By Aaron 4/22/2008

Peter Bretter (Jason Segal) is a lazy music composer whose only work is on his girlfriend Sarah Marshall’s (Kristen Bell) crime-drama TV show. Peter’s whole life revolves around his music, and Sarah – but mostly Sarah. So his life goes into crisis mode when Sarah unexpectedly dumps him and tells him there’s someone else. Completely devastated and unable to function, Peter decided to go on vacation to escape all the things that remind him of Sarah – only to run into her and her new boyfriend at the same Hawaiian resort. The only thing keeping Peter from ending himself is the cute girl, Rachel (Mila Kunis), from the front desk who saves him from some embarrassing Sarah situations. As much as Apatow productions are supposed to be “original” and “push the envelope” you can guess most of the rest of the typical rom-com fare: having to choose which girl he wants to end up with, the usual screw up with the one he wants and the protracted win-her-back effort and of course the happy ending.

Brett wrote an interesting piece earlier about this movie in relation to Knocked Up. One of the things he said is that he likes the actors in this movie more. After seeing the movie I have to agree. Jason Segal was surprisingly good, and showed a larger comedic range than Seth Rogen. Kristin Bell was pretty good too and I absolutely LOVED Mila Kunis (who has to make a LOT more movies). And when it comes down to it, everyone knows Heigl’s a bitch now after she whined about the production experience.

The movie also had a few things Knocked Up didn’t. One of those was the movie’s use of flashbacks, something Apatow had not explored yet. These weren’t the clichéd flashbacks of any genre but were mostly used in limited instances to see inside characters’ memories. Not only were these funny, but also they helped contextualize and confirm a lot of things. The movie also had a bunch of characters that were really funny. Jonah Hill, Davon McDonald, Paul Rudd, and Taylor Willy all played resort staff who were good and pretty funny. Having multiple people who were funny made the movie a lot more sustainable – it didn’t have to go to Seth Rogen for laughs or count on Paul Rudd to lighten things up. People are funny – usually there isn’t just ONE funny person a la Jim Carrey/Adam Sandler movies. In particular, Russell Brand, who played the rock star Sarah leaves Peter for, was HILLARIOUS. A scene-stealer unlike one I have seen since Philip Seymour Hoffman robbed Ben Stiller blind of all the laughs in Along Came Polley. Every scene Brand was in was better because of him – he NAILED his role.

At the same time this leads into some of my criticisms. When I was on the bus today I was thinking, why aren’t women ever funny in comedies? With the exception of VERY FEW films, women rarely get to make the jokes. That is one of the reasons I’m looking forward to Baby Mama – because Fey and Poehler will be the comedic focal points. In a movie like this, it would seem the movie could have made Mila Kunis’ character a lot funnier – and based on what I have seen of That 70’s Show, she has the skills.

Another criticism was that Sarah wasn’t made to be as hateful as she should have. Despite the fact that she was cheating on him, dumped him for someone else, and generally broke his heart, the movie actually makes pains to show that it wasn’t Sarah’s fault. Why this happened was unclear, but when it comes the classic rom-com showdown of which character the male lead chooses in the end, it made it a little more difficult. But not enough so that it was a positive – i.e. there was actual suspense over which he would choose – rather it was just cloudy. This was particularly pronounced in the end of the second act (boy angers girl causing breakup), which seemed kind of stupid and unbelievable. The overall implication was that the third act was pretty weak – more than just the usual rom-com foregone conclusion – it was not nearly as funny or as developed as the strong second act. It made the movie feel top heavy and by the end, most of the laughs were over.

So, is Forgetting Sarah a “better movie” than Knocked Up? Probably not. Did I enjoy it more? Yes. Would I want to watch it more times than Knocked Up? Yes. Does that make sense? Probably not. So what do I think the movie is worth in SaltyStix? It was good. Seven and a half SaltyStix good.

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.