The Conical Glass: Don't forget "Sarah Marshall"

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Don't forget "Sarah Marshall"

Joe has made a muxtape too, so give it a listen.

My record on comedies from the Judd Apatow factory is somewhat mixed: loved "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up"; lukewarm on "Walk Hard"; disliked "Superbad." "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" seemed to be more from the "Virgin"/"Knocked Up" school of grown-up raunch comedies, so I figured I should see it before all of the really funny jokes make their way into the popular culture, a la "Borat."

I'm not sure I agree with Richard Roeper that "Sarah" is one of the 50 funniest comedies of all time -- not that I've made a list or anything, of course.* It's got some laugh out loud moments, but it's mainly the bittersweet story of a young man's effort to get over the girl who dumped him and Find Himself. Jason Segel's Peter isn't a total loser; he composes the music for a popular TV show modeled on "C.S.I." (the scenes parodying the drama, which costars William Baldwin, hit the satirical target). However, he is given to spending days at a time in his sweatpants eating Froot Loops out of a giant mixing bowl, and he's definitely not as hot or successful as English rock star Aldous Snow, the guy girlfriend Sarah hooks up with.

If you didn't believe Seth Rogen could get the girl in "Knocked Up," well, I found Segel to be less handsome and charismatic than Rogen, who has a certain teddy bear cuddliness about him. But Peter is, like all the leading men in the Apatow-verse, a genuine Nice Guy. The Apatow flicks, as well as the recent "Definitely Maybe" (not an Apatow production), may be guy-centered romantic comedies, but what matters is that they're well-written with (mostly) fully rounded characters and storylines that entertain without insulting your intelligence. They're about as good as mainstream Hollywood comedies get right now. But now that we've seen a bunch of them, I would love to see an Apatow movie about a schlubby woman who hooks up with a babe-licious guy. Considering that Judd's next directorial effort will star Adam Sandler, I'm not holding my breath. And even though not everything Apatow touches turns to gold ("Drillbit Taylor," anyone?) you know that if he did produce a movie from a chick's point of view and it did poorly at the box office, everyone would say that female-centered rom coms just don't sell.

I Sit Through The Credits So You Don't Have To (it's time to bring back this feature!): Don't leap out of your seat when the credits roll or you'll miss a very funny trailer for a fake TV show. After that, not much of interest, although there is a pleasant Hawaiian language version of "Nothing Compares 2 U."

* A few of my picks for all time funniest comedies: "This Is Spinal Tap," "The Big Lebowski," "The Naked Gun," "The Producers," "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut." I honestly can't think of a single hilarious comedy starring women, although I can name two about fake women ("Tootsie" and "Some Like It Hot").

posted by 125records @ 10:53 PM

1 Comments:

At 8:19 PM, yellojkt said…

More reason for me to break down and watch my box set of Freaks and Geeks. Apatow recycles all his actors from that show.