(CNN) -- Comedy is hard; dying is easy. Any stand-up will tell you that. Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen play comedians in "Funny People." Let's have a hand, then, for Judd Apatow. Hollywood's most successful contemporary comedy producer isn't resting on his laurels but continues to push toward risky subject matter: male sexual insecurity in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," unwanted pregnancy in "Knocked Up" -- and now the big C. No, not cancer -- though Adam Sandler's superstar comedian George Simmons is stricken with an appropriately eccentric form of leukemia. No, this latest film's true subject is Celebrity and the funny things it does to people.
@highlight
"Funny People" has some funny -- and insightful -- stuff to say about comics
@highlight
Judd Apatow film stars Adam Sandler as ailing comedian
@highlight
Movie's main drawback is it's too long, but material makes up for it, says Tom Charity
It's one of the few times we see @placeholder really having fun and cutting loose.
Still, if you're not averse to too much of a good-ish thing, and can stomach another of those terminal @placeholder illnesses that leaves the patient with no discernible ill-effects, "Funny People" is a fairly shrewd and nonjudgmental dissection of how celebrity skews and contaminates even the most intimate relationships.