Forgetting Sarah Marshall 2008

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: The whole film feels like Apatow and clan are still on their own vacation after last summer's one-two punch. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Jason Segel has what Nicolas Cage and Gene Wilder and a precious handful of other witty actors have: The ability to make egregious humiliation and painful neediness a source of limitless mirth. Read more

Sara Cardace, New York Magazine/Vulture: The film may not be as laugh-packed as its predecessor Knocked Up, but it charms nonetheless. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: In the Apatow manner, [writer/star Jason] Segel mines a mother lode of painful personal memories for his breakup gags, and the vanity of entertainment people proves to be another rich vein. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Halfway through I realized that I'd lost most of my standards, maybe under my seat, and was enjoying the erratic evolution of the nonsense. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Forgetting Sarah Marshall should please audiences eager for silly summer comedy (particularly, the Hawaiian sunshine should delight those currently enduring a gray Seattle spring). Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Forgetting Sarah Marshall gives another Apatow player a much-deserved day in the sun. Maybe Jay Baruchel or Martin Starr will soon get turns in the rotation. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a hilarious movie, a brilliant deconstruction of the romantic comedy, a film that, assuming you have the appropriate sense of humor, will make you laugh out loud again and again. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Superbad before it, it delivers belly laughs that explode from the meeting of wit and shock. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: If Forgetting Sarah Marshall lacks the heady mix of sheer exuberance and unexpected maturity of the granddaddy of the genre, Apatow's 40-Year-Old Virgin, it's more soulful than Knocked Up and more inclusive than Superbad. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Forgetting Sarah Marshall is, ultimately, forgettable, but for most of the way it's a pleasant little vacation of a movie. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a lazy, second-hand offering from the Apatow crude-but-sweet assembly line. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: [Jason] Segel embraces the destiny of male anatomy in yet another clever creation from the Judd Apatow Alumni Association; this one, too, speaks from the male heart (and other parts) in a language accessible to females. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: The movie isn't quite so polished as Virgin or Knocked Up, but it's terrifically funny and, for a few brief moments, poignant. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Kunis is not just Peter's savior, but the saving grace of a comedy that is really a series of sketches, a few of which sparkle, and most of which you'll soon forget. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: It has a generosity toward all its characters that rescues it from predictability. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: It's not hard, it turns out, to forget Sarah Marshall. The problem is remembering her. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Like most of Apatow's productions -- heck, most of his heroes -- Forgetting Sarah Marshall is big and sloppy and too willing to settle for being just good enough. But like them too, it's funny. And it grows on you. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: With pratfalls, yucks, a crying jag, and what is starting to seem like the requisite flash of nudity, Jason Segel becomes this year's adorably hapless movie schlub. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: We know actors are trained to let it all hang out, but Jason Segel takes naked vulnerability to new levels in Nicholas Stoller's likable debut, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: This film is so funny it may be beside the point to complain that, as in many Apatow productions, the writing and direction are still in something of a state of arrested development. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It's sentimental and shocking, and it has more laughs than any non-Apatow-produced comedy out there. And it's absurdly overlong. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Sarah Marshall is familiar, if not fresh. Which is reassuring to those not looking for the new new thing. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Forgetting Sarah Marshall is at least as good as the two Apatow-directed movies, with a script that might be both a little sharper and a little more romantic. Read more

Jim Emerson, Chicago Sun-Times: You know exactly where, and the pleasure of Forgetting Sarah Marshall is in how it gets there. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Forgetting Sarah Marshall follows the Apatow formula faithfully enough. All that's missing is charisma -- the je ne sais quois that makes us fall in love in the first place. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Like its predecessors, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a smart comedy that trades on social embarrassment and shows love from the standpoint of male insecurity. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Like its hero, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a little soft around the middle, but all the more loveable for that. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: While it's hardly unforgettable, the latest raunchy rom-com from prolific producer Judd Apatow is a genial timewaster. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's got an engaging cast and enough laughs to compensate for some shortcomings. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: It does run long, but it mainly rollicks. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Forgetting Sarah Marshall finds Apatow back on form, after the recent disappointments of Drillbit Taylor and, to a lesser extent, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: This is a fairly low-keyed comedy, but a grown-up dropping in on it can appreciate its lack of frenzy, its fundamental good nature, as easily as its core audience will. It isn't exactly a gem, but as zircons go, it'll do. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: 'Sarah Marshall' remains a film of glorious moments and memorable scenes, lovingly crafted characters and sparkling one-liners. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The cringingly wacky scenarios, offbeat characters and comic dialogue serve up a crowd-pleasing, laugh-filled experience. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: Producer Judd Apatow looks to have scored another long-legged hit with Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: Even if his movie, produced by Apatow and directed by first-timer Nicholas Stoller, visits familiar territory, Segel's willing to go to dark, weird places his contemporaries won't. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a refreshingly tender treatment of love gone wrong -- we mean, for a movie that's got enough lowdown sexual content to start its own Kinsey Report. Read more