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| DVD/On-Demand Review: Forgetting Sarah MarshallGuess what I did this weekend? Three stars. The actor Jason Segel either decided to write himself a movie, or the writer Jason Segel decided to write a movie and then thought he should star in it. Either way, it was a good decision: The writing's very good and Segel, despite having a place on the long list of People I've Never Heard of or Seen Before in My Entire Life, is a good actor who easily holds the movie.Heartbreak is inherently funny, I've decided. Segel does a good job of hitting all the phases of it -- the desperate, flop-sweat-dripping attempts to pick up other women, the obviously fake "It's cool" sort of pose you put on for the one who jilted you (and the not-very-well-concealed anger), the crying jags. (Watching anyone cry comically is kinda funny, but especially if it's a guy curled up naked in the fetal position.) This is obligatory stuff, I grant you, but still funnh. But the heartbreak thing has been done before, and can only be mined for so many fresh laughs, so Segel throws it into the milleu of Hollywood, where he can also goof on dopey pop culture. Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) plays a detective not unlike a younger Catherine Warrick on a show called Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime not at all unlike CSI (or CSI: Miami); Billy Baldwin, playing himself, plays a Horatio Caine-type brooding detective who can't seem to decide whether to keep his sunglasses on or off, and ends every scene with a horrific "button" ( a button is one of those awful lines that closes a scene right before commercial break). Yeah, easily parodied, and I parody this stuff myself all the time, but the execution is funny. If busting on CSI isn't enough, Sarah Marshall also happens to be dating a British lothario "sensitive" rock god called Aldous Snow, played hilariously by a guy I don't think I've seen before, but will be seeing a lot of in the future, I'm sure. (And now he costars in Adam Sandler's upcoming Bedtime Stories.) Russell Brand pwns this role in every way possible, affecting a sort of polymorphously perverse Davey Jones persona -- the sensitive British guy who also is fond of banging three women at once. (He's complex and deep, you see.) Actually, he plays him as sort embracing his hypersexual lifestyle with the childlike innocence of a somewhat brain-damaged 12-year-old -- a lot like Nigel St. Tufnel in Spinal Tap, now that I think of it. I don't want to say he steals the movie -- that would take too much from Segel -- but he does pretty much steal most of his scenes. Toss in Jonah Hill and Bill Hader (both from Superbad; this is an Apatow production, so the Apatow mafia is represented; and hey, why not throw in Apatow favorite Paul Rudd while we're at it? ) who also do a bit of their own scene-stealing and you've got a comedy that's just flat out likable and consistently delivers small chuckles and smiles of recognition along with some fairly big sized laughs. Towards the end, they toss in a complication a bit more realistic and problematic than the silly complications usually seen in romantic comedies, and the movie gets a little more serious than expected -- slightly and briefly -- as it heads towards a conclusion as inevitable and predictable as it is welcome. Still, the movie had earned so much goodwill by this point and genuine care for the characters that this part worked too -- it just wasn't funny. One small point demonstrating that Segal is avoiding the sort of bone-headed autopilot writing we see a lot of: Neither the woman who jilted him, nor her rock god lover, are bad people. They're not villains. Selfish, maybe, but not bad (and not really more selfish than the hero, really.) In fact, near the end, Segel demands Kristen Bell explain, honestly, why she threw him over, and, actually, she makes a pretty good case. Also, Segel tosses in the fact that Aldous Snow is a recovering alcoholic, and that if he so much as has a sip of drink he'll go out of his mind, but the movie wisely avoids the expected let's-dose-Aldous-sequence. (Actually, this seems so set-up that I think they did in fact film it but then wisely decided to edit it out of the movie.) Picking out a sample scene is tough, because some of them are very funny in context but lose their impact as a YouTube clip. This one stands up, mostly, on its own. Peter (the hero) is trying to write a gothic rock-opera musical about Dracula ("A Taste for Love") but has writer's block. His new romantic interest Milla Kunis encourages him to perform a song from it in a bar, hoping that this will encourage him to finish it.Comments1
You had me at Kristen Bell.
Posted by: DrewM. at November 17, 2008 07:38 PM (hlYel) 2
Absolutely hillarious and the Dracula song is one of my favorite parts of the movie. Unsurprisingly my second favorite part is probably the other song he sings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPeBKHd-lME
Posted by: MFn G I M P at November 17, 2008 07:41 PM (FHXaX) Posted by: ace at November 17, 2008 07:41 PM (8T2pi) 4
my favorite scene is them discussing the failure of Sarah Marshall's movie about a mobile phone that kills you, and how stupid that concept is.
I got a huge laugh. But when I watched it on YouTube, I thought it lost its impact, so I went with "Dracula's Lament." Posted by: ace at November 17, 2008 07:43 PM (8T2pi) Posted by: james at November 17, 2008 07:45 PM (FGHbf) 6
It was okay but not 3 out of 5 stars...just how much time did we spend watching Segel cry? Too much--I got he was sad in the first 15 minutes of his boohooing--move the movie forward. Editing would have made this a much tighter and, I think funnier, movie had they taken out much of the male crying.
Posted by: kmiller1k at November 17, 2008 07:49 PM (Lrwp2) 7
Hmmm... damn, "Lee Segel" stuck in my mind. Thanks for the correction.
Posted by: ace at November 17, 2008 07:49 PM (8T2pi) 8
Isn't Russel Brand that douchnozzle who begged some MTV awards audience to elect Obama and made a bunch of shitty remarks about Bush?
Posted by: Bordo at November 17, 2008 07:50 PM (0GEVN) 9
yes, I just realized that five seconds ago. Added the clip.
Okay -- as horrible as he is there, he's good in the movie. Posted by: ace at November 17, 2008 07:54 PM (8T2pi) 10
Guess what I did this weekend?
Getting your knob polished and as a result, being forced to watch chick flicks? Don't lie. You hash mark indicated that you were not blogging from home. Isn't Russel Brand that douchnozzle who begged some MTV awards audience to elect Obama and made a bunch of shitty remarks about Bush? Worse. He got fired from the BBC for being a dirt bag to Andrew Stein, the guy on Fawlty Towers. Posted by: Rammy E. at November 17, 2008 07:54 PM (P1Evy) 11
Still one more Lee in there.
Posted by: right at November 17, 2008 07:56 PM (EquV1) Posted by: Perry Mason at November 17, 2008 07:56 PM (P1Evy) 13
Yes, that is the Russell Brand in question.
Loved it. Called out many of the same points you did. Though, now because of my Full Frontal Male Nudity post, I get a lot of hits from gobsmackinglyandi@theatlantic.com. Can I say that I hate the long string catcher? It catches links that aren't even showing in the text! Posted by: moviegique at November 17, 2008 08:00 PM (1y5Vr) 14
I think comedy-crying is funny, and besides, I think he only cried twice. Maybe three times.
Posted by: ace at November 17, 2008 08:11 PM (8T2pi) 15
'Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Obama'... Developing... Posted by: Jones at November 17, 2008 08:11 PM (KOkrW) 16
I may be one of the few people in the country who thought SuperBad was... well, super fucking bad. I found myself wishing every character would die some horrifically slow and gory death.
(Not that that really has all that much to do with this movie, which I have not seen, but the title of that other one just inspired pretty extreme anger.) Posted by: AngelEm at November 17, 2008 08:16 PM (EyKhI) Posted by: Jones at November 17, 2008 08:28 PM (KOkrW) 18
Russell Brand sat a few rows behind me at Quantum of Solace this weekend (Kips Bay). I saw him outside the theater beforehand - he was draped in his full douchebag regalia. I had to wonder during the Bedtime Stories preview if he was just there to see what the audience reaction was to his 2 seconds of screen time.
If so, his answer was a bunch of people whispering, "Psst - that's that douchebag sitting over there..." Okay, one person. But I think I whispered it loud enough for him to hear. Posted by: Flip at November 17, 2008 08:39 PM (pWFVY) 19
Too much wang in that movie. No need for the full frontal. Yikes.
Movie was pretty funny. Though I too an tired of the Apatow group - when the fat kid from Superbad showed up I groaned, fortunately he's not around too long. Also, Mila Kunis is teh hot. Posted by: brak at November 17, 2008 09:33 PM (dNiEV) 20
The star of the movie, Jason Segel, is also one of the guys on How I Met Your Mother, which is successful primarily due to Neil Patrick Harris being ridiculously awesome. Totally makes the show, like he helps make the Harold and Kumar movies. Posted by: Barney Stinson at November 17, 2008 09:56 PM (pfStM) 21
You forgot the best part about FSM, Milla Kunis is super hot. I don't remember thinking she was all that during the 70's Show days but she had the hotness meter cranked up to 11 for this movie. I didn't like FSM nearly as much as you but I did think it was OK. Then again I haven't really liked any of the Apatow movies all that much and this one fit nicely into his genre which I consider kind of romantic comedy lite. His movies are generally pretty formulaic romantic comedies but he add's in gross out/screwball type comedy moments to make it palatable to market as a comedy. Even Superbad was like that (granted the romantic part was between the two male protagonists but still). In general I feel like you could take the first 30 minutes from any three of his movies and put together a consistently funny movie without all the romance or male bonding aspects I really don't care about. In particular the first 30 or 40 minutes of Knocked Up were hilarious before the movie went off the rails into Lifetime territory. Posted by: Big E at November 17, 2008 10:17 PM (RWzXM) 22
Do yourself a huge favor and check out Freaks & Geeks. It's still the funniest project Apatow & Co. have been involved in.
Posted by: CTD at November 17, 2008 10:20 PM (Cx/Vx) 23
And the world explodes/I've never been down this road/Teach me how to glow/While I'm moving/Inside of you
Posted by: MFn G I M P at November 17, 2008 10:47 PM (FHXaX) 24
The problem with this movie is that the Comedic Foils did not get theirs: Marshall and the Brand Character.
In Christmas Vacation, the snotty yuppies got theirs and the result was a laugh riot. The movie was dumb, relying on shock schtick instead of well-developed jokes. Randy Quaid hosing out his RV's waste tank, and then the explosion (predictable) pushing all the waste matter into the yuppie's carefully yuppiefied Christmas living room? Priceless. As was the earlier setup of Clark's christmas lights keeping them up at night with the glare. Come on, every guy hates Russell Brand. He's a guy who should be starring in the website "Hot Chicks with Douchebags." NOT having him get his come-uppance is a Hollywood cop-out filled with PC (can't have the woman be the butt of jokes). A shame too, since Bell is funny, at least as funny as Julia Louise Dreyfuss who played one of the yuppies in Vacation. Posted by: whiskey at November 17, 2008 10:49 PM (4878o) 25
I liked the movie and your review, Ace.
Posted by: adolfo_velasquez at November 17, 2008 11:46 PM (PIn5w) 26
Wayyy too much penis in that movie. And the whole "poor me, I'm gonna bang hot chicks to get over my ex" scenes in the beginning pissed me off. But Mila Kunis was looking good. Posted by: PDizzle at November 18, 2008 01:13 AM (btpzp) 27
I'm a big fan of Jason Segal. He's fearless: always willing to make himself look like a jackass on camera. He does it regularly on How I Met Your Mother, which is a pretty good sitcom, and he did it all the time on Freaks and Geeks. He does things there that will make you die inside a little for the cringieness of it. I second whoever recommended the DVDs. Freaks and Geeks was wonderful.
Posted by: Kensington at November 18, 2008 01:56 AM (fhJCy) 28
It was just OK. A couple of laughs. Two stars. It was about 10 minutes too long and needed a bit more editing. Not sold on Segal yet but he was ok here. He reminds me of that actor from the 80's, Judge Reinhold. I never wanted to see Reinhold's penis and if I never see Segal's penis again in a movie, it will be too soon. Seinfeld had an episode about good naked vs bad naked. That was bad naked. Brand was funny. However, I was impressed to realize at the credits that Segal wrote the thing too, as well as a lot of the music so he probably has more talent than bland Reinhold. It's ok to rent.
Posted by: Pancake at November 18, 2008 02:09 AM (AMufr) 29
Freaks & Geeks! One of my all-time favorite TV shows. So so great.
Posted by: lael at November 18, 2008 02:35 AM (ulEmZ) 30
For those who aren't TV geeks, Jason Segal has a lead in a tv show. Dunno how funny it would be picking it up at this point. Season 1 was very good, 2 was genius (especially if you like to see guys cry), 3 was meh, 4 is picking back up.
Posted by: Alice H at November 18, 2008 02:36 AM (jRtPb) 31
Yeah, funny but uneven. (Especially the bad kind of nudity.) The best part was, right after the breakup, he goes back to work, scoring some dramatic/shocking scene from Crime Scene. Instead of brooding or tense music, his contribution is hilarious. That whole scene is easily worth a star and a half.
Posted by: Some Guy at November 18, 2008 09:49 AM (lPxkl) 32
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