Forgetting Sarah Marshall
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The trailer looks hilarious, the people who made it have a pretty strong track record, and several critics are calling it easily the best comedy to come out this year.
And to top it all off, the cast includes the very beautiful Kristen Bell, one of my favorite relatively unknown actresses working today.
When you add it all up, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” looks like a pretty safe bet to be a winner. Coming to the Carmike 8 Plaza on Friday, it’s one of three movies opening in the area this weekend.
The other two movies coming to town are the thriller “88 Minutes” starring Al Pacino, and the martial arts comedy “The Forbidden Kingdom” featuring Jackie Chan and Jet Li. While those two movies have the more recognizable names — and they might be good in their own right — “Sarah Marshall” is the one with the most potential.
“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”
(Opening Friday at Carmike Plaza 8)
Judd Apatow, the producer of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up,” is one of the brains behind this comedy.
This story centers around musician Peter Bretter (Jason Segal of TV’s “How I Met Your Mother”), who heads to Hawaii in an attempt to get over the recent breakup with his longtime girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (played by Bell of TV’s “Heroes” and “Veronica Mars”).
The problem is, Sarah turns out to be vacationing with her new flame in the same resort town Peter heads to.
Mila Kunis (TV’s “That 70s Show”) plays one of the hotel employees who helps Peter start to get over his broken relationship.
The formula seems basic enough, but with some of Apatow’s standbys such as Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill and Bill Hader providing good supporting work, the film is generating some positive industry buzz.
Richard Roeper of the “Ebert & Roeper Show” said it is one of his favorite comedies of all-time, and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune also gave the movie an enthusiastic thumbs up.
Like some “Virgin” and “Knocked Up,” this R-rated comedy is sure to include a few vulgar moments, but if you liked those films, this is a safe bet to be another one you’ll enjoy.
“88 Minutes”
(Opening Friday at Cinemark Movies 10)
Director Jon Avnet also directs Pacino in the upcoming “Righteous Kill,” which also features Robert DeNiro. Just because Pacino and DeNiro are paired together again (for the first time since 1995‘s “Heat“), that film looks much more intriguing than “88 Minutes.”
There’s definitely no one on DeNiro’s level to support Pacino in this one. The biggest names in the supporting cast are Leelee Sobieski and Amy Brenneman.
The plot centers around Dr. Jack Dramm (Pacino), a college professor who spends some of his free time moonlighting as a forensic psychiatrist for the FBI.
When Gramm gets a death threat telling him he only has 88 minutes to live, he has to figure out who the suspects are so he can try to find a way out of it before his time runs out.
The movie is almost two hours long, but from the moment Jack receives the threat, the remainder of the movie takes exactly 88 minutes to play out (including the final credits).
It sounds a little gimmicky, and some fairly recent movies set in real time “Nick of Time” and “Phone Booth”) have been fairly disappointing, but everyone seems to love the TV series “24,” so maybe the gimmick will work here.
“The Forbidden Kingdom”
(Opening Friday at Carmike Plaza 8)
Martial-arts superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li appear together for the first time in this action/adventure epic that features action choreography by the same guy who did “The Matrix” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
That sounds like a pretty good lineup, so perhaps this one will be worthwhile — especially for any fans of martial arts movies.
The plot revolves around a young American teenager Jason Tripitikas (played by relative unknown Michael Angarano), who makes an interesting discovery while shopping for kung-fu DVDs in Chinatown. What he finds ends up hurtling him back in time to ancient China, where is charged with the task of defeating the fabled warrior Monkey King.
Chan and Li join Jason in his mission to defeat his enemy.
The fight scenes in the trailer look good, and just the chance to see Chan and Li fighting together for the first time is reason enough for plenty of people to shell out the money for this one.
DVD releases: “Juno,” “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem” and “Lars and the Real Girl.”
