Schumer genuinely makes me laugh. I dig her show. But it turns out creating sustained, feature-length comedy is a different bag altogether.
I appreciate Schumer/Apatow's attempts at grounded, human comedy. This doesn't have to be as broad as say, "Spy", which was way more funny and, I think, thematically much smarter. But if you're going for grounded comedy then the characters have to be... well, interesting. And every single character in this is a one-dimensional shell. Each one has their role to play in the script and are nothing beyond that. The performances are strong, and the actors work hard to humanize their characters, but no person in this film is expansive or complex or terribly engaging or remotely unpredictable in any way. In fact, absolutely nothing is unpredictable in this film. So, for me, it comes off as not broad enough to be funny, and not genuine enough to be grounded.
Combine this overwhelming predictability, flat characterization and the sports-stunt casting with Apatow's habit for long running times, and an uninspired, robot-written third act, and you get a film that's more tedious than fun.
But Schumer herself is funny. And more than that, she's important. She's at her best when she's exploding the precious notion of female body imagery in joke after joke about bloody tampons and promiscuity. But the film lacks the courage of its star, which is a complicated criticism, since she actually wrote it.
There was the potential to make something outrageous and beautiful here. That potential was pretty much blown.
I appreciate Schumer/Apatow's attempts at grounded, human comedy. This doesn't have to be as broad as say, "Spy", which was way more funny and, I think, thematically much smarter. But if you're going for grounded comedy then the characters have to be... well, interesting. And every single character in this is a one-dimensional shell. Each one has their role to play in the script and are nothing beyond that. The performances are strong, and the actors work hard to humanize their characters, but no person in this film is expansive or complex or terribly engaging or remotely unpredictable in any way. In fact, absolutely nothing is unpredictable in this film. So, for me, it comes off as not broad enough to be funny, and not genuine enough to be grounded.
Combine this overwhelming predictability, flat characterization and the sports-stunt casting with Apatow's habit for long running times, and an uninspired, robot-written third act, and you get a film that's more tedious than fun.
But Schumer herself is funny. And more than that, she's important. She's at her best when she's exploding the precious notion of female body imagery in joke after joke about bloody tampons and promiscuity. But the film lacks the courage of its star, which is a complicated criticism, since she actually wrote it.
There was the potential to make something outrageous and beautiful here. That potential was pretty much blown.