Forgetting Sarah Marshall

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: May 30th, 2008 (wide) 

Starring: Kristen Bell, Jason Segel, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Bill Hader

Directed by: Nicholas Stoller 

Premise: After a devastating break-up with his girlfriend, TV sitcom star Sarah Marshall, a heartbroken and depressed Peter heads to Hawaii for a little vacation to try his best to forget every detail of his relationship. But love laughs at Peter, because Sarah is vacationing in the same exclusive resort as Peter, along with her new boyfriend.

[modage]

this not a looka so good.  me thinka judd apatowa nama draga tru da mud.  eh?

[Tictacbk]

I just read 4 extremely positive early reviews of this...suddenly I'm excited for it.  Maybe Apatow's demise isn't quite so close?

[cinemanarchist]

Roeper said he was willing to put this in his top 50 comedies of all time and that it contained some of the funniest lines he'd ever seen on film 

[Sleepless]

Saw a preview last night, and man this movie is funny. It's not just a mash-up of Apatow regulars in a Hawaii rom-com, it is a really great comedy film. It's difficult to put into words why a comedy is so good, especially since I don't really want to give anything away. There's a lot of inspired stuff here folks, and of course it's all heart-before-humor. But there's lot's of humor. Everyone involved seems on their game. Russell Brand in particular is great, even if I know he's only playing a slightly quieter version of himself. The only weak part of the movie imo is Bill Hader's character - not really necessary. For all you doubters, rest assured that this is a great film. I hardly stopped laughing. And there is a great LOTR reference. Go enjoy.

[pete]

jason segel is like the judge reinhold or our time.
and they did a failed pilot together, directed by judd apatow.

[Tictacbk]

So I saw this tonight and it is far funnier than the advertising for it would lead you to believe.  Word of mouth is gonna really have to help this movie...I told people I was going to see it tonight and the response was always "What? Why?"  At least they had heard of the movie though, I overheard a girl talking to her friend after the screening say "So that was like...a real movie? Like it will be in theaters and stuff?" 

Anyways, what I'm getting at is see this movie because its well written, very well performed, and overall hilarious.  And for the record, in my opinion Paul Rudd steals the show. 

[Bethie]

I love this movie already. I've been waiting for it to come out.

[Bethie]

LOVE IT. Go see this!


SPOILER below. kinda -maybe -baby!





Rock opera about dracula with puppets. puppets! quite brilliant.


ps- i meant to say that "it's unforgettable"

[john]

You know, I really couldn't be happier that this films exists. Jason Segel has proven he's as talented as he is charming... and I'll fully support Judd Apatow's popularity, no matter how many films he attaches his name to. No matter how many of them I choose not to see.

This, however, I really wish I liked more than I did.

It certainly isn't bad, by any stretch. And, if I spent more time watching trifling romantic comedies, it would probably seem like a breath of fresh air.

What it does seem like, though, is exactly what Sleepless says it isn't, "a mash-up of Apatow regulars in a Hawaii rom-com".

You can see every character arch, in full, before the first act is even finished. At least, with Knocked Up, there is an uncertainty - even once the film has concluded - about where the characters have ended up in their lives, and where they will be in the (imagined) months to come. With this, you know exactly how it's gonna turn out.

Which doesn't kill the enjoyment of the film, either. Neither does the direction, which is bland even by Apatow standards. The cast seems like their left swimming, without much direction.

It really is a testament to the cast, and Segel's script, and to all the awkward, absurd moments along the way, that this film does succeed... even if it disappoints.

Though it could be my fault for expecting more. I was even intrigued by Roeper's handjob review, even though he's continually proven that his opinion is worthless.

And, I do concede that the spoiler Bethie mentions... totally worth the price of admission alone.

[Redlum]

Let's just remind ourselves of a little Lady L in honour of Jason Segel:

[MacGuffin]

SPOILER below. kinda -maybe -baby!

Breathing life into Dracula in 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'
For Peter Brooke, creative supervisor of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, making a puppet is a work of art.
By Cristy Lytal, Special to The Times

THE similarities between a Rodin sculpture and a puppet might not be immediately apparent to most people, but they are to 42-year-old Peter Brooke, creative supervisor of Jim Henson's Creature Shop in Los Angeles. "I remember trekking across the fields [of Northumberland] to see some sculptures," he says. "I saw works of Henry Moore and [Jacob] Epstein and Rodin, and I was probably 6 or 7. I don't know whether that was the reason that I got involved in sculpture, but it certainly stands out as a significant memory."

Born in the English seaside resort town of Scarborough, Brooke spent his childhood drawing and playing the flute and saxophone before heading off to study film and TV at Manchester Polytechnic. "I was intrigued by the idea of being able to make something and then bring it to life," he says.

During a summer job at the animation company Cosgrove Hall, someone suggested that Brooke take his portfolio to Jim Henson's Creature Shop in London, where he was hired to work as a designer and sculptor on "Jim Henson's The Storyteller" in 1988. He transferred to Los Angeles to work on "Dinosaurs" in 1991, and more than a decade later, he's living in Silver Lake and making puppets, most recently for a Dracula rock opera featured in the Judd Apatow-produced comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," which opened Friday.

Puppet making for dummies: For "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," Brooke and his colleagues set to work fabricating Dracula and Van Helsing puppets based on drawings by production designer Jackson De Govia. "We start with the design, and then pretty quickly take that into three dimensions," says Brooke. "We call them maquettes, which is really just a fancy word for a small sculpture. In this case, we didn't need to do a maquette because these are soft puppets. Once we've got the shape right, chances are we would probably heat the foam mock-up, which would just soften the glue, and we'd be able to take it apart, and then we'd actually make a pattern so we could duplicate it. Then we can take it and start making it for real."

Getting fleeced: Since the puppets are supposed to have been made by the film's main character -- a jilted musician played by Jason Segel, who also penned the screenplay -- Brooke strove to give them just the right look. "I must say if you look at the final characters, they're incredibly well-crafted handmade puppets," he says. "Initially, we were thinking about this type of [felt] covering, which would reveal the seams to give it that handmade look. But in the end, we went for more of a traditional fleece covering. We use fleece an awful lot to cover the soft puppet heads because it's got a little bit of a pile to it, like a fuzziness to it, which helps us hide the seams. It looks great on film, and it picks up the light well."

The Transylvania express: Segel learned to puppeteer Dracula himself for the film. "He did a good job. As you can imagine, puppeteering these characters requires a certain coordination. For starts, this Dracula has fangs, but he also has to close his mouth. So there was that element about the mouth that we had to deal with. Jason did both [arm] rods. And in the final scene when a stake is driven through his heart by Van Helsing, we wanted to show him in his death throes. And so actually, there are two real pieces of red silk, which are pulled out and appear like blood. I mean, it's supposed to be an amateur production that he puts on, so that's why we used these old theatrical gags."

Shelf life: Puppets, like people, don't live forever. "We love to surround ourselves with neat-looking things," says Brooke. "But the drawback is that this foam latex, given prolonged exposure to air, will just dry up and crumble. [So we store the puppets] in black plastic bags with our fingers crossed that it should be OK. I don't get too attached to stuff, because our goal is to create the illusion on the film, and if that works and the illusion works on film, great. We're ready to move on to the next job."

[w/o horse]

I'd be negative but what's the point.  The film obviously works for some people and those people I imagine have a lot in common with the people in the film.  Which isn't a bad thing at all.  But for me I'm watching this thing like I'm The Gold Trumpet watching TWBB.  I just can't enter into it.

[JG]

he's going to resent that statement.

[Gold Trumpet]

he's going to resent that statement.

I almost laughed out loud at it. I really want to see this myself but I wonder if what seemed fresh with 40 year old virgin and super bad is becoming a little formulaic here.