JohnnyLee1 Misses every note. Stars can't even save this hotchpotch. Story is banal, characters unattractive, production numbers repetitive, stars don't match. Obvious attempt to cash in on Funny Girl.

TheLittleSongbird 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

dwr246 Poor Fanny Brice. She just didn't seem to have good luck with husbands. First Nick Arnstein lands in jail. And then she ends up with Billy Rose, which is what Funny Lady concerns itself with.As it starts out, it's the Depression. The heydays of Ziegfeld's Follies are gone. And single mother Fanny Brice (Barbra Streisand) is having trouble finding places to perform. After more than a few disasters, she finds herself on the bill at Billy Rose's (James Caan) nightclub. Not having been asked to perform there, she is understandably incensed, but when she meets Rose, sparks of a different kind fly, and she does need the work, after all. Eventually, the two fall in love and marry. But marriage is never smooth sailing for Fanny, who's still battling her demons from her years with Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif). Can she overcome them, and once and for all let go of Nick before she drives Billy away? This was a good movie, no question about it. It just doesn't quite have the deftness of touch that Funny Girl had. Still, you route for Fanny all the way along as she tries to free herself from her obsession with Nick Arnstein. Along the way, you get some wonderful singing and dancing, especially in the song "How Lucky Can You Get", which starts out as a simple statement, but by the end drips with irony. And you do want to cheer for Fanny when she finally tells Nick off for good, but it turns out to be a Pyrrhic victory. Nonetheless, Fanny still reacts with grace, class, and above all, wit, to what life throws at her.The acting was a mixed bag. Streisand is wonderful, of course. Fanny Brice is a part she was born to play. Sharif is still somewhat stilted, but since he carries less of the movie, it's less of a problem, and actually works well, when Fanny finally realizes how self absorbed Nick is. The main disappointment is James Caan, who is his usual wooden self. While this occasionally works for Billy Rose, for the most part, Caan's reading-off-the-teleprompter delivery just doesn't give you a sense of why Fanny, or any woman for that matter, would find him attractive. Fortunately, Streisand carries the film just fine.It's a fun movie, nonetheless, and it is a delight to see Fanny Brice finally claim her own self. No, it's not as good as Funny Girl, but it's still very good.

Ed Uyeshima 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.