and “Dead or Canadian.” The winner would be secured tightly into a massive Craftmatic Adjustable Bed and faced with a wall of television screens, timed as he or she named the music video playing on each monitor.

Ober, as the master of ceremonies, chewed up the role as his own updated version of Wink Martindale, and the show had a comfortable, fun, one-of-the-gang atmosphere to it. After all, the set was designed to look like the basement of Ober’s house. And occasionally Ober’s “Mom” would even call down because there was too much noise.

Remote Control was one of the first television shows I remember watching that truly grasped a comprehensive snapshot of the moment’s pop culture. It fed off the hours of television I’d sponged in as a child and mashed it with the culture of that very second. It was fun, it was interesting, and it may very well be one of the greatest shows the network ever aired. And it’s basically all but completely forgotten in time. But here’s the thing — check out this clip of half an episode of the show, and tell me it’s not like watching part of your life in a time capsule you just dug up. 

So let’s raise a glass to Remote Control today and dust it off, if only to say goodbye to its immensely likeable host. Rest in Peace, Ken Ober — like all great things in pop culture, you had a specific time and a specific place, and even though it’s long gone, Remote Control will be boxed up and shelved in all of our minds, somewhere. Good times. Good times.

There is a fundamental problem with the new* Judd Apatow movie, ‘Funny People‘: None of the people in the movie are actually funny. They talk about the jokes they are writing and we see the writing process, but all of the jokes told on stage are punctuated with mild laughter, which is all this movie ultimately gets as well.

There is some heart and some humor here, but Apatow has gone for broke and fallen overboard. ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’ was a slim 116 minutes, and while ‘Knocked Up’ trickled over two hours, it was bearable. ‘Funny People’ is a 100 minute movie stretched so far that by the end I was just hoping George Simmons would get hit by a freakin’ bus.

The problem here is that the film puts heart over humor, and Apatow and his actors have a lot of trouble pulling it off. ‘Virgin’ and ‘Knocked Up’ were funny and ended up having a heart under the vulgarity. ‘Funny People’ tries to be serious business, with the disease and the old love and the new family, and we don’t really care enough about the characters to think anything they do is funny. The relationship between George and his old lover Laura (Leslie Mann) is forced in an awkward scene where he regrets cheating on her. Maybe this would work if the parallel scene where Ira (Seth Rogen) watches the kids was amusing, but it isn’t. Seth Rogen is usually insufferable, but he did some good work in this movie. Too his source material wasn’t better.

Don’t get me started on Jonah Hill. This kid has no business being in any movie and is pretty easily the worst component of anything he touches. Yet Judd Apatow loves him, so he keeps popping up.

‘Funny People’ is completely underwhelming. I give this advice often about many new movies where the cardinal people have done better work: Don’t waste your time–watch ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’ again.

* Since I am currently in South Korea, sometimes it takes me longer than usual to see movies. I try to keep up to date, but there is only so much I can do.

Li’l Evan Kessler wasn’t like the other kids.  MTV mattered and not much else did.  Sure, I watched shows like Perfect Strangers, Family Ties, and Growing Pains, but between episodes of Pinwheel, You Can’t Do That on Television and network appointment TV, most of that broadcast space was filled in by one channel.  That channel was MTV.  As one of the first kids on my block to have access to Music Television, I was transfixed by the endless stream of videos that would forever retain classic status and satisfy my need for nostalgia nearly 30 years later. From pop music stalwarts like Talking Heads and Madonna to lesser known one hit wonders like Luis Cardenas, I loved it all.

While most of the airtime over the first couple of years on the fledgling, soon-t0-be- iconic pop culture network was reserved for a steady stream of videos, band interviews and bantering VJs; perhaps my favorite half-hour in early days of MTV was the game show known as Remote Control.

Featuring unassuming host Ken Ober, the gruff announcing voice of Brooklyn-native Colin Quinn, comely Kari Wuhrer and budding talents like Adam Sandler and Denis Leary; MTV’s first original non-musical program was reflective of the off-the-cuff attitude embodied by an idea as crazy as “Music Television” was at the time.  Whether contestants were choosing to answer questions from silly categories like “Dead or Canadian”  ( I swear I remember someone answer Canadian for Elvis Presley once) and “Leave Out The Beaver”; listening to character driven soliloquys from Stud Boy or just singing along with Colin; the show reflected the notion MTV was an experiment that didn’t take itself too seriously and was more concerned with celebrating popular culture than being it’s sole arbiter.

Remote Control was a shining example of the MTV I fell in love with.  Between the snack breaks and losing contestants being sent hurtling through the backdrop still attached to their la-z-boy chairs, there was a clumsy charm, a tongue in cheek sense of humor, and ultimately MUSIC VIDEOS!

The people weren’t all pretty, but they were having fun.  I’m not sure when the current, glossy, self-important sheen that’s depicted in shows like “The Hills” took over the network (though my semi-guess is when the sex and immaturity based humor of ‘The Jenny McCarthy Show’ took the place of actual humor produced by “The State”) and maybe with the vain nature of the pop star it was there all along. But for me early MTV’s devil-may-care attitude  never shone as brightly as it did in those 30 minute romps from 1987-1990 hosted by Ken Ober.  Sure there were plenty of great videos that came after and a few great shows as well, but Remote Control might just have been the program that showed me just how fun it could be to watch TV.  So when I heard last night that the host of my favorite late 80’s game show had passed on before his time, I didn’t shed a tear, but I certainly felt like a small part of my childhood had died with him.  Rest in peace Quizmaster 72. You will be missed.