Nicholas Stoller
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Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)
Directed by Jake Szymanski
influenced by Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Plot Themes
They convince Mike and Dave that they’re “nice girls,” and the fortuitous foursome is off to “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” territory before you have time to sift through the gender politics.
Reminding of 2008's " Forgetting Sarah Marshall " and 2011's " Just Go with It " but not as rewarding as either of those films, "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates" deserves a smarter script and a more confident directorial hold.
It's a far-fetched concept (at one point the guys' search for dates gets them booked on the Wendy Williams show), but the crude mood it's going for is clear: A mix of "The Hangover," "Bridesmaids," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and, especially, "The Wedding Crashers."
Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
Directed by Preston Sturges
influenced Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Themes
The immortal writer/director Preston Sturges, responsible for such trenchantly hilarious comedic romances as The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, and Unfaithfully Yours, held that sex was "Topic A." The movie output most closely associated with producer Judd Apatow The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad suggests that Apatow concurs.
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Directed by Preston Sturges
influenced Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Themes
The immortal writer/director Preston Sturges, responsible for such trenchantly hilarious comedic romances as The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, and Unfaithfully Yours, held that sex was "Topic A." The movie output most closely associated with producer Judd Apatow The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad suggests that Apatow concurs.
Animal House (1978)
Directed by John Landis
influenced Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Themes Characters Plot
There are times when it seems like a cousin to When Harry Met Sally , and other occasions when it's more closely related to Animal House.
El reto para Buenos vecinos 2 parece aún más complicado, pues el tema central es un rubro y con un tono que desde los años setenta (con la cinta Animal House, 1978) se ha repetido frecuentemente en el cine: una comedia sobre fraternidades y sororidades, y los peculiares sujetos que las albergan.
The three 18-year-olds are Animal House-caliber partiers, but they’re partiers with a real-life point.
Take "Animal House" or "Revenge of the Nerds," and turn the gender roles inside out, and you'll have "Neighbors 2." In fact, eliminate almost all of the guys.
It’s got just about enough laughs, but there’s so much more that the Script by Committee wants to shoehorn in, like female empowerment, bad parenting passed off as “doing our best” just like our parents, gay marriage and the incredibly sexist college Greek system, a relic of the “Animal House” era that remains as “rapey” as ever.
The immortal writer/director Preston Sturges, responsible for such trenchantly hilarious comedic romances as The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, and Unfaithfully Yours, held that sex was "Topic A." The movie output most closely associated with producer Judd Apatow The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad suggests that Apatow concurs.
This being a romantic comedy (although in the tart manner of such Apatow productions as Forgetting Sarah Marshall ), predictability is part of the conceptual furniture.
So while any serious fan of comedy will know this is better than 27 Dresses, it may not be as heavily quoted as similarly effective flicks like Role Models, I Love You Man or Forgetting Sarah Marshall (did I just compose a Paul Rudd/Jason Segel Venn diagram?).
Not unlike Jason Segel 's yearning puppeteer in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," Wiig's character must find a way to get unstuck.
This typically awesome outing from uber-producer Judd Apatow continues his tradition of shepherding actor-written comedies (like Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall), a formula that rarely results in anything less than something special.
With the wisdom of a sage, he’s given comedienne Kristen Wiig a chance to develop her very own feature comedy that fits perfectly into the existing Apatow oeuvre that includes “Knocked Up,” “Superbad” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”
Though I can think of a handful of Apatow-produced movies I enjoyed more (“The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Superbad,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Get Him to the Greek”), “Bridesmaids” is likely to be one of the best comedies of the year.
It's a variation on a Buster Keaton gag from "The Navigator" (1923) and there's seemingly nothing to it -- just the perfect execution of an arc.
He abandons Segel and doesn’t get a clearly defined performance out of Kristen Bell (from TV’s “Veronica Mars” and “Heroes”).
The overall feeling is that of a movie entirely overrun by third- and fourth-billed sidekicks (Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd are the special guest-stars, for crying out loud), where even Hawaii looks drab and the premise is stolen from Steve Martin in The Lonely Guy only to be buried under a wave of botched improv bits.
Good Boys is produced by Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures, which also brought us Superbad , Neighbors , and Sausage Party , so it should be no surprise that raunch and drug-related shenanigans will be major themes for what lies ahead.
Co-produced by Seth Rogen, and with a writer-producer pedigree that includes Superbad , Neighbors and Sausage Party , this R-rated romp is a randy coming-of-age comedy about a trio of 12-year-old best friends who find their first couple of weeks of sixth grade a wild ride of f-bombs, sex toys and illegal drugs.
The title makes the concept reasonably obvious: in the opening scene, on New Year's Eve in what we can just about assume is 2006 (a Blood Diamond joke is made), San Franciscans Tom Solomon (Segel) proposes to Violet Barnes (Emily Blunt), one year to the day after they met.
Upon giving her the engagement ring, Tom establishes that he knows how 2006's " Blood Diamond " disturbed her and reassures her that these jewels are from an older era.
If romantic comedies like 50 First Dates, Punch-Drunk Love, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall are any indication, Hawaii is the destination for American men looking to sort out their troubled love lives.
(It's a measure of society's attitude toward male nudity that the mere sight of the fully exposed Segel causes shocked, embarrassed laughter among moviegoers; compare this to the reaction that greeted a similar sequence in Robert Altman's "Short Cuts," in which the bottomless Julianne Moore became a figure of hushed yet prurient interest.)
The nude breakup scene that begins the movie is funny but also painfully intimate, like the moment in Robert Altman's Short Cuts when Julianne Moore confesses to a long-ago adulterous affair while naked from the waist down.
The tagline for the wacky, weed-filled, sexy, cheerfully offensive comedy “Caddyshack” in 1980 was: “The Snobs Against the Slobs.”
Dinner for Schmucks (2010)
Directed by Jay Roach
influenced by Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Characters
Jemaine Clement provides some relief as a self-absorbed photographer and Rudd’s romantic competition; the character is more than a little reminiscent of Russell Brand’s character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but Clement’s deadpan obliviousness is a nice counterpoint to Carell’s over-the-top stupidity.
Based on an effervescent French film, Le diner de cons (1998) to which it bears no resemblance, Schmucks attempts to emulate the recent Judd Apatow and alumni style of American comedy (Forty Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), but somehow forgets to be funny.
Despite a few funny scenes about dating apps and hookup culture (and how they’re just like that Meg Ryan movie “You’ve Got Mail,” only not), it’s not clear to audiences what Bobby wants because it’s not clear to Bobby what he wants.
Sydney White (2007)
Directed by Joe Nussbaum
influenced Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016)
Themes Plot
The notion of making a college-set comedy that tackles patriarchal norms among students sounds intriguing until one realizes that this film is even less progressive than such similar efforts as 2007's Sydney White and 2008's The House Bunny.
The “start our own” thing idea was stolen from an Amanda Bynes comedy, “Sydney White.”
Lou, like Brad Pitt’s confidante to Clooney’s character, finds the other helpers they’ll need: a hacker named 9 Ball (singer Rihanna of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets ) and deft pickpocket Constance (Awkwafina of Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and the upcoming Crazy Rich Asians ).
Constance (Awkwafina: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising ) is master sleight-of-hand, which makes her a great pickpocket and snatch-thief.
The rest of the castMindy Kaling (2018's " A Wrinkle in Time "), Sarah Paulson (2015's " Carol "), Rhianna (2017's " Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets "), and Awkwafina (2016's " Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising ")are along for the ride with next to nothing to do.
However, the script has a bit of a faux pas—due mainly to the underwhelming development of the supporting cast: Mindy Kaling, ( A Wrinkle in Time 2018) plays Amita, a jeweler who can replicate diamond pieces with cubic zirconia, Helena Bonham Carter ( Alice Through the Looking Glass 2016) plays the cash poor, but reputable designer (Rose Weil), Rihanna ( Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets 2017) plays (Nine Ball) the tech-savvy hacker, Sarah Paulson ( The Post 2017) plays (Tammy) the fence, and Awkwafina ( Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising 2016) plays (Constance), the streetwise pickpocket/con artist.
Constance (Awkwafina, “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising”) is a skateboarding artist versed in trickery.
Rihanna, Kaling, Blanchett, Paulson, Awkwafina (from Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising), and Bonham Carter (having more apparent fun than she’s had in a while) all play a key role in the heist and get at least a few moments in the spotlight — another advantage of a streamlined cast.
Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
Directed by John Patrick Shanley
influenced Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Plot
Think of the lame “Joe Versus the Volcano” (1990), with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan; or of the shirtless Owen Wilson caper, “The Big Bounce” (2004); or of Anne Heche and Harrison Ford, eying each other warily, then snarling and scrapping, in “Six Days, Seven Nights” (1998).
Whether it’s Bill Murray wowing Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters or Jason Segel ending up with Mila Kunis in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the schlub always gets the girl in Hollywood.
Show Caption Hide Caption Charlize Theron on her favorite rom-coms and making 'Long Shot' Charlize Theron dishes on her fave rom-com "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and starring with Seth Rogan in "Long Shot."