Forgetting Sarah Marshall

ReelViews James Berardinelli

There's a wit in Segel's writing that marks him as every bit Apatow's equal in this arena.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

It's worth seeing just for the banter between Segel and Hader, which recalls the peak conversational riffs from "Knocked Up."

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A raucous ride through one man's pain.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Nakedness has rarely looked so...naked. And innately, universally comic.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

In the Apatow manner, Segel mines a mother lode of painful personal memories for his breakup gags, and the vanity of entertainment people proves to be another rich vein.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Dull moments, so much the rule in most genre comedies, are the exception in Forgetting Sarah Marshall -- it does run long, but it mainly rollicks.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

This film is so funny it may be beside the point to complain that, as in many Apatow productions, the writing and direction are still in something of a state of arrested development.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

It's terrifically funny and, for a few brief moments, poignant.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Forgetting Sarah Marshall lacks snap, tension and bravura...Yet the movie is novel and big-hearted. It often succeeds at substituting a smorgasbord of psychological confusions for comic architecture.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Deserves to ride the wave of the latest, hottest micro-trend in pictures: the romantic comedy for guys.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Make no mistake: This isn't a relentless button-pushing joke machine like the best Apatow schlumpy-man comedies. I guess I'd describe it as "agreeably ribald."

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Predictable but still keeps you laughing along the way.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up," Sarah Marshall has all the ingredients of the Apatow brand. Alas, it's beginning to feel generic.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

That's why Forgetting Sarah Marshall, shorter than "Knocked Up" and more focused than "Superbad," tops all other Apatow productions so far.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Segel has always played more a serial monogamist than a horndog, and his earnest, self-deprecating screen persona graces the film's crudest moments with a kind of innocence.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Travis Nichols

For about an hour, the movie is essentially Budweiser ad humor writ long ("Dude!") but about halfway through -- after enough members of the "Knocked Up"/"SuperBad" dude squad have all made their requisite cameos -- the movie shows it has a little heart.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The cringingly wacky scenarios, offbeat characters and comic dialogue serve up a crowd-pleasing, laugh-filled experience.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Ms. Kunis, a petite brunette, plays Rachel, a hotel receptionist by day and a party girl by night (and day), with a sparkling smile, a seductive voice that can sharpen to a rasp and a quick wit that suggests withheld knowledge. Good for her in a sex farce that lets so much hang out.

Slate Dana Stevens

Like its hero, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a little soft around the middle, but all the more loveable for that.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A refreshingly tender treatment of love gone wrong -- we mean, for a movie that's got enough lowdown sexual content to start its own Kinsey Report.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

Without Segel bravely channeling "his own anxieties and obsessions into his clowning," as Pauline Kael wrote about Woody Allen 24 years ago, Forgetting Sarah Marshall would have been easily forgettable and, one might even say, limp.

The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore

Solid rom com finds another Judd Apatow acolyte moving into the spotlight.

Variety Joe Leydon

Segel makes an engaging impression throughout Forgetting Sarah Marshall, gamely making himself the butt of many jokes that involve Peter's non-macho proclivities.

Newsweek David Ansen

If Forgetting Sarah Marshall doesn't reach the inspired heights of "Knocked Up" or "Superbad," it runs a very respectable second.

Time Richard Schickel

This is a fairly low-keyed comedy, but a grown-up dropping in on it can appreciate its lack of frenzy, its fundamental good nature, as easily as its core audience will. It isn’t exactly a gem, but as zircons go, it’ll do.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

The movie's big revelation, though, is Brand's Aldous, whose idiot-Lothario exterior masks a frank, accidentally wise and Yoda-like interior, and whom we grow to like more and more despite getting to better know him and his faults. The same can be said about the movie.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Segel, scripting himself, injects regular bursts of comic genius into the proceedings.

TV Guide Ken Fox

This thin premise is better suited to a half-hour sitcom than a feature film (in fact, there's an episode of Frasier with a very similar setup).

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Yeah, it's pretty funny. And it's a pretty accurate depiction of a certain feature of male romantic humiliation. But it's also a little -- and this is one of my two misgivings about the movie -- expected.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

As fans of "Freaks and Geeks" know, Segel is a master in the art of humiliation, and it's been a long time since we've seen anyone debase himself so thoroughly for our amusement.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

But even with bits that are crazily inspired, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is depressing. The Apatow Factory is too comfy with its workers’ arrested development to move the boundary posts. If they could find scripts by female writers that dramatize the other side of the Great Sexual Divide, it might be a place of joy--and embarrassed recognition--for everyone.

Empire Nick De Semlyen

A tropical sex comedy that’s a little unfocused, but Segal and co throw plenty of funniness at the wall - and most of it sticks.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Does not entirely play by the established conventions of its genre. Its willingness to explore states of feeling and modes of behavior that tamer romantic comedies never go near is decidedly a virtue, though this same sense of daring and candor also exposes its limitations.

The New Yorker David Denby

The boyfriend, one Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), a Brit rocker and professional sex god, turns out to be the best thing in the movie.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Ultimately, forgettable, but for most of the way it's a pleasant little vacation of a movie.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Forgetting Sarah Marshall follows the Apatow formula faithfully enough. All that's missing is charisma -- the je ne sais quois that makes us fall in love in the first place.

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

While the film has some laugh out-loud moments, it’s very poorly constructed and what we see onscreen seems to be the victim of either bad editing, poor direction or a script that was rushed into production too quickly.