Funny People vs. Funny People

With the release date only two days away I wanted to do a little review of how Funny People is being marketed, seeing as how it is not an easy movie to market. Looking a bit more mature than Knocked Up and 40 Yr Old Virgin, Funny People stars, well, funny people but in the original trailer, the humor took a back seat to the cancer story. It is a long trailer and appears to give away a ton of the story, but here it is:




Then, the studio got worried that people would not respond to an Adam Sandler movie about cancer, but was called Funny People. So in come official trailer number 2. It is the perfect compliment to trailer number 1. In this trailer the comedy is the focus and we do get the doctor's office, but if you have not seen the first trailer, you will not know why. Here it is:




There is a huge difference between the two, right? The second trailer was obviously created to help people understand why it is called Funny People and to get people to know that the Judd Apatow humor is not lost. It is a very smart play by the studio and by Apatow to get two pretty different trailers out. I think it appeals to more people. There will be people who go to it because it does look more mature and more serious, and Sandler can do the more serious stuff. Yet, it is also gives the young people enough of the comedy to get them there, I think. The second trailer opens with such a classic Apatow joke that it lets us know he has not gone soft. Also, with the "green band" trailer for the first one, the movie almost plays at a PG-13 level, so this second "red band" trailer lets all of us know, Apatow has not changed his tune totally.

I was on board for this movie when I first heard about it because I love stand up comedy and movies do not have enough of it. I am not sure if it is really going to be too much a back stage look at that world, but it shows a little of that. I like the cast and am excited to see Eric Bana loosen up. The stand up looks funny, but not so funny that it makes no sense that the Seth Rogen character is still working in a deli. I do not anticipate this will be the monster hit his first two movies were and I am not sure this will have the quotables, but the cast is strong and the two trailers give a very well rounded view of the movie and have only made me more excited for it.