Monday, April 21, 2008

Forgetting Sarah Marshall & 21 Movie Review

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (R) 112 minutes B+
Love & Loathing in Hawaii

Starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Bill Hader, and Kala Alexander

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is from the same producers that brought us Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin. It also stars Jonah Hill and Bill Hader from Superbad, so naturally Forgetting Sarah Marshall has beckoned comparisons to the three aforementioned films.

In my opinion it's not as good as Knocked Up and the 40 Year Old Virgin, but it is slightly better than Superbad (but you can't go wrong with any of these films).

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the tale of sensitive slacker and ultimate underdog Peter Bretter (Jason Segel). He has just lost the love of his life, and not even meaningless sex and serial dating can get her out of his mind. So he decides to take a vacation from it all and go to Hawaii (ironically, her favorite vacation destination), and of course she happens to be there at the same time with her new boy-toy.

I have to admit, during some points of the film I felt like something was missing. I also didn't find it as laugh-out-loud funny as I might have hoped. Nevertheless I was thoroughly entertained and recommend this film. Check it out!

21 (PG-13) 123 minutes C
A little less than breaking even

Starring Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Spacey, Liza Lapira, Josh Gad, Aaron Yoo, and Sam Golzari

21 is based on a true story (the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich) which always makes a film more interesting… Of course you have to account for Hollywood's extreme dramatization/exaggeration of the facts, but even that encourages a person to dig deeper about the film.

21 is a nice mainstream romp, but nothing that will stick with me beyond the Cineplex. During the first half of the film I keep thinking that this movie looks pretty on the outside but feels generic on the inside. It is entertaining enough... but it tries to be some slicker and cooler than it really is. This movie needs more COWBELL! Actually, what it needed was a little more edge and gusto!

Jim Strugess is good in this film, as is Kevin Spacey. Kate Bosworth is ok... she's basically the eye candy factor, which in all honesty, did nothing for me (sorry Jerry, different strokes...)

The first half of the film drags a little, the second half is a little more suspenseful. This film is worth checking out once it arrives at your local discount (second run) theater house. It's worth seeing on the big screen, I just don't know if I recommend seeing it at "full price".

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