Release Date:
04/18/2008
Directed by: Nicholas Stoller
The Skinny: An ordinary schlub (Jason Segel) is dumped by his way-too-hot-for-him actress girlfriend (Kristen Bell), so he goes to Hawaii to get his head together. Once there, he runs into his ex and her new rocker boyfriend (Russell Brand), and finds comfort in the arms of an also-way-too-hot-for-him hotel clerk (Mila Kunis). All brought to you by Friends of Judd Apatow™.
The Good: If you were to rank them, this would place a solid fourth behind The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Superbad, and Knocked Up; but that's still a hell of a lot funnier than anything Larry the Cable Guy is gonna crap out. Segel, along with Apatowians Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, and Bill Hader, all have moments (though this is ultimately a less quotable movie than the others), yet it's newcomer Brand who steals most of the film. Also scoring big is William Baldwin, who, as Sarah Marshall's TV costar, nails both CSI: Miami's David Caruso and his own brother Alec.
The Bad: The ladies get the short end of the stick here. The casting of Bell is wrong—she's way too plucky and adorable to play the ice queen—and the movie's inability to decide whether she's evil or sympathetic doesn't help. Kunis is lava hot, but would it have been a crime to throw some more jokes her and Bell's way?
Penis Mightier: Once again, Apatow is set on testing his new theory that nothing is funnier than full-frontal male nudity. It's the final taboo, apparently, because it makes audiences giggle like Puritan schoolgirls.
Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? Grab your popcorn and enjoy. It's not an instant classic, but it's funny enough. And that's, well, good enough.
The Skinny: An ordinary schlub (Jason Segel) is dumped by his way-too-hot-for-him actress girlfriend (Kristen Bell), so he goes to Hawaii to get his head together. Once there, he runs into his ex and her new rocker boyfriend (Russell Brand), and finds comfort in the arms of an also-way-too-hot-for-him hotel clerk (Mila Kunis). All brought to you by Friends of Judd Apatow™.
The Good: If you were to rank them, this would place a solid fourth behind The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Superbad, and Knocked Up; but that's still a hell of a lot funnier than anything Larry the Cable Guy is gonna crap out. Segel, along with Apatowians Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, and Bill Hader, all have moments (though this is ultimately a less quotable movie than the others), yet it's newcomer Brand who steals most of the film. Also scoring big is William Baldwin, who, as Sarah Marshall's TV costar, nails both CSI: Miami's David Caruso and his own brother Alec.
The Bad: The ladies get the short end of the stick here. The casting of Bell is wrong—she's way too plucky and adorable to play the ice queen—and the movie's inability to decide whether she's evil or sympathetic doesn't help. Kunis is lava hot, but would it have been a crime to throw some more jokes her and Bell's way?
Penis Mightier: Once again, Apatow is set on testing his new theory that nothing is funnier than full-frontal male nudity. It's the final taboo, apparently, because it makes audiences giggle like Puritan schoolgirls.
Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? Grab your popcorn and enjoy. It's not an instant classic, but it's funny enough. And that's, well, good enough.