Adam Sandler has a lot to answer for. Little Nicky, for example. And The Waterboy. And Anger Management. And about half a dozen other movie monstrosities…

But what’s most irritating about Adam Sandler is, from time-to-time, whenever he gets bored, he decides to make a good film. Punk Drunk Love, for example, is ace. As is Spanglish. The rule of thumb is: whenever he’s not playing the massive idiot who screams a lot, the film might be worth seeing.

Thankfully, Funny People, the latest from so-hot-for-a-little-while now comedy lynchpin Judd Aptow, is Sandler in a more sombre mood, and as his character has a terminal illness, it makes sense.

Oddly though, the trailer gives away that he somehow gets over it. Even worse, is that none of the jokes in the trailer are funny in any way. Save for the bit where Jonah Hill explains to Jason Schwartzmen that his granddad probably went to hell. Not the mention there’s about 3 musical tempo changes… in a three minute trailer!

It is just me being heartless? Or does this actually look really, really lame? Admittedly, the red band trailer looks more interesting, if only because it doesn’t confuse things with the whole terminal illness thing.

Funny People trailer

A more exciting prospect is The Hurt Locker – Kathryn Bigelow’s film which follows a crack (or cracked?) team of bomb dismantlers in war-torn Iraq. It stars Jeremy Renner, who was great in small parts in The Assassination of Jesse James… and 28 Weeks Later, and he’s supposed to be REALLY great here. It also stars the underrated Ralph Fiennes, and Guy Pearce who… I can’t remember seeing in anything for ages.

To get a feel of what it’s about, it has this line: “What’s the best way you go about dismantling a bomb?” – “The way you don’t die, Sir.” – which makes sense!

Frankly, I’m quite excited about this one. Where the film world eagerly awaits James Cameron’s 3D extravaganza Avatar, they could do worse than to pay attention to his ex wife.

The Hurt Locker trailer