“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” has everything needed to make a good comedy. Produced by Judd Apatow (“40 Year Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up”), and written by Jason Segel (Jason from “Knocked Up”) this already has a promising start for greatness. Kristen Bell, who plays Sarah Marshall, makes her Veronica Mars transition from TV to film perfectly, which is ironically exactly what her character in the film must do.
Bell plays a crime scene investigator on a hit parody-like show of CSI but the success isn’t enough for her to stay with her boyfriend (Segal) who can’t quite get it together. After breaking up with him, they part ways only to inconveniently meet up in Hawaii on separate vacations. Bell has already moved on as Segal catches her with pop star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) who plays an egocentric, overly zealous singer of his band Infant Sorrow. This is the first time I have seen Brand in anything but I hope it’s not the last as his performance was absolutely hilarious at times.
Jonah Hill (Seth from “Superbad”) plays his normal funny self as a die hard fan of Aldous Snow, making subtle homoerotic moves as Snow and trying to pass off his band’s demo CD to him (he is all five members of the band). Mila Kunis plays the rebound character for Segal making things awkward between the group of four as they find themselves sharing dinner and drinks. Kunis plays a less obnoxious Jackie (“That ’70s Show”) with good intentions for Segal, but her fake tan was ridiculously apparent throughout the entire film.
Like other Apatow films, the movie has an R rating that is well deserved. Language, sex, and nudity (only male) give it its patented crude humor, but don’t come close to competing with Superbad’s raunchiness. Some scenes don’t transition well, making for some sloppy cutting in post but people are coming to see this for the comedy, not the finer aspects. Overlooking that one fault, this romantic comedy has been getting nothing but rave reviews since it debuted in theaters on Friday, easily making it the funniest movie to come out so far this year.
source: thewestgeorgian.com