'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' Goes To The 'Crime Scene'

A CSI parody takes forensics to the big screen.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a comedy starring Jason Segel and Kristen Bell, debuted at number two on the box office charts after earning a weekend gross of $17,725,330. The film follows Peter Bretter (Segel) as he deals with being dumped by his TV star girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Bell). Bell's character is part of a fictional television show called Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime--an obvious spoof of the successful CSI franchise.

NBC has even created a fake website for Crime Scene, which describes the fictional television show as "an adrenaline pumping, heart stopping drama about a team of forensic investigators trained to investigate crimes by investigating the evidence at the scene of the crime." The site contains pictures, videos and cast biographies for the CSI parody. The videos include clips of the spoof and behind-the-scenes interviews with its main actors, Sarah Marshall and Billy Baldwin. Baldwin stars in Forgetting Sarah Marshall as himself.

Sandra Hall from the Sydney Morning Herald described Bell and Baldwin's fictional counterparts as "nerveless forensic investigators whose idea of comradely banter is to make cutting remarks about the state of the fresh corpses on the mortuary slab before them." Hall went on to say, "Bell snaps on a rubber glove with great elan and Baldwin brings just the right amount of beady-eyed enthusiasm to his part." Exclaim.ca's Cam Lindsay said "watching Billy Baldwin and Jason Bateman pull a David Caruso [CSI: Miami's Horatio Caine] is absolutely priceless."

Check out the official website for the movie, or visit IMDb page for Forgetting Sarah Marshall here. For more detailed box office numbers, check out Box Office Mojo. NBC's fake site for Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime can be found here. You can find reviews for Forgetting Sarah Marshall at Rolling Stone, The Toronto Star, The Sydney Morning Herald and Exclaim.ca.

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