I believe we can proclaim this one the "best film directed by the brother of a major blogger." Blogs aside, it's damn funny on its own right. As we now expect from Apatow-circle movies, the gender politics here are kind of problematic, but it certainly didn't stop me from laughting.
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Forgetting Sarah Marshall
20 Apr 2008 01:14 pm
Comments (22)
There was less moralizing, and slightly more progressive gender politics, than Apatow's other outings. (The scene where Sarah explained to Peter what a drag it was to date him, for example, was much more sensitive than I would have expected.) I'd still like to know that Apatow et al was at least curious about what the women in his films are thinking.
However, huge props (pun intended) for the male nudity. This is the only film I can think where we see more of the male lead than the female.
There was less moralizing, and slightly more progressive gender politics, than Apatow's other outings. (The scene where Sarah explained to Peter what a drag it was to date him, for example, was much more sensitive than I would have expected.) I'd still like to know that Apatow et al were at least curious about what the women in his films are thinking.
However, huge props (pun intended) for the male nudity. This is the only film I can think where we see more of the male lead than the female.
A movie solely for the mindless appears to have found its audience.
However, huge props (pun intended) for the male nudity. This is the only film I can think where we see more of the male lead than the female.
Well, snicker snicker, I can think of quite a few--the seminal "Bi 'N' Large" comes to mind, but many similar groundbreaking works are available at specialty video shops.
Even if we restrict our discussion to films intended for a more mainstream audience, however, the M/F nudity ratio seems a strange criterion for judging a film's quality.
Funny stuff, thought I didn't really understand Sarah's demonization in the last part of it.
I was gonna listen to that, but then, um, I just carried on living my life.
I'm totally giving the Apatow gang a free pass on the gender stuff because I'm really glad to see good comedy writing making a comeback. For whatever reason there have been a lot of people in Hollywood over the years that thought successful comedy depended solely on performance or crazy concepts.
It's not a measure of quality, James -- just a (weak) measure of progressivism in gender politics. The idea is to make up for past inequities in flesh displayed by adding more dudemeat.
What happened to the genital herpes plot line? The rocker gave it to Sarah, who had been sleeping with him and Peter for a year...so, Peter had to have it too, right?
I always thought that there was just an assymetry in the desire to see naked flesh. A lot more movie viewers want to see T and A than want to see ding dongs.
The idea is to make up for past inequities in flesh displayed by adding more dudemeat.
Thanks for explaining. As it happens, I attended a prestigious art school in the late 80s/early 90s and consider myself fairly well-educated in the dialectic of "progressivism in gender equality" vs. "artistic merit."
I'm completely in agreement that women have been historically discriminated against (and that mainstream Hollywood films are often been very sexist), but the frequency and duration of penile display seems an absurd metric by which to judge progress in these areas.
Check out "The Forbidden Kingdom" which opened this weekend. Jackie Chan and Jet Li kick butt, and there are two new hot Asian babes.
Saw it last night. Very good flick. Lots of cool special effects, very good martial arts scenes, and a lot of comedy. One scene in particular you'll like - you'll know it when you see it!
Check out the trailer here:
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809869644/video/6358590
The babe is 20 year old Yifei Liu (also called "Crystal Liu Yi Fei"), and has had a career for about the last five years or so. She's been on Chinese TV series, and is also a singer with an album out. She's maybe better looking than even Zhang Ziyi. The Chinese are considering her the Chinese version of Britney Spears - except, of course, being Chinese, she's not a train wreck.
Check out her music video of Fang Fei Mei Li here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIlyhvymxC4&feature=related
There's a SECOND babe in this movie: Li Bing Bing (I keep wanting to call her "Li Bang Bang" for obvious reasons). She plays the white-haired bounty hunter (and that hair is seriously bad in the movie).
Here's a decent pic of her:
http://www.photo111.com/picgallery/gallery/chinese/LiBingbing/LiBingbing088.jpg
Even if we restrict our discussion to films intended for a more mainstream audience, however, the M/F nudity ratio seems a strange criterion for judging a film's quality.
Not quality, but the usual imbalance is hard to miss and can be distracting. I often get jolted out of the story, picturing some director saying "we need a PG-13; have one of the actresses take her shirt off here."
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a good example of the normal extreme--lots of nude women, the men always pulling the sheets over their rears.
There's a SECOND babe in this movie: Li Bing Bing (I keep wanting to call her "Li Bang Bang" for obvious reasons).
I have come to see it as inevitable that from time you will surface on these fora to air your awful politics, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why you would wish to out yourself on the Internet as a creep with yellow fever.
There's a SECOND babe in this movie: Li Bing Bing (I keep wanting to call her "Li Bang Bang" for obvious reasons).
I have come to see it as inevitable that from time to time you will surface on these fora to air your awful politics, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why you would wish to out yourself on the Internet as a creep with yellow fever.
@Richard Steven Hack:
"The Chinese are considering her the Chinese version of Britney Spears - except, of course, being Chinese, she's not a train wreck."
Being Chinese doesn't not exempt you from being a train wreck. In fact, it's quite possible that you may end up doing more crazy things than Britney Spears has been publicly outed for. Google "Edison Chen" if you need proof.
@Richard Steven Hack:
"The Chinese are considering her the Chinese version of Britney Spears - except, of course, being Chinese, she's not a train wreck."
Being Chinese does not exempt you from being a train wreck. In fact, it's quite possible that you may end up doing more crazy things than Britney Spears has been publicly outed for. Google "Edison Chen" if you need proof.
"Yellow fever" - yet another racist surfaces here.
Edison Chen - Yeah, I heard about that one. But he's a guy, so that doesn't count. We have idiots like him in this country - but we also have female train wrecks, too. China doesn't seem to have as many as we do - or at least they don't revel in them like we do.
The only alleged scandal around Yifei Liu I noticed while browsing is some idiot who claimed her parents wanted a girl so they gave her a sex change operation as a child. That was so absurd nobody believed it for an instant.
Yifei Liu resembles a Chinese version of Jessica Alba.
As far as gender equality is concerned, the problem with this movie, as far as I'm concerned, is why would all these hot women go for the male lead? You can't make up for that with some full frontal.
Also, Sarah Marshall did get a poor treatment, but it's pretty hard for a woman in that circumstance not to be a little pathetic. She's not hot enough or talented enough to move into real stardom and her show represents her high water mark at the age of 25. Going forward, all she has is more and more degrading roles. That's going to take a toll on anyone so it fit her character to be a little f*cked up.
I agree that Forgetting Sarah Marshall (despite the terrible title) is a good, enjoyable romantic comedy. Unlike in most comedies, many of the jokes work. And for the most part, the movie exists in the real world--the jokes aren't ridiculously broad and for the most part the characters behave approximately as real human beings would.
In real life Mila Kunis is dating McCauley Kulkin. I don't think it's at all unrealistic for her to date Jason Seigel in the movie.
I actually thought the treatment of Kristin Bell's character in the movie was refreshing. So often, the ex-girlfriend needs to be turned into an absolute monster to justify the main character's new romance. Think of just about every Ben Stiller movie for examples. Yes, Seigel does call her "the devil", but I don't think the movie forces us to agree with him. She's feeling sad and desperate and behaves badly at one point in the movie, but mostly she is a fairly sympathetic character, and in the end she lands on her feet.
Don't go to this movie expecting to see something that re-writes the entire romantic comedy genre. This is very much a mainstream, modern romantic comedy. The movie hits all the expected beats, plotwise, that such movies are expected to hit. What makes this movie good is that 1) the jokes are actually funny (mostly) and are character-based as opposed to being ridiculously contrived (again, mostly), 2) the characters are actually likable, 3) the writing is very sharp and clever, and 4) the movie is kind to its characters.
3.5 stars!
(PS: Fans of Freaks and Geeks will recognize in Seigel's character a lot of similarities to Nick Andropolis, the character he played on that short lived show.)
Eastern Promises had a penis and no female nudity at all.
"Yellow fever" - yet another racist surfaces here.
Mr. Hack apparently does not understand that "yellow fever" is a way that we Asians identify wierd, oblivious dudes who degrade Asian women by, for example, mistaking politeness for sexual attraction, treating them as if they embodied the Orientalized representations of Asian women that are generated by and for the fantasties of boorish deviants, and gracelessly using their given names as double entendre. We are all privately laughing at you/getting ready to call the police.
Comments closed May 04, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
I really liked it, too. And I think it's a bit better on the gender politics than Knocked Up was, for instance.
Posted by Ed | April 20, 2008 1:44 PM