Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Universal Pictures | Release Date: April 18, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
There's a wit in Segel's writing that marks him as every bit Apatow's equal in this arena. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
It's worth seeing just for the banter between Segel and Hader, which recalls the peak conversational riffs from "Knocked Up." Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
A raucous ride through one man's pain. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Nakedness has rarely looked so...naked. And innately, universally comic. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.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. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie 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. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
That's why Forgetting Sarah Marshall, shorter than "Knocked Up" and more focused than "Superbad," tops all other Apatow productions so far. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubScott 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. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerTravis 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. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The cringingly wacky scenarios, offbeat characters and comic dialogue serve up a crowd-pleasing, laugh-filled experience. Read full review
75
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. Read full review
75
New York PostLou 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. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
It's terrifically funny and, for a few brief moments, poignant. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael 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. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Deserves to ride the wave of the latest, hottest micro-trend in pictures: the romantic comedy for guys. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Predictable but still keeps you laughing along the way. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianM. 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." Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
Solid rom com finds another Judd Apatow acolyte moving into the spotlight. Read full review
70
VarietyJoe 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. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
If Forgetting Sarah Marshall doesn't reach the inspired heights of "Knocked Up" or "Superbad," it runs a very respectable second. Read full review
70
Village VoiceRobert 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. Read full review
70
SlateDana Stevens
Like its hero, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a little soft around the middle, but all the more loveable for that. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson 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. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe 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. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina 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. Read full review
70
TimeRichard 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. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Segel, scripting himself, injects regular bursts of comic genius into the proceedings. Read full review
63
PremiereGlenn 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. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen 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). Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid 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. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.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. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth 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. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)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. Read full review
60
EmpireNick 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. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Ultimately, forgettable, but for most of the way it's a pleasant little vacation of a movie. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie 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. Read full review
40
Film ThreatDon 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. Read full review
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