AdamSandler Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Interview: Judd Apatow (Part One)
Filed under: Universal », Fandom », Home Entertainment », Interviews »
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?
Stars in Rewind: Ken Ober & 'Remote Control'
Filed under: Obits », Trailers and Clips », Stars in Rewind »
Attention children of the '80s: If you haven't already heard, television's Ken Ober died at the age of 52. The cause of death is not yet determined, although his agent noted that Ober "complained of headaches and flu-like symptoms on Saturday night." While he produced shows like Mind of Mencia and The New Adventures of Old Christine, he's probably best known for his time as the host of MTV's '80s quiz show: Remote Control.Remember it? Three players would get strapped into arm chairs, answer questions about television and film (basically anything that could be found on TV), find food raining down on their heads, and get entertained by the likes of Colin Quinn, Kari Wuhrer, Denis Leary, and Adam Sandler. It was part classic MTV ridiculousness, and part media junky geek party.
In memory of the host and show, I thought I'd take us back in time for a few movie-centric bits after the jump. First, there will be Adam Sandler as the awkward "Stud Boy" while Ober doesn't think about the innuendo before saying "I'd love to give it to her." After that, scribe Zak Penn, who wrote flicks like PCU, Elektra, and X-Men: The Last Stand, pops up as a contestant. Now the latter is a little confusing, since the Zachary on the show says he's a biochem major at USC, and bios have him graduating from Wesleyan, but one look at the vid and this pic should quell confusion.
Ken Ober, you're missed already.
Blu-ray Review: Funny People
Filed under: Universal », DVD Reviews », Home Entertainment »
These days it's common practice for filmmakers to document every single aspect of a movie's creation for its eventual home video release – examining previsualization, creature development, fight choreography, set and costume design, effects rendering, and so on. When you're making a comedy, however, there seems to be less of interest in the different aspects of production (not the least of which because many of those above aren't even a factor), leaving only outtakes, gaffes, and alternate line readings to fill out the bonus features for a forthcoming Blu-ray or DVD.
Judd Apatow's Blu-ray for Funny People, however, runs contrary to expectations; indeed, it's by far the most complete and comprehensive portrait of a comedy production ever assembled. Featuring not only the requisite slate of alternate takes, film flubs, and extra scenes, but two different versions of the film, multiple featurettes, archive footage, and a feature-length documentary about the film's origins, development and production, the two-disc set takes the art of being funny very seriously.
Adam Sandler Plays Both Jack and Jill
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », Casting », Deals », Scripts »
It seemed like maybe Adam Sandler was looking at ripping that crap-of-a-comedy stigma from him when he starred in Funny People, reminding the world that the old Sandler was a mix of ridiculous laughs and dramedy. But here's another reason to assume that was just a random blip in lowest common denominator fare: Variety reports that Columbia Pictures has grabbed the actor to star in a romantic comedy called Jack and Jill.Rom-com can mean many things, and potentially even something good for the actor, but get a load of this: He will "play Jack as well as his twin sister Jill." And it was written by Steve Koren (old SNL scribe behind the Almighty flicks, Night at the Roxbury, and Superstar.) That's all we know. Considering the "rom" part, I'd hope that there's a love interest outside of this duo, because who would want to see Sandler-on-Sandler incest? Yes, I'm being negative, but it all comes from how the project was positioned and revealed. Should we expect anything more from a romantic comedy when the powers that be decide to kick things off by talking about Sandler cross-dressing? If that's the notable part of the news designed to start perking interests, there's definitely a Happy Madison bend to the whole thing. And yes, his company is producing .
Can you think of a way that this film could be anything more than another Chuck & Larry sort of offering? Could this possibly be more Tootsie than The Hot Chick? Do you want to see Adam Sandler in Hollywood drag?
Cinematical Seven: Navel-Gazing Comedies
Filed under: Fandom », Cinematical Seven », Lists »
Sometimes navel gazing is a good thing, if an artist looks truly and honestly inside him or herself for material. If they're truly gifted, and can tap into something universal or human, the result can be a masterwork. But if the artist finds himself too far removed from everyday life, or if their visions and ideas are too close to home to find a logical shape, the result can be something of a mess. Navel-gazing dramas are a dime a dozen, but it takes a special talent to try it with comedy. Judd Apatow's Funny People was the #1 movie in a very slow week, which shows that audiences were probably about as fond of it as critics were. I would bet the main complaint across the board was the same: it's too long. Either way, there's usually something interesting about these projects.
1. Elizabethtown (2005)
Though Apatow is catching up, Cameron Crowe is the #1 comedy navelgazer in the history of cinema. This rambling, sprawling thing was supposed to be a cute romantic comedy about a depressed schlub whose life is turned around by a cute airline stewardess. Unfortunately, too many useless subplots about funerals and forgotten bands get in the way, in addition to the fact that the male character is overwritten and underplayed by Orlando Bloom, and the female character is underwritten and overplayed by Kirsten Dunst. The whole thing culminates in a weird musical, mix-tape road trip odyssey that must have lit Crowe's fire, but didn't spark for anyone else.
Monday Night Poll: 'Funny People' Gender Divide?
Filed under: Comedy », Universal », Fandom », Moviefone Feedback », Polls »
Are you a man or a woman? That may be the essential reason why you either loved or hated Judd Apatow's Funny People, starring Adam Sandler as a comedian facing a mid-life crisis. Marketing research firm CinemaScore says that men graded the movie B+ but women only granted it C+. As reported by Los Angeles Times, that translates into: "men generally liked it ... most women did not."
Which is puzzling to me, because, as I was watching it (alone again, naturally), it didn't strike me as the kind of movie that might polarize the sexes. Now, I can understand the overall audience being smaller than something like the latest Harry Potter. Our own Eugene Novikov surmised as much in his box office summary, pointing out that attempting to market the film "as a typical Adam Sandler comedy was quixotic, and as another laugh riot from the Apatow factory only marginally less so." Yet, I would have anticipated that men and women who had seen Apatow's earlier directorial efforts, The 40-Year Old-Virgin and Knocked Up -- or any of the films of Adam Sandler -- would have a good idea what to expect, as far as the level of raunch and a view of women as generally cranky and more than a little scary. Did Funny People go too far?
Enlighten us, please. Take our poll of the sexes and let us know: Why did you like Funny People? Why didn't you like Funny People? And did you fight about it on the way home? Feel free to elaborate in the comments section.
Review: Funny People
Filed under: Comedy », Theatrical Reviews »
In the new film Funny People, Ira Wright, the character played by Seth Rogen, reveals more or less inadvertently that the reason he became a stand-up comedian was because he was ridiculed by his classmates as a boy. This is probably one of the film's most profound moments, although it hardly treats it as such; but there's a long and illustrious history of comedy serving the purpose of concealing people's feelings, both on and off screen. And filtered through the meta-movie stardom of Adam Sandler's ailing A-lister, Funny People is precisely about the walls people put up in one way or another to protect themselves from emotional harm – which, as the film observes, almost always become a prison for the person who builds them.
Sandler plays George Simmons, a mega-comedian and movie star who decides to "return to his roots" in stand-up after a doctor diagnoses him with a rare and inoperable disease that gives him only a limited time to live. After a disastrous appearance at a local club, George meets Rogen's Ira, an aspiring comedian who mines a few laughs out of his performance, and he hires Ira to write jokes for him, and eventually, to work as his personal assistant. But when George reconnects with his ex-girlfriend Laura (Leslie Mann), who is now married to a daffy Australian huckster named Clarke (Eric Bana), he begins to truly reconsider his affluent but empty lifestyle.
How Self-Aware is Adam Sandler?
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy », Fandom »
In the new film Funny People, comedian Adam Sandler plays an actor remarkably similar to, well, Adam Sandler. His character, George Simmons, is a former stand-up comic who's become obscenely wealthy and famous through a series of patently terrible films with titles like Merman and Dog's Best Friend (Erik Davis wrote about these movies-within-the-movie and shared clips -- check it out here). Now a little older and trying to beat a possibly fatal medical condition, Simmons takes a new look at his life -- including the crappy but wildly popular movies that made him a star.The fake movies are truly awful. But not any worse than some of abysmal actual movies made by Sandler himself, like Little Nicky, Eight Crazy Nights, Mr. Deeds, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, etc. Since the character is so baldly modeled on Sandler, one can't help but wonder what he thinks about the parodies that he helped to create, to make fun of his own career.
The Fake Films You Won't See in 'Funny People'
Filed under: Comedy », Fandom », Trailers and Clips »
Unfortunately I cannot yet share my opinion on Judd Apatow's new flick Funny People, which I watched recently at an undisclosed location in a city that will not be named. But, I can tell you that within the film there are clips from a bunch of fake films (we've already shared some of them with you), and they were created to decorate the past of George Simmons (Adam Sandler), a big-time actor who's made loads of money off a slew of craptacular comedies. Early on in the film, Simmons finds out he's living with a rare disease that will most likely kill him -- and it's that fact that sets this sort of life-adventure flick in motion.Apatow has been writing these little blogs for MTV leading up to the release of Funny People on July 31, and the latest one reveals a longer version of the Merman scene that's actually in the film, as well as two fake movie scenes that just couldn't be squeezed in. One is called Sayonara Davey, which Apatow calls their "politically incorrect foreign exchange student movie," and the other is the obligatory dog-cop drama Dog's Best Friend (see the poster to the right). Check out all three clips after the jump, and learn more about Simmons' real-fake career (some of it is actually based on Sandler's early days) over on the fictional character's real website.
Watch the clips after the jump
'Funny People': New Trailer and Adam Sandler's Prank Call, Circa 1991
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Fandom », Movie Marketing », Trailers and Clips »
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The summer movie season has already past its half-way point, but my two most anticipated films still haven't arrived: District 9 and Judd Apatow's Funny People. We talked about the former yesterday, and now today it's time to plug a film that looks to bring it all: laughs, tears, Australian accents, Seth Rogen's weird cough-laugh, sarcastic Australian accents, Jason Schwartzman looking stoned, Jonah Hill being a d*ck, tons of stand-up comedy -- seriously, what more could you want from a movie?
Two new pieces of Funny People marketing have arrived today. We have a red-band trailer that premiered over at MySpace and a piece of viral awesomeness that premiered over at Moviefone. The red-band (or restricted ... which sounds so mean, doesn't it) trailer isn't all too bad (with the exception of an oral sex joke), and it definitely shines a light on the finer aspects of Apatow's films, which include real, human moments, or, as some would say, the little stuff.
Meanwhile, the viral piece is something pretty unique. Back in the early '90s, Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler were actual roommates, who, apparently, filmed ridiculous things like prank calls. So ... this video is Apatow filming a very young-looking Sandler prank-calling the local deli as an old lady to complain about a sandwich while wearing underwear on his head. Check out both the trailer and the viral video after the jump.
Funny People hits theaters on July 31.
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