Forgetting Sarah Marshall was released to theaters on April 18, 2008, and just came to DVD at the end of September, so I’m just a little late reviewing this one. 
Yes, I’m probably late to this party of finally figuring out that this movie was actually funny, but hey… at least I showed up!
This movie was written by and starred Jason Segel as Peter Bretter, who has to deal with his and his TV-star girlfriend’s (Sarah Marshall, played by Kristen Bell) break-up. To get over her, he decides to travel to Hawaii on a vacation to relax and regroup. Unfortunately, his ex happens to be there with her new boyfriend.
Now, I have to say that I didn’t watch this movie initially because it didn’t seem like it would be one I’d enjoy. It was promoted heavily as “From the guys who brought you ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin‘ and ‘Knocked Up’…” neither of which I liked all that much (Virgin was better than Knocked Up, but that’s not saying a whole lot).
But from the beginning, this movie had me alternately moaning and laughing. I have to say that I don’t need to see Jason Segel’s body at any angle ever again (full male frontal nudity was funny, but a little odd). Beyond that however, the cast and situations were funny, cute, and romantic in places.
Who knew Jason Segel could play piano?! He’s a very funny actor on How I Met Your Mother and now I’m going to have to see if I’ve missed any of his other movies.
Kristen Bell was hot as Sarah Marshall, the shallow TV actress. Mila Kunis was amazing as Rachel Jansen, the front desk clerk at the resort in Hawaii. Bill Hader and Liz Cackowski were hilarious as the warped married couple helping Peter feel better.
Jonah Hill played a very warped character as Matthew the Waiter. I’m not sure whether I should like him or despise him. He’s a very funny guy, but I can’t stand most of his characters on screen.
Paul Rudd as Chuck was funny too. The surfing instructor with apparently no long term memory. Hello Memento!
Overall, I thought this was a great movie with amazing one-liners all over the place. If you like funny romantic comedies, this is one I would highly recommend.
And the movie has lots of extras, but the Line-o-Rama and Gag Reel features were my favorites. We were rolling on the ground during both of them.
DVD extras included:
- Deleted/Extended Scenes
- Line-o-Rama
- Gag Reel
- “We’ve Got To Do Something” Music Video (starring the hilarious Russel Brand)
- “A Taste for Love”
- Raw Footage - Video Chat
- Red Band Trailer
- Commentary with Nick Stoller (Director), Rodney Rothman (Executive Producer), Shauna Robertson (Producer), Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, and Jack McBrayer
This definitely gets a thumbs up from me and a 3.5 out of 4 (it would be 4/4, but I don’t need to see any more of Segel’s naked body!).
Definitely worth checking out!
–Fitz
p.s. Rent it at Netflix or pick it up from Amazon
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Dennis’s goal is very complex considering that he left Libby at the altar pregnant with their child five years ago, and she is now dating Whit (smarmily played by Hank Azaria), a fit and suave businessman. After Dennis is introduced to Whit by Libby, he discovers that Whit is running in the upcoming Nike River Marathon in London. Dennis is hopeful that if he enters the race and wins, he will earn the respect of Libby and his son. To prepare for the Nike River Marathon, Dennis has no other choice to put down the beers and snack foods, and get himself into shape.
Pegg has proven in films such as ‘’Shaun of the Dead’’ and ‘’Hot Fuzz’’ that he is capable of having comedic timing. Unfortunately, he provides only a few laughs in ‘’Run, Fat Boy, Run.’’ Script-wise, he does not have a lot to work with, so that affected his performance to a greater degree. Only Azaria rises above the lukewarm script, and does a good job playing a smug character. Despite the uninspired knee-in-the-groin and fart jokes, the film has some tender moments such as the scenes with Dennis bonding with his son.
Pegg is partly to blame for the film’s shortcomings because he was a co-writer of the script along with Michael Ian Black. Hopefully, Schwimmer will improve as a director in the future. With all of the millions that he has made from playing Ross on ‘’Friends’’ I do not think he is too concerned about the financial success of his films. ‘’Run, Fat Boy, Run’’ is definitely not a must see, but an average film to pass the time with.
Film Grade: C+
That skill serves her well as the eponymous character in the World War II film, Charlotte Gray. Charlotte is a single Scottish working girl of undetermined age (mid-20’s perhaps, though there is a gravitas about her that makes me want to skew it older), living with two roommates and commuting every day to London. On the train to London, she is coaxed into a conversation with a businessman, who learns two important things about her: she is angry about the occupation of France, and she herself speaks French fluently.
The businessman invites her to a book launch party, where she meets a young RAF pilot named Peter, played with beautiful depth and seen-too-much sadness by Rupert Penry Jones. They fall in love, become lovers, and then as happens in war, Peter is sent on a flying mission into France. His plane goes down, and he is declared missing in action, but is thought to be alive.
Driven by a desire to find him, Charlotte accepts an invitation from the “business people” that had hosted the “book launch,” to train to become a spy for the English inside France. All of this is set-up, because once inside France, Charlotte (now called Dominique) meets Julien, the French Communist resistance fighter played by Billy Crudup, and the story really begins. She struggles to keep her cover as she grows attached to Julien, Julien’s irritable but wise father, played by the ubiquitous Michael Gambon, and two Jewish orphan boys they have taken in but must hide. The body of the film is filled with deceptions, compromises, betrayals, manipulations, and the tentative blossoming of love in so many different manifestations. Julien and Charlotte work together to fight the Nazi oppressors, and to fight the encroaching fear that nothing they do will make that much of a difference.
I didn’t expect to like this movie as much as I did, perhaps because I’ve seen several war-era films recently that disappointed me. And I guess it didn’t get generally good reviews over all, but I found it getting inside of me, almost without my notice. Director Gillian Armstrong keeps things moving at an even, almost pastoral pace that matches the tidy farms and deep green fields of the French countryside, exquisitely photographed by Dion Bebe. The pace is so comfortable, and the French country life so pleasant, that when violence, anger, and betrayal erupt, it is as though the viewer has been tromped on by thick-soled Nazi boots. And cleverly, without calling attention to it, Armstrong brings those Nazis in at just those moments to provide an external expression of the internal turmoil her characters face. Whatever else you want to say about Nazis, you can always count on them to move the plot along.
Billy Crudup also gives a compelling performance as Julien, the Angry Young Man who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Though the movie is named for its heroine, Julien’s character arc is nearly as strong as hers is, and his French accent even better (though it is a bit of a mystery why Julien has a French accent and his father has an English one). Neither Julien’s not Charlotte’s choices bring much resolution, but do bring home the terrible price that war demands. Only the ending, hopeful but not sentimental, keep those costs from being too high in the end.
But in Man on Fire, the second collaboration between Scott and star Denzel Washington, the depths are lower than any submarine can attain, and the stakes are higher than an F-14 ever flew. And in that sense, Scott has outdone himself. The battle in Crimson Tide is for the fate of the world, but in Man on Fire, it’s for one man’s soul. If it seems there’s no comparison, it must be realized that the title character, Creasy, is the personification of all of us, the tortured face of all our sins, exposed to the world. If there’s no redemption for Creasy, neither is there any for us.
Creasy is a man with a vague but violent past. He drinks, plays with guns, and quotes the Bible. “Do you think God will ever forgive us for what we’ve done?” he asks Rayburn, a former colleague played by Christopher Walken. There’s no answer to this question, but by the end of the film, if anyone can earn forgiveness surely Creasy has done so. He does it not by running from who he is and what he’s done, but by embracing it. “Creasy’s art is death,” explains Rayburn, “and he’s about to paint his masterpiece.”
Creasy takes a job as a bodyguard to the only child of a wealthy family in Mexico City. It is apparently a fact that in Mexico kidnapping is an industry and corruption runs rampant (I would not presume to assert this, but Mexican acquaintances confirm that this is true to their experience), so the presence of bodyguards is a part of life. The Mexican businessman husband, played laudably by actor/singer Marc Anthony, and the American wife, played by Radha Mitchell, are movers and shakers in Mexico City, so they leave their daughter Pita home alone with the bodyguard quite often. Pita, played with convincing and compelling depth by Dakota Fanning, reaches out to Creasy.
Pita is everything that Creasy isn’t. He is darkness and she is light…down to her pale skin and fair hair. He is tortured, she is happy. He is suicidal, she is optimistic. He is a loner, she cares for others. He has nothing to lose, and she is sometimes afraid. He doesn’t see everything he should, and she sees more than he realizes. He trusts nobody, and she trusts him. A strange friendship grows between the two, and in her presence we see him struggling to embrace the hope he gave up on so long ago.
I can’t say any more about the plot without giving too much away. But the rest of the film is some of the most compelling and intense drama on recent film. It’s hard to watch sometimes, but the viewer can’t look away. It’s imperative to us that Creasy succeed with his mission, no matter what the cost; we have invested everything in this character, and Washington and Scott make us feel that our very souls rest in Creasy’s hands.
The script is generally well done, flowing back and forth easily between English and Spanish, with an interesting interpretive use of subtitles. There are a few holes in the story (Creasy just ups and stops drinking? Where’d Rayburn disappear to?), but they don’t call attention to themselves at the time. We’re too invested in the story. And kudos go to Mickey Rourke, who plays one of the sleaziest lawyers on film, and Giancarlo Giannini and Rachel Tocotin as the government official and reporter who help Creasy in his search for redemption.
Scott and DP Paul Cameron take an unusually experimental approach with some of the photography in the film. They’re obviously trying to use unconventional filters, frames, and angles to reflect the state of Creasy’s emotions. I wish they wouldn’t; the segments are distracting and disorienting, pulling the viewer out of the story rather than illustrating it. Washington’s performance is compelling enough on its own to convey his state of mind; we don’t need artsy techniques to get the point.
I recommend this film, but for adults only. And only then when you can sit and give it some time, because Man on Fire will command all your attention and emotional energy. But it’s well worth the investment.
In the film, McGregor stars as the dweebish accountant Jonathan McQuarry. Within the opening credits of the film, we find Jonathan working late night at a firm performing an audit. While he is working there, he meets the suave and charismatic Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman). Instantly, the pair enters a budding relationship where they are drinking martinis, playing tennis, and dishing dirt about women together. During one of their outings, Wyatt informs Jonathan that he will be going out of town on business and promises that the two will have more fun together when he returns. Prior to Wyatt departing, both men accidentally switch cellphones, and this is where this so-called erotic thriller begins.
Even though Jonathan is quick to notify Wyatt that he has his cellphone and vice versa, he begins to receive strange phone calls from mysterious women. It is revealed that these women belong to a sex club called ‘’the List.’’ Reluctantly, the virginal Jonathan uses the opportunity to explore his sexual fantasies. Viewers literally get 15 minutes of footage showing Jonathan having one-night stands with various women. It’s pretty amusing seeing McGregor onscreen attempting to be a smooth womanizer, but that is probably the point, right?
”Deception” is basically a retread of Stanley Kubrick’s ”Eyes Wide Shut” to a certain degree, but worse. The film had a twist that any viewer can see coming a mile away. I think McGregor is a fine actor, but he seems miscast as the nerdy Jonathan. Despite being one of the stars of the film, Jackman is barely in it. His Wyatt character is pretty one-dimensional and lacks any real sense of menace. Oh dear, I cannot believe that Michelle Williams made this film. After giving a great performance in ”Brokeback Mountain,” I expected her to start choosing better roles for herself. Even though her role is very small in the film, she basically does nothing amazing with her character. ”Deception” deceives itself as a film thinking it’s adding something new to the erotic thriller genre when it’s actually not.
Film Grade: D-