I was genuinely looking forward to watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall. When the film was in theaters this past spring, its "viral marketing campaign" was out of control in my dear city of Chicago and had me extremely curious. Unfortunately (or so I thought back then), I never found the time to see it.
Therefore, earlier this week I chalked Tuesday's release of the Forgetting Sarah Marshall DVD up to fate... I mean, who isn't in need of a good laugh these days, right? And how could you go wrong with a Judd Apatow-produced flick? Well, folks... I'm sorry to report that it's possible. The laughs were few and far between in this "romantic comedy" (I use that term only because I'm at a loss at how else to classify this one)... I checked the clock (it ran nearly two hours) more often than I chuckled. But if you watch this trailer and find it funny, then read on, because I know I'm in the minority here -- the film has raked in more than $100 million to date worldwide, received mostly positive reviews from critics, and even inspired a spin-off that's currently in pre-production.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is about a TV theme song and score composer, Peter (Jason Segel, who also wrote the film), who gets dumped by his girlfriend, actress Sarah Marshall (Kristin Bell). He simply cannot handle their break-up and spirals into depression before he's finally convinced by his brother-in-law (Superbad's Bill Hader) to take a vacation.
Where does Peter choose to go? Turtle Bay Resort in Oahu, Hawaii -- which just so happens to be the same place that Sarah is staying... with her new boyfriend, rocker Aldous Snow (British comedian Russell Brand). I had read several reviews which claimed that Brand stole all of the scenes he was in and was the real star of this movie; however, I have to disagree. I thought he was OK, but once again, I hardly laughed at all during this film, much less when Brand was on-screen.
To even up the score for poor Peter, a pretty receptionist at the resort, Rachel (Mila Kunis), takes pity on him and tries to keep him from pouting over his ex by hanging out with him when she's not on the job. I'll leave it at that, but I have a feeling that you could guess how the rest of the story turns out.
Since I more or less enjoyed all of Judd Apatow's other movies, I'm at a loss as to why I was so disenchanted with this one. I guess I just simply didn't think it was funny. But I can tell you that its humor is much more similar to the jokes in The 40-Year-Old Virgin than to those in Knocked Up or Superbad. And the good news is that if you like the movie, you'll probably appreciate that the DVD offers both the theatrical R-rated version as well as an unrated cut, and bonus features (gag reels, a line-o-rama, etc.) are in abundance.
For me, the best parts of this film were: 1) all of the cameos -- there were tons of recognizable faces that popped up throughout the story, and 2) a few goofy scenes involving puppets. After the success of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason Segel landed a deal to write the next Muppet movie for Disney. So I obviously wasn't the only one who liked the puppet scenes!
Love the blog so far but I think I am going to like "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". From watching the trailer, the main male character seemed a bit annoying at first but grew on me by the end. I've got it queued up to watch right now- will let you know how it goes. :)
Posted by: Derek A. Muenzel, Sr. | October 04, 2008 at 09:08 AM
Derek - I'm sure you will end up liking it... I really am one of the only people I know who didn't... maybe I was just in a really bad mood that day or something, but I felt kind of bored throughout it. Hope it's better for you!
- Erika
Posted by: Erika Olson | October 04, 2008 at 10:21 AM
Erika - I could have done without the "Unrated" aspect of the movie- I really didn't need to see *so* much of Jason Segel *so* many times- but overall I did enjoy Forgetting Sarah Marshall (FSM). Some of the acting was wooden (Jason Segel and Kristin Bell were at times) but I thought that Russell Brand and Bill Hader did a solid job for their roles. I will have to check out some of Russell Brand's other work because I enjoyed him a lot in this movie. I also enjoyed the Baldwin hamming it up and while the 'uptight Christian' married couple was a bit by-the-numbers it all tied together nicely at the end.
I thoroughly enjoyed 40 Year Old Virgin but only like parts of Knocked Up and Superbad- they seemed to be more over the top than I wanted. FSM seemed to dial it down a notch from the latter two movies- maybe I just need to stop watching the 'Unrated' versions? While I wouldn't say the movie should be nominated for an Oscar I also didn't check my figurative watch at any point of the movie. :)
Even though you didn't enjoy FSM I feel you gave it a fair review.
Cheers,
Derek
Posted by: Derek A. Muenzel, Sr. | October 04, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Could not suck enough.
Posted by: Ray Watson | October 22, 2009 at 06:28 PM