Posts Tagged ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’
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Apr18
I’m not exactly sure what part of my brain the idea for this comic escaped from. I just started thinking about Forgetting Sarah Marshall and how it’s a Judd Apatow production, ALL of the Judd Apatow productions lined up for release in 2008 and the rest just kind of leaked out of my ear.
I’m sure the working environment on an Apatow film is much less contentious as I’ve depicted here. But you can’t help but notice the low-grade nepotism involved with these movies anymore.
At first I thought it was pretty cool to have the same stable of actors on call for any given movie. Now I can’t imagine a comedy that DOESN’T feature Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, or Jonah Hill in some capacity. Do they even make comedies without their involvement anymore? It’s hard to tell.
Then again, maybe that was the point.
At this stage, Apatow productions have become like the Laff-O-Lympics for my favorite comedy actors. I just watched Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story on DVD last week and there are tons of small cameos from the likes of Jack McBrayer and Ed Helms. Complete throwaway roles that could have been played by anyone. But then they show up on screen and that wave of recognition hits you. “Hey! That’s so-and-so from [insert popular comedy television show here]!” In a weird way, it’s like it adds some kind of credibility to the affair.
As far as Forgetting Sarah Marshall is concerned, it’s a movie I’ve been looking forward to for a while. It looks like it’s got the same mix of crudeness and sweetness and they’re mixing things up a little bit by adding Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis to things. Also, those two actresses are very attractive and I’ll take any advantage I can get in terms of muting the amount of wang that is supposedly in this movie. Reportedly, Segel shows the goods 3 times in this picture. At what point did the wiener become a standard visual gag? I know it looks weird, and everything, but…
Peter Segel is an actor I kind of like, but not really – and mostly for the roles he’s chosen. Specifically, the stalker boyfriend from Undeclared and the dirtbag MILF-chaser in Knocked Up. I don’t watch How I Met Your Mother, but I understand he plays a much more squeaky clean version of himself on that show. So maybe it’s been the wrong exposure for me.
That said, I’m impressed that he wrote the screenplay for this one and somehow managed to wring A NEW MUPPETS MOVIE out of his involvement with Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Apparently there is a sequence with puppets at the end and people from The Henson Company were doing the puppeteering. Segel floated the idea past them and the rest is (soon to be filmed) history.
Cami and I are trying to line up a babysitter this weekend so we can get out of the house and see this. I know I say that a lot, but this is the first movie in a long while that I feel extremely motivated to see. Motivated enough to inconvenience another family member and deep-six their Saturday night to hang out at our house and make sure my baby doesn’t drink a case of Colt 45 while we’re away.
Wow. That’s a visual for you.
One last thing — If you missed it on Wednesday, be sure to download the first recorded broadcast of Boxcar Comics Hobo Jamboree. Myself, Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies, Phil Chan from Martriculated and Clay Yount from Rob & Elliot were all in attendance and we laid down the ground work for what you can expect from our monthly podcast. We had a good time recording it and I’m already looking forward to the next one.
A couple of people wrote to tell me that we didn’t give you guys enough notice to listen to the show live. Sorry about that. It all came together kind of quickly and we just ran to press with it. Next time, we’ll try to talk it up a week or so in advance.
I’m really excited about the progress that Boxcar Comics has been making lately. So far we have one jam comic and this podcast under our belt. We’re working on our second jam comic as we speak. Boxcar has been around since 2005. I think we’ve gotten more done in the last few months than we have in the last few years. I feel good about it. We’ve justified ourselves beyond just sharing traffic. Good times.
That’s all from me! Have a great weekend everybody!
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If you haven’t seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall, today’s comic probably plays a little to the inside. But in the chance you hear about it from friends or maybe read a couple of reviews, the most memorable scene in the movie is the lead character’s Dracula-inspired rock opera… performed by puppets.
On paper, it sounds kind of improbable or at least quirky for quirky’s sake. But I’ll tell you what… It works. I want to see that musical now!
Cami and I had an opportunity to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Saturday and I was more than excited to go. We’re lucky in the sense that we have lots of family around to watch Henry if we want to get away for a couple of hours to see a movie. But in the last several weeks, there hasn’t been anything I’ve felt strongly enough to inconvenience anyone about. Forgetting Sarah Marshall released a hilarious red band trailer a couple of months back and I knew right away this would buck the trend. I walked away happily undissapointed.
I’ve not had my heart broken to the degree that Jason Segel’s protagonist Peter experiences in this movie – and that’s probably a good thing. But I got the impression watching it that there was something profound being said about relationships and loss, motivation and inspiration. What happens during Peter’s trip to Hawaii isn’t all good. But that it gets him out of his rut and creating again when he gets back home spoke directly to me.
I respond very specifically to themes centered around creativity. I think most creative people will agree that it’s pretty much impossible to turn it off for any given length of time, but sometimes the hose gets kinked, so to speak. Sometimes your output is a trickle and sometimes its a torrent. I celebrate people who are able to deliver consistently. It’s a marvel to behold.
Segel’s character is the kind of guy that is creative and witty, funny and well-liked. But he’s so entrenched in his routine, he make molasses-like progress. Both creatively and in life. Being dumped by Kristen Bell’s title character (the star of the excellently named CSI rip-off Crime Scene: The Scene of the Crime) is actually the best thing that could have happened. The reawakening he experience in Hawaii is exactly the kind of transformation you would hope for when traveling. All of this is made more interesting by the fact that the lead character doesn’t recognize ANY of this while it’s happening!
I may be reading into things a little bit for a light romantic comedy. But I think the best comedies have a grain of truth in them. I think Segel should be extremely proud of the screenplay he created.
Be sure to tune in to The Triple Feature tonight at 9:00 PM CST at TalkShoe.com where we’ll be discussing Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Forbidden Kingdom, movie news from this weekend’s New York Comic Con and more! Call in with your questions and talk to us live!
See you then!
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And with an awkward pause, we inch quietly away from 2008. That’s the note I leave you on.
Today will be the last comic of the year. I’m going on vacation with Cami and my sister-in-law starting Sunday and there will be no guest strips to pad things out while I’m gone. Don’t forget about me! You’ll want to be sure and check out the site again in 2009 because I’ll be introducing a new site design as well as announce the pre-order for Theater Hopper: Year Three! Big news all around!
As for today’s comic, it’s somewhat based in truth. Cami *did* in fact get me a Blu-ray DVD player, but for my birthday, not Christmas. And it’s true that we put it through it’s paces by watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It’s probably not the first movie you’d think of when it comes to testing out the picture quality of a Blu-ray DVD player, but I have to admit — I did notice a distinct difference in picture quality!
It’s funny, because I was talking about receiving the Blu-ray player for my birthday during Monday’s night’s Triple Feature podcast and I was riffing on how you have to find a movie that’s worthy of the technology because it’s cost-prohibitive to buy every single DVD you want in that format. Specifically, I think I said “I’m not going to get Step Brothers on Blu-ray so I can see Will Ferrell’s jacked up teeth in 1080i resolution.”
Oh, but Jason Segel’s wang is perfectly acceptable!
I should point out that I tried to get something cool, but Cami nixed The Dark Knight because seeing in the theater bummed her out and she didn’t want to watch it again. Also, pathetically, I couldn’t find any copies of Iron Man at my local Best Buy. LAME! I did grab Wall-E, though. We haven’t watched it yet because we actually watched it a few weeks ago in the inferior “regular” DVD format.
I think I have a clever idea about replacing some of my old DVDs with Blu-ray editions, though. I had the idea to sell them on eBay with an original sketch of the title character. So you guys out there can bid on one of my old movies and get something a little extra to boot. It might be fun! We’ll have to see how it works. Stay tuned for that in the future.
Anyway, Forgetting Sarah Marshall was great. A lot funnier than I remembered it! There’s a lot going on in that movie. Lots of different plots and character points to keep up with. That’s a good thing! Gives a comedy dimension rather than it being a catch phrase machine.
I’m kind of kicking myself that I didn’t pick it up on DVD earlier, but now I’m kind of glad I didn’t so we could enjoy it on Blu-ray. The extras are crazy. There are literally dozens of them. Good stuff.
That does it for me today. I hope everyone who celebrates the Christmas holiday had a happy and safe experience.
Remember, no new comics next week and that includes taking a break from The Triple Feature as well. So if you’re a fan of the show, we’re not recording on Monday.
I’ll be sure to post a reminder of the hiatus to the front page on Monday as well as ways you can be notified when the new site design goes live on Monday, January 5th. You guys are going to love it. I’ve shown it to a bunch of my web comic buddies and they’ve been very supportive. If these guys can’t find anything wrong with the layout, than that means you guys are going to LOVE IT!
Have a safe and happy New Year and I’ll see you again in 2009!
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