Good start, but then it gets ruined

Excellent but underrated film

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

While not without flaws Funny Girl was a wonderful film with Barbra Streisand boasting one of the finest film debuts ever. Funny Lady is nowhere near as good, but that doesn't mean it's bad because it's not. It has lovely costumes and sets, if not as opulent as those of Funny Girl, and the photography is mostly very nice, especially the use of Panavision in I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five and Ten Cent Store. Save a couple of exceptions, particularly in It's Gonna Be a Happy Day, the overuse of long shots gives it a rather chaotic look. The music is not as great as Funny Girl's, with the score being pleasant and paced well, and while none of the songs quite equal Don't Rain On My Parade or My Man they are fine on their equal, with the best being How Lucky Can You Get?, More Than You Know and I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five and Ten Cent Store. The script is amusing with a few sweet moments. Barbra is not as magical as she was in Funny Girl with Fanny having more of diva-ish attitude, but she manages the comic and dramatic(certainly better than in A Star is Born) moments very well and her singing is as gorgeous and impassioned as ever. James Caan is also good though with a character who's not easy to like at first, and they have an easy chemistry together. Omar Sharif is as charming as he was in Funny Girl, Roddy McDowell is underused but memorable and Ben Vereen has the chance to show some fancy footwork. Funny Lady is problematic, long shots overuse aside. The pacing does have a tendency to be elephantine, especially like in Funny Girl in the second half and the story is not as fun, as romantic or as touching as Funny Girl(they're evident just that Funny Girl had them much stronger) so it was not as easy to properly invest or engage with it. And if you thought the story and writing in Funny Girl was clichéd or contrived, and a fair few people do think that, Funny Lady does it worse. Herbert Ross's direction is rather clumsy as well, the direction in It's Gonna Be a Happy Day is particularly muddled and he does lose control of the story and its clichés at frequent points. Overall, a lacklustre sequel but a watchable one at least. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Funny Girl was a fantastic musical, famous also for having the lead actress tie in her Oscar win with Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter (because she voted for herself), so was interested to see how the sequel would fare, from director Herbert Ross (The Sunshine Boys, Footloose, The Secret of My Succe$s). Basically, set in 1930's New York, this is a set after singer and comedienne Fanny Brice (Golden Globe nominated Barbra Streisand) has divorced Nicky Arnstein (Omar Sharif). With the Depression taking effect all over the place she is finding it difficult to find work both on the stage and in recording, but then she meets songwriter and impresario Billy Rose (Golden Globe nominated James Caan), and she does find it easier. Their relationship gets very close and they eventually get married, and Fanny gains back her success in the recording studio singing the songs that he has written. There is a point when Nicky comes back to see her, but he is of course married to someone else, but she naturally still has feelings for him, and he does for her. Of course the marriage with Bill doesn't work as well as Fanny thought it would, and obviously they divorce, and supposedly she continues her success until her death. Also starring Roddy McDowall as Bobby Moore, Golden Globe nominated Ben Vereen as Bert Robbins, Carole Wells as Norma Butler, Larry Gates as Bernard Baruch, Heidi O'Rourke as Eleanor Holm, Samantha C. Kirkeby/Huffaker as Fran and Matt Emery as Buck Bolton. Streisand is a little less enthusiastic in this follow up but still nice to watch and listen to, Caan is okay as her new husband showing her the ropes, there are some catchy songs like "Let's Hear It For Me" and "I Found a Million Dollar Baby (in a Five and Ten Cent Store)", it is not as fun watch as the original film, in fact it for me was a little boring, but it isn't a completely terrible biographical musical. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Song for "How Lucky Can You Get" (also nominated the Golden Globe), Best Music for Peter Matz and Best Sound, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy and Best Original Score for John Kander and Fred Ebb. Okay!

Watching "Funny Lady" always makes me laugh. Not because it's particularly humorous (the only scene I think that works for humor is Streisand's hotel room shout-fest that follows Billy's disastrous opening night), but because each time I see it I am reminded of the one-sentence review a friend gave it back when it opened in 1975: "Why did they call it 'Funny Lady'? They should have called it 'Mean Barbra'!" Indeed, Streisand seems to be in a constant state of pique throughout most of the film's 2+ hours. (It's well known that she didn't want to do it and had to be sued to take on the job.) Fanny Brice has indeed grown up, and in place of the ambitious but lovable "Funny Girl" from the original, we have a scowling, foul-mouthed, perpetually angry and upset harridan in anachronistically overdone gowns."Funny Lady" exists because "Funny Girl" was a success. There is really nothing going on in Fanny's adult life that warrants the mammoth film built around it. She has no emotional mountains to climb (unless you count the need of a Nicky Arnstein detox) and Billy Rose is not the love of her life, so what do we have? We have the Barbra Streisand show. A musical and costume fix for Streisand junkies, but not much of a movie.I like Streisand a lot, but here her face looks hard and mad all the time and she seems to be striking one pose after another in her extravagant costumes that bear that unmistakable Bob Mackie stamp that recalls the look of every 70s Vegas revue. It's kind of entertaining to see such an abrasive Fanny Brice, but scene after scene of her being bossy and telling musicians and producers how to do their job, you kind of lose the feeling this is Brice you're watching. It's Barbra.All that being said, the movie is somehow so light and inconsequential that it is rather watchable. It requires absolutely no brain work on your part and just asks you to sit back and admire Barbra for a couple of hours. Which, even in her caustic mode, is pretty easy to do.James Caan is pretty good but miscast as the teeny-tiny Billie Rose, and poor Omar Sharif is hung out to dry as Fanny's punctured romance, Nick Arnstein. They really don't give him much to do.So, if you like your Streisand hard edged, singing up a storm, decked out like a Christmas tree, lovingly photographed and serving up ample glimpses of bosom and behind, perhaps "Funny Lady" is for you. If you're looking for a really good movie, better rent "Funny Girl."

It's easy to malign this bloated 1975 sequel to "Funny Girl", the landmark 1968 musical which ably served as Barbra Streisand's launching pad into movies. This time, the story of Ziegfeld Follies entertainer Fanny Brice's years in the limelight does not provide a character arc which allows us to discover anything new about her character. Instead, director Herbert Ross and screenwriter Jay Presson Allen focus on the turbulent, sometimes comic relationship between the established Brice and her eventual husband, rising impresario Billy Rose. The staccato dialogue between the two, a far cry from the moony worship Brice held for gambler Nick Arnstein in the first movie, is what makes "Funny Lady" good light entertainment even though the old-fashioned narrative often feels disjointed and truncated.Fortunately, in full diva mode as the success-hardened heroine, Streisand is at the top of her game, and James Caan brings youthful energy to his portrayal of the brash, egotistical Rose. The rest of the actors barely register, including Ben Vereen who doesn't have a single line of dialogue as entertainer Bert Robbins and an embalmed-looking Omar Sharif reprising his role as Arnstein this time as a preening, materialistic fortune hunter. What a shame that the swooning love story of the first film reaches such a cynical denouement in this story. There are songs written for the film by the estimable team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, and they meld nicely with the old, Rose-penned standards presented here. However, some of the production numbers are badly staged, for example, the faux-gospel take on "(It's Gonna Be a) Great Day" with a sequin-infested Streisand surrounded by an ensemble of uncoordinated dancers, or the clarion call of "Let's Hear It for Me" complete with a roadster and a biplane to replicate the driving rhythm of its obvious inspiration, "Don't Rain on My Parade". In fact, there are many ill-used references to "Funny Girl" from the opening montage to the overorchestrated refrains of "People" when Arnstein kisses Brice.Moreover, the movie has a constant veneer of excess, especially the overdone Bob Mackie gowns, as if nothing seems rooted in reality. Through all this, Streisand does manage to create some breathtaking musical magic - her sonorous version of "More Than You Know" in the recording studio; her torchy, show-stopping lament, "How Lucky Can You Get" (although her revealing gown is rather distracting); and best of all, her pristine rendition of the old chestnut, "If I Love Again", set against a glass grand piano. Even Caan shows off a pleasant karaoke-style voice on "It's Only a Paper Moon/I Like Her" and "Me and My Shadow". Even though it's always a risk to include a years-later scene with the actors in grayed wigs and heavy make-up, the ending reunion between Brice and Rose is saved by the alternating currents of humor and poignancy that Streisand and Caan generate. I only wish the film ended with a Streisand showstopper like "Funny Girl" did. But alas, the movie provides certain pleasures in spite of its various shortcomings.