Funny People: 7/10

Panned by the critics as a self-indulgent first failure for Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin), there's much more to Funny People than first meets the eye.

Adam Sandler is George Simmons, a super-rich comedy actor who wants for nothing (notice the similarity?) except his old flame. He's diagnosed with a terminal disease, only to be cured. Along the way, he takes on Ira Wright (Seth Ragen) as his little helper-cum-mentee.

The jokes come so thick and fast I almost drowned in my own saliva: from Adam Sandler's piano-playing mockery of Wright's real name - Winer ("You're hiding some Judaism there," (and which reminded me of my friend, Ariel Winer's tale about the time it was announced over the school tannoy that "a real Wiener" should come to the Principal's office); to the funniest bit of all: Jonah Hill's discovery that all you need for a YouTube hit is to roll around on the floor with cute kittens.

Eric Bana, who plays hubby to Apatow's actress wife, is annoying. And there is a lull in the gag-fest halfway through (hence the 7/10). But this is - for me - yet another example of the goons at Time Out watching a different film to the one screened in cinemas for mere mortals. Funny People is a very funny film.