Posted: 04/24/08
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
by Hank Yuloff

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Hot girl in skimpy bikini. Television Masturbation Rolodex chick. Funny lines. Beautiful scenery. Full frontal male nudity. Four out of 5 gives Forgetting Sarah Marshall a positive "must see" review for teenage males or anyone who has ever BEEN a teenage male.

Jason Segel who plays Marshall in How I Met Your Mother, brings that character's personality to this film in the form of Peter Bretter, a composer who makes his living doing the sound track for a CSI-like show where Billy Baldwin gives the smarmy lines instead of David Caruso. His girlfriend is the title character Sarah Marshall, who very early on in the film, dumps him for another man.

He is devastated (think of how Marshall on How I Met Your Mother was when he and Lilly broke up) to the point that even getting right back on the sexual merry go round with other women does not help him. Poor dude.... By my count he was with three new partners in less than 3 weeks before his brother tells him he needs to go on a vacation. Bretter remembers a place that Sarah had said would be nice in Hawaii and he heads for the islands. But oh goodness, and thank goodness for plot complications - Sarah is THERE! With her new guy! Who could have ever seen that coming, unless you saw the Warnings (trailers) for this film.

So Sarah and Peter are at the beautiful Turtle Bay resort on the big island of Hawaii (it would have been hilarious if Peter had arrived on Aloha Airlines instead of Hawaiian Air - I guess Karma didn't think the film needed one more sight gag). And by the goodness of heart of hotel employee Rachel Jansen (played by the very sexy Mila Kunis, who played Jackie-in-the-tight-white-Dittos in all 200 episodes of That 70s Show) he gets the best room in the house.

How can Peter forget Sarah Marshall when she is all around him? Who cares. Enjoy his pain and all the things he does to get her out of his head and just laugh your tail off. Especially funny is the continuing story line of a redheaded newlywed couple just off the plane from what seems to be the dead center of Nebraska who have never had sex because of their religious beliefs. She's ready to rock and roll, but he is having a bit of a hard time with some of the things she wants him to do. He even quotes a line from George Carlin (I think) where he asks why would God put a pleasure center so close to a toxic dump site.

Also particularly excellent is the sound track. The music for this film is VERY important and should be viewed as a character in itself. Paying attention to the words and the backgrounds will make your viewing more enjoyable.

Marshall is played by SMOKING HOT Kristen Bell who spends about a three quarters of her scenes in outfits which make me want to buy this one on DVD for more appropriate private viewing times. Her sense of comedic timing is good and I would love to see the out takes of her face when they were shooting the "break up" scene between her and Peter which includes more than one shot of him fully naked, shot from the front. I think Segal thought Bell was pretty hot, too, if you catch my drift. Luckily she is starring in two upcoming movies where her comic chops can be displayed.

She plays another Sara in Serious Moonlight, and a woman stalked by potential suitors in When in Rome. And I guess I will have to go back and watch all 4 seasons of Veronica Mars.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall adds another hilarious film to the producing stable of the Judd Apatow School of Comedy which includes The 40-Year Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, Knocked Up, and Superbad. Ok, so they also did Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox story and Kicking & Screaming, but forget those and go see this one.

Hank Yuloff is a film critic and co-founder of Film Monthly living in Los Angeles.

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