Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) |
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Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Alternative Version-Extended Cut and Theatrical Cut Audio Commentary-Cast and Crew Deleted Scenes Outtakes Featurette-4 Featurettes Music Video-We've Got Do Do Something by Infant Sorrow Trailer-1 trailer for this film 4 for others |
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| Year Of Production | 2008 | ||
| Running Time | 112:59 (Case: 118) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (62:02) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Ads Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Nicholas Stoller |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Universal Pictures Home Video |
Starring |
Jason Segel Kristen Bell Mila Kunis Russell Brand Bill Hader Liz Cackowski Maria Thayer Jack McBrayer Taylor Wily |
| Case | Amaray-Opaque | ||
| RPI | ? | Music | Lyle Workman |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English Hungarian Arabic Bulgarian Danish Finnish Icelandic Norwegian Swedish English Audio Commentary Hungarian Audio Commentary Arabic Audio Commentary Bulgarian Audio Commentary Danish Audio Commentary Finnish Audio Commentary Icelandic Audio Commentary Norwegian Audio Commentary Swedish Audio Commentary |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | Yes | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes | ||
TV show music composer Peter (How I Met Your Mother's Jason Segel, who also wrote the film) struggles to deal with the break up of his long term relationship with TV star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell), who has left him for the outrageously hedonistic rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). It probably didn't help that he was stark naked at the time.
After string of meaningless one night stands fails to improve his situation, his brother Brian (Bill Hader) convinces him to head on vacation to Hawaii to clear his head. Unfortunately he manages to find himself at the same, completely booked out, resort as Sarah Marshall and her new beau, without a reservation. Thankfully, a compassionate hotel clerk named Rachel (Mila Kunis) finds him somewhere to stay and the friendlier hotel staff and guests help him forget Sarah Marshall.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the latest, and in my book greatest, of the recent spate of successful romantic comedies for guys from producer Judd Apatow. It has a similar sense of humour to Apatow's other hits The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up (which co-starred Jason Segel), but doesn't recycle their jokes and adds a fresh quirkiness to the formula.
What really puts this one ahead of the pack is its universally likeable characters. Segel's Peter makes for a loveable beta male and he manages to pull of the straight man to many of the routines as well as he does the funny man to others. The female leads are much more rounded characters than in other recent Apatow flicks, which should make the film a lot more palpable to a female audience. The supporting cast (including Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd and Jack McBrayer) are hilarious. Even the completely self-absorbed Aldous Snow, who steals almost every scene he is in, has a magnetism that makes him impossible to entirely dislike no matter how much or a b****** he can be. It's hardly a surprise that an Aldous Snow spin off is already in the works.
There is a lot to like about Forgetting Sarah Marshall, even if this style of humour doesn't usually appeal to you. Did I mention it features a musical version of Dracula - with puppets?!
The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.
The video looks good. The image is reasonably sharp, without being excessively so. The level of detail in shadows is good and blacks are very well defined. Mild film grain is present.
The colour is a little on the dark side of natural, but is even throughout.
Mild pixelation is present the image throughout the film, but it is unlikely to be noticeable on all but the largest screens. There are no film artefacts noticeable at any point in the feature
English subtitles are present for the feature and the audio commentary. Based on the portion I sampled, they appear to be accurate and well timed
This is a RSDL disc. The layer break occurs at 62:02 but was not noticeable on my equipment. The extended version of the film adds additional footage through the use of seamless branching. This may trigger pauses on some equipment, however it played perfectly smoothly (some may say seamlessly) on my test setup.
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English and Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384 Kbps) audio tracks are present for the film.
The audio sounds decent throughout, although the lower than usual bitrate will disappoint audiophiles.
The dialogue is at a good level throughout and is easy to understand. The audio appears to be well synchronised to the video.
The film features uninspiring original music by the aptly named Lyle Workman.
The surrounds are put to decent use throughout the feature without ever being particularly noteworthy and moderate subwoofer usage, mainly for bits of the score. Whilst it certainly isn't a terribly spectacular mix, it is certainly adequate for the type of film this is.
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Each of the extras is presented with the same set of subtitles as the main feature.
The disc opens with trailers for Wild Child, The Mummy 3, Mamma Mia! and Leatherheads
The film can be played in either the theatrical cut or a slightly extended version (6 minutes extra). None of the extra stuff is particularly worth getting excited over, but it is nice to have the option of the two rather than only having the option to watch an unnecessarily longer cut of the movie.
6 assorted deleted scenes. Each is moderately funny without being hilarious.
A fairly typically and not terribly funny gag reel.
Giving away part of the secret to the modern Hollywood one-liner, this featurette comprises the alternate versions of some of the movie's funniest lines. The cast deliver a bombardment of different one-liners expressing the same sort of sentiment and the funniest of the lot winds up in the finished movie. There are some hilarious alternative lines in this lot, each presented vaguely in context to where they happen in the movie.
A hilarious music video, part of which is used in the film, to accompany Infant Sorrow's (Aldous Snow's fictional band) smash hit. The video partly spoofs Bob Dylan's seminal Subterranean Homesick Blues video, throwing in the outrageous Snow reaching out to touch those around him (all too literally). Great stuff.
Footage from the first table read of the film, during which Jason Segel pulls out his Casio and plays "Dracula's Lament" (the lead song for a musical version of Dracula, with puppets, that his character is writing) to the cast, who haven't previously heard the comical number.
One of the ongoing elements of the story is Peter's regular internet video chats with his brother for romance advice. Presented here without any effects over the green-screen backing to the video and extended versions of each of the chats.
An interesting featurette about how the film's Dracula musical with puppets was put together by the crew and the Henson Company.
An ensemble commentary with Writer/Star Jason Segel, the director, a producer, the executive producer, and a revolving door of stars including Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Russell Brand and Jack McBrayer. They really don't have a lot of terribly interesting stuff to say, but their banter is nonetheless fairly entertaining and non-stop throughout the film
The US "red band" (R-rated) trailer for the movie. It gives a pretty decent introduction to the movie without giving away all the best jokes, just a lot of them.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
This review is for the single disc Region 4 version of Forgetting Sarah Marshall (which is identical to the first disc of the 2-disc version). A 2-disc edition is also available in Region 4 that includes the following additional features:
The movie comes in similar single disc and multi-disc editions in Region 1, however the Theatrical Cut of the movie is only available on the "Collector's Edition" 3-dic set rather than the regular single disc version and it is presented on a separate disc rather than through seamless branching (as it is on the Region 4 edition). The two regions otherwise feature the same assortment of extras in each available configuration. Of the two single disc versions, the Region 4 is certainly the winner for its inclusion of the theatrical cut as well as the extended cut.
A hilarious romantic comedy pitched primarily at a male audience, much in the vein of Knocked Up, but one that will appeal to members of either gender.
The video and audio are good. The disc features a diverse and worthwhile bundle of extras.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony Playstation 3, using HDMI output |
| Display | Samsung 116cm LA46M81BD. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL). |
| Audio Decoder | Pioneer VSX2016AVS. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Pioneer VSX2016AVS |
| Speakers | 150W DTX front speakers, 100W centre and 4 surround/rear speakers, 12 inch PSB Image 6i powered sub |