Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

"Like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, Sarah Marshall has all the ingredients of the Apatow brand.  Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer
"...terrifically funny and, for a few brief moments, poignant.  Connie Ogle, Miami Herald
"There's a wit in Segel's writing that marks him as every bit Apatow's equal in this arena.  James Berardinelli's ReelViews
"...worth seeing just for the banter between Segel and Hader, which recalls the peak conversational riffs from "Knocked Up."  Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
"A raucous ride through one man's pain.  Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Editor's Note Nicholas Stoller's FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is a romantic disaster comedy produced by the same team that made such hits as THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED UP, headed by writer, director, and producer Judd Apatow. When he gets suddenly and unceremoniously dumped by his longtime girlfriend, television star Sarah Marshall (VERONICA MARS lead Kristen Bell), composer Peter Bretter (FREAKS AND GEEKS alum Jason Segel) is devastated. Miserably depressed, he seeks solace in tawdry one-night stands, but he is desperate to win Sarah back. On the advice of his stepbrother, Brian (SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE's Bill Hader), Peter heads off to Hawaii for a much-needed vacation, but he gets even more freaked out when he discovers that Sarah and her new beau, wild and wacky British singing sensation Aldous Snow (comedian Russell Brand), are staying there as well. Mired in sadness, Peter is befriended by hotel employee Rachel Jansen (THAT '70S SHOW's Mila Kunis), who encourages him to get back his life and pursue his own dreams, which include staging a Dracula musical with puppets. But Peter is blinded by his desire for Sarah even as he grows closer to Rachel and starts hanging out with some of the hotel's odder personalities, including Chuck (Paul Rudd), a drug-addled surf instructor, and Matthew (SUPERBAD's Jonah Hill), a drug-dealing restaurant worker obsessed with Snow. Segel, who gets fully naked several times in the film, wrote the screenplay, a sharp blend of comedy and drama, and is solid in his first major starring role. Stoller, making his feature-film directorial debut, gets the most out of his diverse cast and beautiful setting, especially Jack McBrayer and Maria Thayer as a newlywed couple having some bizarre sexual problems, and Billy Baldwin as Sarah's costar in the television show CRIME SCENE: SCENE OF THE CRIME. FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is an outrageously funny yet touchingly sweet movie.

	Bill Hader
	Kristen Bell
	Paul Rudd
	Jason Segel
	Jonah Hill
	Russell Brand
	Jack McBrayer
	Mila Kunis
	Shauna Robertson - Producer
	Jason Segel - Screenwriter
	Lyle Workman - Composer
	Richard Vane - Executive Producer
	Russ T. Alsobrook - Director of Photography
	Judd Apatow - Producer
	Rodney Rothman - Executive Producer
	Nicholas Stoller - Director

Uncut
3 stars out of 5 -- "There's a fresh element to the latest Judd Apatow-stable comedy in the unique shape of Russell Brand....He excels..." 05/01/2008 p.124

USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "[F]ull of laughs. The cringingly wacky scenarios, offbeat characters and comic dialogue serve up a crowd-pleasing, laugh-filled experience." 04/18/2008

Los Angeles Times
"[I]t's more soulful than KNOCKED UP and more inclusive than SUPERBAD....FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL delights in its frequent raunchy moments..." 04/18/2008

New York Times
"Its willingness to explore states of feeling and modes of behavior that tamer romantic comedies never go near is decidedly a virtue..." 04/18/2008

Rolling Stone
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "Segel is an immensely appealing screen presence....[T]his so-called romantic disaster comedy is a raucous ride through one man's pain." 05/01/2008 p.90

Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's solidly entertaining....The performances are great....Kunis is absolutely radiant..." 05/01/2008 p.51

Entertainment Weekly
"Jawing about pop culture with typical School of Judd razor wit, these men might be giants. The rest of the time, they're merely hilariously mortal." -- Grade: B 04/25/2008 p.96-96

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[The movie] nails those awkward, face-freezing moments....And it's still refreshing to find a romcom that's allowed to be this real..." 06/01/2008 p.48

Sight and Sound
"[An] enjoyable romantic comedy....It's the dialogue that delivers the belly laughs." 06/01/2008 p.58-59

Premiere
"[Apatow] has built up a pretty formidable comic repertory company, and the movie is smart to give such seasoned and proven laugh-getters such substantial shots to do their stuff." 04/14/2008

San Francisco Chronicle 8 of 10
Jason Segel did the best favor an actor can do for himself: He wrote a funny screenplay with an ideal role for you-know-who, and then he got really lucky on the timing. Segel's breakthrough movie, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," deserves to ride the wave of the latest, hottest micro-trend in pictures: the romantic comedy for guys...This is what Judd Apatow, who produced "Sarah Marshall," has brought to movies in the past few years: "40-Year-Old Virgin"? For guys. "Knocked Up"? Face it: It was a guy movie. So was "Superbad." These movies take a genre usually pitched to a female audience but then add sex, a touch of gross-out humor and - most important - a healthy dose of male vulnerability. Like its predecessors, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is a smart comedy that trades on social embarrassment and shows love from the standpoint of male insecurity...If there's anything bad to be said about "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," it's nothing about the movie itself but rather about the notion of male-oriented romantic comedies in general. The fact that Aldous is presented with more depth than any of the women is symptomatic. Right now in America, all the active genres cater to a male audience: action, sci-fi, adventure, crime, etc. If romantic comedy goes that way, too, our actresses may have to emigrate to Europe to find a decent role. - Mick LaSalle

Reel.com 7 of 10
The broken-hearted Forgetting Sarah Marshall runs into the same snags Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston encountered when they suffered through The Break-Up in 2006. It's tough for anyone to scrape together laughs from a painful separation, particularly one that sends our main character into a debilitating, melancholic funk. And so it's no surprise that this eventually uproarious comedy only attains full swagger after discarded Peter (Jason Segel) proceeds with what the title tells him to do...Segel almost rivals Seth Rogen for top horse in Apatow's comedic stable. The Segel/Apatow relationship stretches back to the 1999 television comedy Freaks and Geeks...Other Marshall cameos spring from Apatow's varsity team. Jonah Hill (Superbad) stalks the male leads as a creepy waiter. Paul Rudd (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) amuses without trying too hard as a burned-out surf instructor...The rest of the Marshall cast has television roots...I mention this because you notice that the Marshall cast consists of television-sized personalities. The performances are serviceable, but no actor swells enough to fill Stoller's screen. In fact, if you end up quoting anyone from the picture, it will be the randy Brand. Thanks to his sharp delivery, almost all of his lines are ones you won't soon forget. - Sean O'Connell