Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

When I saw Jason Segel from How I Met Your Mother was the lead in a new comedy I thought, I really gotta go see that. I really like How I Met Your Mother, it's a great show and well deserves to stay in the network schedules this fall. It's well written, sharp, funny and most of all it has a great cast of characters. Well actually, most of all at this stage I really want to find out who the kids mother is! Then I saw that Kristen Bell from Veronica Mars was also in it, another great TV show! Then I saw that Russell Brand was it... and unlikely many many people over here, I actually like Russell Brand, I saw him once on Jonathan Ross and I just thought he was hilarious so as far as I'm concerned, he's a-ok. So, I really wanted to see this film.

So back to the film. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is pretty much a romantic comedy, but more along the lines of Knocked Up than 27 Dresses (actually, did I write a review of 27 Dresses yet? No? I'll have to get around to it soon). Anyway, it's not that surprising really, since FSM and KU share the same producers, current favourites Judd Apatow and Shauna Robertson. In general, I've enjoyed their films and FSM was no exception. I laughed - job done. Being honest, it wasn't the best film these two have produced, that honour goes to... I'll have to say Anchorman (of the ones I've seen anyway) but it was good fun at the time.

"What was good about it?" I hear you ask... well, I liked the main character, though considering the guy playing the main character wrote it; it's hardly surprising that he was the most well rounded and sympathetic character of the lot of them. Russell Brand was very good too, a likeable lothario and while hardly the brightest bulb, still had a brain in his head - exactly the kind of caricature he should be playing. Jack McBrayer from 30 Rock was very funny to in a small but memorable supporting role. Aside from those three the characters weren't great, Sarah Marshall in particular was pretty one dimensional but it didn't really matter. It's just a comedy, a fluffy light film to eat popcorn to.

I can't really recommend it to be honest, certainly not in the cinema, but it was entertaining at the time and I don't think you'd regret it if you got it out on DVD.

Iron Man (2008)

My my, I have been lax lately, I really need to write more reviews... it's not like I haven't seen any films lately... it's just that I haven't had a chance to write any reviews...

Anyway so... I saw Iron Man the other day. You may have heard of it, it's directed by the multi-talented Jon Favreau (Jon Favreau is great, you should watch Swingers, everyone should watch Swingers.) and one Mr. Robery Downey Jr. as Tony Stark - inventor, industrialist, womaniser and part-time superhero, Iron Man.

It's important to note part-time there...

Look, don't get me wrong, I liked Iron Man. It was an entertaining film. I enjoyed it, I thought it was good. It's just that it was no Transformers. I loved Transformers, it really set a standard for me... Transformers was everything a film with giant robots should be... and may I point out that there pretty much is a giant robot in Iron Man.

To be entirely fair to Iron Man though (because it just can't compare to Transformers - edit re: comment - and yeah, it's not really the same kind of film) I'll put it on the scale with some other superhero films... It was vastly better than all the Spider-Man films, not to mention what little I saw of Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer before I fell asleep. It was also better than Superman Returns and Batman Begins but no way was it as good as the X-Men films. I'd say it was on par with Hellboy. Entertaining but not amazing.

I hate to say it because I'm not all about the huge action scenes and great effects but Iron Man could have done with bigger and better action scene and special effects. There's nothing wrong with an origin story, everyone likes a good origin story, but mostly what we saw was a guy hanging out in a cave building a suit... then hanging out in a basement building a suit... this is not an origin story, it's a guy building a suit. Tell us a bit about his dad, tell us a bit more about the villains... you could even tell us a bit more about Pepper Potts! I mean I couldn't really give a crap about her but maybe if you'd told me something I might, she was as bad as Rachel Dawes. I just thought that there could have been more to Iron Man... watch it again and tell me where the actual story was because I certainly didn't see it... and if I'm not getting a story with real characters and emotion then damnit, I wanna to see big explosions!

Anyway whatever, it just didn't do it for me... I realise there are lots of people out there who did think it was great and I'd love to hear what you liked about it... so please... let me know!

Oh I forgot to mention one thing that was amazing about this film. The car - the Audi R8... what a car... where can I win one...