Judd Apatow makes very funny movies in a very crude sort of way. If you’re not easily offended by rampant sex and four letter words included casually in every sentence — and multiple examples of potty humor and reference to potty functions — this could be a movie for you. Especially if you’re a woman. The women sitting in front of me – on a very attended screening on a Monday night after the movie had already been playing for almost a month – were roaring at some of the situations I found only mildly amusing. But let me suggest something else about this Judd Apatow-directed film: even better than its raw humor are its very real emotional moments – including some when it’s unclear whether you should be moved or be offended, whether you should cringe or to cry. You have never heard a eulogy quite like the one delivered in here.
Amy Schumer, who is arguably the hottest female stand-up comic working now, wrote this movie – and is its star. As an actress, she’s a better writer — and sometimes given to one-liners that would probably feel funnier and more natural when delivered from a stage. The movie feels padded out with unfunny and unnecessary sub-plots and even the main plot itself too often lapses into long and talky sequences that keep the good moments – funny, sad, or even memorable – too far apart. But what makes this movie worth seeing are some of the other actors – starting with Bill Hader, who seems so natural, so genuine, so likeable and has such great chemistry with everyone else, including LeBron James, who is the real joy of this movie. Yeah, that star of the Cleveland Cavaliers can deliver a line in a way that seems so childlike, so sincere, so fresh that it’s often devastatingly funny. Although there is not much freshness here, my favorite scene was the early flashback where Amy’s dad is explaining the impossibility of monogamy to his two young daughters, using Kim’s favorite doll as an example. It’s so funny because it does what the best humor always does – makes us think.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 