Finally, finally, we watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall yesterday (instead of going skiing because it was so damn cold (well below 0 with wind chill) and windy (no lifts were running) out). I blame Mr. Mouse for it taking me so long to get to this movie: as I’ve mentioned before, he and I have a very slim intersect of movies we both enjoy, and since I thought this might be one of them, I didn’t want to see it without him. That being said, I liked this movie better than he did; he ended up paging through a magazine partway through while I actually had some laugh-out-loud moments.
Written by and starring Jason Segal (“Marshall” from HIMYM and a Judd Apatow TV/movie alum), FSM is the story of Peter (J. Segal), a struggling slacker/composer, whose longtime girlfriend – the titular Sarah Marshall, a successful TV actress – dumps him. To forget her, Peter takes himself on vacation to Hawaii, inadvertently ending up at the same resort as Sarah and her new beau, ridiculous English rocker Aldus Snow (Brit comedian Russell Brand). A bereft Peter is befriended by many of the hotel staff, particularly by Rachel, the fun and gorgeous front desk clerk (played perfectly by the adorable Mila Kunis).
Segal, Kunis and Brand are all quite funny and entertaining - Mr. Mouse would like to point out that he thought Rachel was way prettier and more fun than Sarah (sort of the point of the movie) and I thought Kunis had the most infectious laugh I’ve heard in a long time - as are supporting players Jack McBrayer as a sexually-challenged newlywed and a blondish Paul Rudd as a dopey surf instructor. Mr. Mouse didn’t recognize Rudd at all and wouldn’t believe that was him until he saw the credits.
I found the movie to be slightly uneven in pacing, but then we watched the “extended, unrated” version so the theatrical cut may have been a little perkier. I did think that the various flashbacks to Peter and Sarah’s lives together – the good times and the bad – were quite quick and very funny.
And I loooooooved the Dracula puppet musical at the end! This incredible show-within-the show was Peter’s magnum opus: a rock opera about Dracula performed entirely by puppets. It’s awesome (of course I’m a sucker* for vampire puppets as a BtVS/Angel fan!) and is actually a musical Jason Segal was working on in real life that they managed to incorporate into the movie.
* see what I did there? I am so clever.
Posts
4 hours ago
Hi! Friend Mouse,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your review I guess I will check out!...Forgetting Sarah Marshall
I am a "big" Amazon.com shopper...I really like their comparison prices!...Therefore, I know were to pick this one up at!....Oops!
I almost forgot to mention that I just subscribed to your feed, Friend Mouse.
Tks,
dcd ;-)
Can't believe Mr. Mouse didn't care for this. My wife and I both enjoyed FSM. Mila Kunis is going to make my end of year best of's hands down...as will the puppet musical!
ReplyDeleteSo my dear friend Blonde Ambition emailed me to say that she read this review but had to disagree - hated FSM, in fact. But she didn't leave a comment so I'm copying her into here:
ReplyDelete"Yeah, OK, vampire puppet musical... cool, but it took too long to get there. The movie had moments but it was predictable. And sometimes predictable is fun, but this one wasn't as fun for me. I thought it was slow-moving and disappointing. Maybe I just expected more. Yes, I think I expected more. With a cast like that, I truly believe it ought to have been better."
Fair enough, fair enough.
I quite liked it. Though, admittedly, I have a soft spot for Jason Segal, and it's hard to not have some residual love for anything Kristen Bell does since she is Veronica Mars and all...
ReplyDeleteSnif. I miss Veronica Mars. Kristen Bell can largely do no wrong by me (she was one of the few bright spots in Heroes until they frickin' killed her character off). Has that Star Wars fanatics movie Fanboys come out yet? She's in that too...
ReplyDelete