Funny People

For my last movie of Campfest 2009, I drove back out into the countryside, actually going past the state park where I was set up, to the town of Bridgton, where I paid seven bucks to get into the twin drive-in there.

As I mentioned, Portland seemed abounding with drive-ins, so it seemed only natural.

It started out as a fun experience. I parked in the third row and scurried over to the snackbar, where I gorged on a double cheeseburger and french fries, accompanied by a large lemonade. I have all but given up all drinks with high fructose corn syrup in them, but for the drive-in I decided to make an exception.

Because I was camping, I had my camp chair with me, as well as my portable radio, so I set up outside my car with the radio tuned to the box office frequency. A trio of teenagers set up next to me, but I didn't mind.

It was all going well, until a family---a teeneager, with two sisters and his mother in the back seat, arrived at show time and set up on the other side. To my complete surprise, they didn't shut off the engine, but kept idling as the movie started. I couldn't stand it, and finally tapped on their window and asked them if they were going to do that during the entire movie. He promptly shut off the engine.

But then fifteen minutes he started again. I tapped again. He whines, "the windows fog up if I don't run the air conditioning." Well, duh. That's why get out. I just yelled at them like an old man, saying if they were going to do that, they should find an isolated spot, and not park next to other people. I resisted the temptation to tell them that with the carbon monoxide and the idling noise, it was basically like saying "fuck you" to the people next to them.

I just gave up and took my chair and portable radio down near the front and watched in confort from there, trying not fume about how fucked up and inconsiderate some people are.

It all seemed to go with the movie in quality.

At first I thought I was going to enjoy Funny People, and then about half an hour into it, I suddenly asked myself, "Wait a minute, I think this movie just might suck."

And it did. It just kept getting worse and worse. When Ebert and Siskel did there television show together, I once heard them talk about how some bad movies are self-incriminating in the dialogue. I thought of this when I heard Seth Rogen say, "this is all like watching a slow motion train wreck." (as my friend Howard has pointed out, watching a low motion train wreck would have been a lot more interesting).

I would nominate this movie for how not to make a movie. I thought it was going to be about a man (Adam Sandler) reconnecting with his lost love. But it wasn't about that. The trailers were very deceptive. What it was really about what how Hollywood and famous people are just assholes, in an unredeemable sense.

It seemed to be Judd Apatow both bragging about the famous people he knows, and at the same time trying to hold himself aloof from it all by saying how it all sucks. By the end, I didn't care what happened to any of the characters. I just wanted it to be over.

So it wasn't the best ending to Campfest, but, hey you take what you can get.