nick stoller's FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL and michael mccullers' BABY MAMA (2008)

to the relief of moviegoers everywhere, May is finally here: that magical time of year at the cineplex where spring's tepid garbage gives way to summer's really awesome garbage. that said, the end of 2008's Cinematic Dumping Ground season did have a surprising ace up its sleeve in the form of reasonably credible comedies, two of which at the very least cleared the low bar set by a PG-13 Prom Night remake and Al Pacino Cashes A Paycheck: The Motion Picture.

Nick Stoller's Forgetting Sarah Marshall (co-scripted by star Jason Segel and produced by Judd "Please Stop Talking About Me" Apatow) is the better of the two, but still merits more of a discussion of what doesn’t work than what does. it’s every bit as amiably ribald as the Apatow crew’s previous work (and a decided step up from the disappointing Walk Hard) but here and there it’s hard to deny the smell of diminishing returns, as their emphasis on character humor and loose pacing over plot-driven gags (and gag-driven plots) has finally resulted in a film that is constantly on the verge of unraveling altogether. Segel and his supporting players all do strong work, and there are scattered moments of surprising emotional intelligence, but Forgetting Sarah Marshall still feels more like a paid Hawaiian vacation for a group of very funny people than a real movie.

Michael McCullers’ Baby Mama, on the other hand, feels very much like a movie. very much, in fact, like many, many other movies. it's not that the premise (a surrogate pregnancy turns into The Odd Couple) isn't worthy, or that stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler aren't long overdue for a big-screen showcase; the problem is that McCullers seems to put both of those can't-lose elements directly at odds with a half-baked second draft of a script heavy on plot mechanics and astonishingly light on laughs. sure, there's plenty of what could technically be called jokes -- we hear them, placidly acknowledge them, and continue watching -- but the whole affair is determinedly shallow and mediocre, which is especially painful in the hands of the women behind 30 Rock and Upright Citizens Brigade. to their estimable credit, Fey's confident leading lady debut and Poehler's irrepressible comic instincts ("It feels like I'm shitting a knife" may be history's most succinct description of the miracle of childbirth) make the film perfectly watchable, and occasionally pull a big laugh out of the blue. but comedy fans in search of a worthy feminine alternative to the Apatow Boy's Club will have to search a bit longer, as Baby Mama goes no deeper into the female mind, and doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much fun trying.

(from the KNOXVILLE VOICE)