On DVD: These “Funny People” Will Make You Laugh

Funny People
Universal
$30
2-Disc: $35
Blu-ray: $40

Plot: After he’s diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, a superstar comedian (Adam Sandler) contemplates how he wants to spend his last days on Earth.

Opinion: Judd Apatow’s name has been attached to so many films in recent years it’s a surprise when you recall that Funny People is only his third directorial effort.  Then again, in the course of those three movies, Apatow has tackled weightier subjects than some directors attempt in their entire careers.  The 40-Year-Old-Virgin was about falling in love, Knocked Up was about making babies and now Funny People tackles the hilarious subject of death.   Apatow’s comedies have never been overly dependent on plot; his approach is to drop his characters into a situation and allow the comedy to emerge from their behavior.  Thus, Sandler receives his diagnosis in the first or second scene and the bulk of the film’s first half finds him struggling to come to terms with this development.  This section of the movie is classic Apatow, stuffed with hilarious and clearly semi-improvised dialogue, surprise celebrity cameos and moments of surprising emotional depth.  But then a development occurs midway through the film that sends Funny People off in an entirely different direction, one that deliberately doesn’t make room for the comic highs of the first half.  I fully expect this Funny People to lose some viewers, particularly those going in expecting the non-stop yuks of Virgin and Knocked Up.  Apatow and Sandler are pushing themselves out of their comfort zones here and that’s reflected in the somewhat awkward pacing.  It doesn’t help that the director can’t keep himself from lingering on his children’s adorable faces or his wife’s ass in tight jeans.  Despite or maybe even because of these third-act stumbles, Funny People is an immensely rewarding film that displays artistic ambitions you might not have thought either Sandler or Apatow were capable of.  More than any other film he’s directed over produced to date, Funny People puts Apatow’s private fears, neuroses and joys onscreen for everyone to see.  The resulting film isn’t always pretty, but more often than not it is pretty damn funny.

Bonus Features: Apatow always goes all-out when it comes to DVD extras and Funny People is no exception.  In addition to the dozens upon dozens of deleted and alternate scenes, there are several gag reels, a commentary track with the director and his cast, featurettes and, best of all, a half-hour mockumentary following the film’s raunchy Dane Cook-like comedian Randy, played by Parks and Recreation scene-stealer Aziz Ansari.

Verdict: Buy It

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Kobe Doin’ Work
Buena Vista
$30

Plot: A day in the life of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant.

Opinion: Talk about getting up close and personal: for his new doc about NBA icon Kobe Bryant, Spike Lee filmed an entire game from the 2008 MVP’s perspective, placing dozens of cameras around the Staples Center court that followed his every move.  Bryant also wore a mic that captured all of his grunts, shot-calls and words of advice to teammates.  It’s a fascinating, if occasionally annoying, way to watch a basketball game, but must for Lakers’ fans. 

Bonus Features: The main feature can be watched two ways-with or without a Bryant commentary describing the on-court action.  There are also two deleted scenes, a video introduction with Lee and a making-of doc originally made for ESPN.

Verdict: Buy It

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Angels & Demons
Sony
$29
Blu-ray: $40

Plot: Someone is killing priests in the Vatican…and Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is gonna find out who is responsible.

Opinion: Like the new Star Trek film, Angels & Demons-the follow-up to the extremely popular film version of The Da Vinci Code-employs a frenetic ticking-clock pace to distract the audience from its narrative absurdities.  But Trek offered a number of other pleasures as well, including lots of humor, exciting brawls and lively performances from a fresh-faced cast.  This movie has none of those things; it’s a glum, by-the-numbers potboiler distinguished only by its admittedly handsome production values.  Director Ron Howard is nothing if not a skilled craftsman and he puts his sizable budget to good use.  To his credit, he also takes great care not to repeat some of the mistakes he made with his botched Da Vinci Code adaptation.  For one thing, there are none of the leaden monologues and drawn-out expository conversations that turned that film the perfect cure for insomnia.  Much of the exposition here is delivered on the run, so even if you miss what exactly it is that the characters are trying to achieve, you’ll see them achieve it a few moments later.  Besides, Howard knows that the details are too perpostrous to explain at length anyway; best just to keep the characters in motion and let viewers pick the story apart later.

Bonus Features: A handful of making-of featurettes.

Verdict: Skip It