ForgettingSarahMarshall Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's funny over here. You're quite safe from penis shots in America because American people don't have penises, so you can't see them in film. Whereas in Britain you can see your penis in film. So since it's an American picture, it's just a bum you see. Ewan McGregor, interviewed by MTV

I apologize for the lame joke in the title, but in this case it rings true. As McGregor insinuated above, there's a certain phobia about male genitalia, so much so that the mere sight of it -- even in its inactive state -- leads to uproar. Why would I mention this today? Watchmen is now out on DVD, and that means full-frontal Dr. Manhattan.

While it's probably one of the most necessary uses of nudity (fake flesh at that), Manhattan's penis sent many conservative critics and moviegoers into a rant-filled panic. Never mind the fact that he's a full-stop superhero who is naked, and has a fulled developed body. Some of the masses expected him to keep prudish sensibilities in mind and Ken-ize his genitalia as he saves the world or works in his natural state. In honor of the Manhattan uproar, here are seven cases where male nudity became the main talking point of the film.

So I guess Emily Blunt missed out on the chance to torment Tony Stark, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been keeping busy. The British actress already has three productions lined up for the coming year, and the latest addition to her schedule has now surfaced over at Moviehole. According to sources, during an interview with a local Australian radio show, British comedian Russell Brand told them that Blunt was already committed to be his female co-star in Get Him to the Greek with Jonah Hill. According to Brand (via Moviehole) Blunt will be playing a fellow musician, and that she may even perform a duet with the great Aldous Snow (aka Brand) -- might I suggest a 'Do Something' remix? Blunt only has a few musical credits to her name, but you never know, maybe her former flame, Michael Buble, gave her some pointers.

Greek is a sequel of sorts to the 2008 romantic comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Brand is reprising his role of Aldous Snow, a bed-hopping and socially clueless rock star, and the story will pick up with Snow who has since lapsed back into his druggie ways. Hill will play a young insurance adjuster who has been given the seemingly impossible task of getting the out of control celeb to a gig at L.A's Greek Theater.

UPDATE: Blunt's publicist and Universal have come forward to say that this casting rumor is not true, so says EW.

Granted, British comedian Russell Brand isn't for everyone, and I think there are some people at the BBC who would agree. But, I just love the guy to bits. Sure he's strange and a little bit of a lecher, but damn is he funny. When rumors first started to surface that Brand was being considered to take over for Johnny Depp in the next Pirates of the Caribbean installment, it seemed to be the perfect fit. But, in a recent interview with Access Hollywood, Brand told Billy Bush, "There's been some talk of doing a 'Pirates' movie, but, I've got eight other things to do [including] 'Get Him To The Greek' with Judd Apatow... So I don't know if there'll be time to be a pirate, I've got enough of that in me private life." If you follow the UK gossip rags, then you probably know that he isn't kidding about that last part.

Eugene brought us the news back in April that Brand would be reviving his character of Aldous Snow from Forgetting Sarah Marshall with Jonah Hill for Greek. The comedy centers on a young insurance adjuster (Hill) assigned to get a wild rock star (Brand) from London to LA's Greek Theater (I wonder if Hill is reprising his loyal fan character from Marshall as well). But, Brand didn't rule out Pirates completely; the comedian was quoted as saying that Pirates was still, "A possibility," -- which, as you know in Hollywood, is enough to keep a rumor going indefinitely.

WARNING: This post (and below gallery) will spoil the ending of Marley & Me.

Taking a page from the Forgetting Sarah Marshall playbook, it would appear there's a new obnoxious (let alone tacky) marketing campaign for Marley & Me spreading throughout Los Angeles. Granted, we have no direct proof the studio is behind this latest stunt, but speaking as someone who's lived with an assortment of viral campaigns over the past couple years, I will say this particular one smells real fishy.

So what happened? Well, some chick calling herself "Stephanie" emailed a number of different movie blogs with images of defaced Marley & Me posters and billboards in LA. How were they defaced, you ask? Well -- spoiler warning -- someone went around scribbling the words "The Dog Dies" across each advertisement. We've included the images in a gallery below for you to check out. (Lame Warning: She ends her email with "This is going to be worse than when they shot Bambi's mother.....")

Now, some might wonder why on earth a studio would choose this particular viral campaign -- one that ruined the ending of the film for all those who came across it. But is this particular info really ruining anything? Think about it -- most people going to see this already read the book, not to mention that whenever you have a film about a dog (with the exception of some kiddie flicks), most of the time they end the same way. Either way, they're getting publicity out of it (see this post and several others), folks will stop to pay more attention to these posters and, while it may sound weird, ruining the ending in this way might entice more people to see it; especially those who've lost a pet.

So is this a smart campaign or a stupid one? What do you think?

WARNING: The images in the gallery below will spoil the end of Marley & Me.

So you remember those rumors a few weeks back that Russell Brand was signing up as Johnny Depp's 'heir apparent' in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise? Well, it looks like Brand might be playing a charming drunk, but it's not going to be as part of the Sparrow clan. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Brand has started putting together a remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore comedy, Arthur, for Warner Brothers (with an eye of making it a starring vehicle).

The original starred Moore as a boozy playboy who will only inherit his massive fortune on the condition that he marries an heiress selected by his family. When he falls for Liza Minnelli (in the form of a working class woman) he turns to his valet (John Gielgud) for help when forced to choose between money and love.

After making a splash in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Brand started lining up plenty of projects for 2009, including, Bedtime Stories, Julie Taymor's The Tempest, and Get Him to the Greek (which reunites him with the Sarah Marshall crew). The timing really could not be better for Brand to take a little vacation stateside since he seems to be having a tough time in his native land.

When Arthur was first released, the film was a bit hit, and snagged Oscars for Supporting Actor and original music. But, I would be willing to guess that a lot of Brand's fans weren't born when the original was released and won't know the difference. Although, for me, the only true love able drunk on the big screen is Nick Charles..if anyone can make this remake work, it's Brand.

I'm finally writing a post here that my sister will read. You see, she adores Russell Brand almost as much as Brand adores Cinematical and Scott Weinberg (see image above as proof of this fact). Maybe even more, because unlike most Americans, she was avidly following his British career via his podcast and BBC America. There have been many humbling moments in my Cinematical salad days, but none quite so humiliating as when I told her Brand was in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. "I know. I followed the filming on his podcast." At least Weinberg promptly humiliated her by getting all cozy with her favorite Englishman.

As my sister wasn't one of the casting directors for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Brand had to make an audition tape to convince them of his weirdly-coiffed worthiness. In honor of its DVD release, MTV has the exclusive, and I've embedded it below for your viewing pleasure. And if you're like my sibling and can't get enough, I've also included the karaoke version of his in-film music video, Infant Sorrow.

5-1 my sister writes "I've already seen both of those videos" in the comments. Hopefully, you'll be more appreciative.

Iron Man
At the risk of drawing the ire of Batfans everywhere, I'll just come out and say it: Iron Man is the best my favorite superhero movie of the year. (Dear Comic-Con: Please don't revoke my press pass.) Dark Knight is indeed brilliant, and brilliantly dark, but Iron Man is just so much more ... fun (AND it has social messages!). Poor Jeff Bridges may not hold a candle to the late Heath Ledger in the villain department, but Iron Man wins out elsewhere. Its characters are colorful and layered, its action is supremely stylish and never overbearing (unlike Transformers, even in its hot metal-on-metal action) and thanks to sensibilities of Robert Downey Jr. and director Jon Favreau, it's flat-out funny. Man-crush alert: Downey Jr. is fast on his way to becoming an acting icon, right up there with Al Pacino and Jared from Subway. Buy it!!!
(Available in both single disc and two-disc special edition)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
The latest from Camp Apatow stars a far-too-naked Jason Segel, an almost unrecognizably sexy Mila Kunis 2.0, a scene-stealing Russell Brand, and Kristen Bell. The film definitely has its moments, but I'm just not sold on Segel as a leading man, who seems to equate "comedic skill" with "revealing your junk." And as much as we enjoy rooting for a lovable loser, at some point in the movie it helps if he stops moaning, crying and being generally so extremely pathetic. After Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder and The Happening, Sarah Marshall will have to settle for being the fourth funniest movie so far this year. Rent it, or buy it in the discount bin (Available in both single disc and two-disc collector's edition)

(With Forgetting Sarah Marshall arriving on DVD today, we're re-posting this popular Discuss post from last April)

By: Elisabeth Rappe

Here's why it's a bad idea to share a house with a Cinematical writer -- your formerly innocent nights at the movies are stored away for discussion, your casual remarks posted for the entire world to see. My apologies to all the family members this involves.

My sister and her boyfriend caught Forgetting Sarah Marshall a few nights ago -- a second showing for her, first time for him. When I inquired as to how the boyfriend liked it, my sister revealed that he had actually covered his eyes when Jason Segel dropped that towel.

"Good lord," I said. "Really? Doesn't he see that every time he's in the shower?" I mentioned it to a male friend, and he said he completely understood boyfriend's squeamishness. As I'm writing this, I remember an incident just last weekend with my aunt's wonky cable connection. She's mistakenly been subscribed to all sorts of hardcore porn, and called my cousins in to fix it. The sight of naked men sent my male cousin running for the other room, gagging -- whereas his sister shrugged off the bare flesh and set to work trying to block the stuff. And I'm now realizing all that throat clearing and awkward squirming I heard around me during Eastern Promises wasn't because Viggo Mortensen's back was being sliced open (which is what made me wince) -- it was because his manly bits were visible.

On a cloudless January day in 1966, Los Angeles was such a dull small town that children could be alerted to something as small a skywriter at work. My parents must have been watching the Rose Bowl, as they did every New Year's Day. In those days we lived five miles or so away from the arena, on the heights over the Arroyo Seco. They saw the plane on TV buzzing the big game and urged me to go outside and have a look. Up in the sky, the small plane, low enough that you could hear the drone of the engine, spelled out the words in smoke B-A-T-M-A-N I-S C-O-M-I-N-G.

I really, really love movie trailers, yet for some reason I can't stand movie commercials on television. Maybe it's because they're repeated over and over and over again, like the current spot for The Love Guru, which has been driving me nuts all week. I hardly even watch TV (with no more Lost til 2009, there's nothing good on) and yet I believe I've seen it about a thousand times over the past few days.

Apparently I'm in the minority, however, because TiVo has just released data showing that ads for movies are one of the few kinds of commercials that its subscribers actually watch rather than fast-forward through. The DVR company also revealed the movie that had the least-fast-forwarded spot: Forgetting Sarah Marshall. A single FSM ad that ran during an episode of The Office was the single-most popular (or, at least most-viewed) for the month of April. Second least-fast-forwarded in that month was a spot for Hancock. Also considered "DVR-resistant" are those amusing Mac vs. PC commercials, while an ad for Ford that ran during an episode of American Idol placed high for April, as well.