I don't know why, but I expected it to be better. I can't really point to what it was that made the movie not as good. Was it that it dragged in some parts of the film? Maybe they made all the jokes I expected them to make?
I do remember when he goes "Ha ha, what a story Mark" and Seth Rogen says "Hey that's not a funny story" and the joke was supposed to be "Hey, human emotions are complicate man" and Seth goes, "Whatever". The joke was supposed to be "Human emotions are complicated man" but it fell flat with me. There were a lot of those times when the joke just fell flat with me.
I thought it was weird that Alison Brie just disappears. Not that she was important to the movie but she wasn't that unimportant was she?
With movies like this that use real life characters as important plot points like Bryan Cranston and Judd Apatow, you can get confused as to who is fake and who isn't. Yeah it takes a second to realize "Oh that person isn't playing themselves" but I had a few of those moments where I was like "is that? no? OH ok" and it takes you out of the movie.
No real surprises, but they still fit a lot of the true story (as far as I know) in there. I almost teared up a little bit at the end when Tommy was running down the aisle getting high fives from everyone. Against all odds, he got the love he wanted so badly.
A lot of people are commenting on Tommy being an asshole, but I feel like it's not that simple. I think was nervous to make a fool of himself, so he was stressed about his acting scenes. I think it's depicted in how he gets really defensive really quickly and never admits he's wrong. Like when he defends laughing at the unfunny story Greg tells by saying "sometimes people do crazy things." He also idolizes directors who are also assholes when filming so maybe he feels the need to be like them. And, overall, he lacks self awareness. It seems like he's always a nice guy outside of directing this movie.
If you've watched the Room, you'll get more enjoyment from it but I don't think it makes or breaks the movie (unless you're really bothered by Franco's mannerisms in this because you aren't familiar with the real life Tommy). This movie was a delight and that after-credits scene was bonkers.
I felt they made Tommy far more likeable than what was revealed in the book, also they seemed to water down the difficulty of the making of the room, even months before the shooting started the cast and crew were already on edge. how Tommy made the cast and crew's lives a living hell in some of the most bizarre ways like forcing everyone to come to every scene regardless of whether they were in it or not.
Also my last point is that I still find it a bit weird that in both this movie and the original movie we are basically loving these because of how weird Tommy is.