Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) - A

"Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is the latest comedy from the Judd Apatow gang. The movie was written by Jason Segel ("How I Met Your Mother" and a memorable small role in Knocked Up,") who stars as Peter Bretter, a Hollywood composer dating the star of the show he works on, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell of "Veronica Mars.") After Sarah dumps Peter, Peter struggles to move on, and finally decides that he needs to get out of Los Angeles for a while, and heads to Hawaii. Unfortunately, he goes to a resort Sarah always talked about, only to discover that Sarah is staying there with her new boyfriend. Fortunately, sparks fly between Peter and one of the resort's employees (played by Mila Kunis of "That 70's Show.") Apatow regulars Paul Rudd, Bill Hader, and Jonah Hill play entertaining minor roles. All of the cast does a great job.

Like all of the movies from the Apatow crew, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is extremely crude, but sweet at heart, and has a lot of moments that just feel extremely real. It's also the quirkier than the other movies. For example, Peter's secret dream, which he has been working on for many years, is a musical with puppets about Dracula. Naturally, we get to hear some of the hilarious songs from said musical.

The movie also has quite a few elements that make you wonder if they are shout outs to other projects the cast has been involved in. Does Segel just really love being nude in front of the camera (he has multiple full frontal scenes) or is that also a reference to a memorable "How I Met Your Mother" episode where the gang discovers a nude painting of Segel's character that is the source of great embarrassment. Is it just a coincidence that Sarah Marshall's career eerily resembles Kristin Bell's?

I definitely enjoyed "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" but it was also clearly my least favorite movie from this group. I'm not sure if it's just that I've seen the formula enough times now, or if this effort doesn't quite click like the others. The movie was right on the edge of whether I would recommend it to everyone, or just people who are into this genre. In the end, I decided it was just good enough to warrant an A.

Final Grade: A

Leatherheads (2008) - C

"Leatherheads" is George Clooney's first misstep as a director. While I enjoyed both of the other movies he directed ("Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"), "Leatherheads" really never quite comes together. The movie is a romantic comedy set in the 1920's. Clooney plays "Dodge" Connelly, a professional football player. Unfortunately for Dodge, professional football is still in its infancy, and his team plays in front of very small crowds on a tiny field surrounded by cows. Meanwhile, college football, as represented by Princeton star Carter Rutherford, played by John Krasinski of "The Office," is thriving with gigantic crowds and beautiful stadiums. When it looks like his team is about to go bankrupt, Dodge comes up with the idea of recruiting Rutherford to play for his team, counting on his college star and war hero status to create giant crowds. Enter Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellwegger), a reporter from Chicago. She has received a scoop that Carter's war heroics (he supposedly got a whole German squad to surrender by himself) are highly exaggerated. She follows the team, and cozies up to Rutherford, trying to find out the truth about his war experiences. Of course, her assignment is complicated by the fact that there's also a spark between her and Dodge.

Unfortunately for the movie, Zellwegger and Krasinski have almost no chemistry. The chemistry between Zellwegger and Clooney is a little better, but it doesn't exactly set the screen on fire either. As a result, there are long stretches of the movie that are really flat (after the movie was over, the people I saw it with were startled to find out that the running time was under two hours, since it felt MUCH longer). Then there's the inexplicable decision to have the climax of the movie be a football game that is so amazingly boring, that several of the characters feel obliged to point out that the game is ridiculously boring. Not exactly the recipe for a stirring finish. There are just enough fun scenes between Dodge and Lexie that I can't say the movie sucked, but I definitely do not recommend it.

Final Grade: C

Stop-Loss (2008) - A

"Stop-Loss" is a strong military drama directed by Kimberly Pierce ("Boys Don't Cry.") The movie opens with a taut combat sequence. Brandon King's (Ryan Phillipe) squad is manning a checkpoint when they take fire from some insurgents in a car. Per standard operating procedure they chase the insurgents and end up in an ambush. The scene is really well directed. It is quite intense and really gives you a feeling for how messy urban combat can be. That action is on King's last day in Iraq, and he and his best friend Steve are planning to leave the military when they get home. Once Brandon gets home, however, he is shocked to find out that he has been "stop-lossed." This relatively unpublicized policy allows the U.S. military to prevent people from leaving the military when their contracts are up. With no draft in place, and military recruitment struggling due to the unpopular Iraq war, stop-loss is essentially being used by the military as a back door draft of people who have served in the military. I was aware of the policy before I saw the movie, but one of the statistics given in the movie that shocked me was that around 20% of the soldiers who have served in Iraq have been stop-lossed.

Brandon goes AWOL and decides to try and fight his being stop-lossed. The movie does an excellent job of showing how desperate Brandon's (and other people like him) situation is, as well as providing a bunch of perspectives on what the right thing for Brandon to do is.

"Stop-Loss" also does a good job of exploring the psychological damage that can happen to those who have served in Iraq. There are two major subplots, and both are interesting and effective. One subplot centers around Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon Levitt--the kid alien on "3rd Rock from the Sun,") one of the members of Brandon's squad. His best friend dies in the opening combat scene, and Tommy comes back from Iraq completely messed up. Tommy's friends' struggles to help him get it together are both compelling and gut wrenching.

The second subplot centers on Steve and his girl friend Michelle. Like Tommy, Steve has some issues from his time in Iraq, but the couple's major problem is Steve's desire to reenlist. Michelle loves Steve, but doesn't believe she can take another year of being apart from Steve and worrying about him in Iraq. She's simply not prepared to be a military wife.

All of the performances in the movie are good, and the script is excellent. The situations the characters are put in and their final choices are believable, if tragic. I can't exactly call the ending satisfying since it is so sad, but you walk out of the theater feeling like it ended the only way that made sense. I definitely recommend this movie.

Final Grade: A

21 (2008) - C

"21" is based on a the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich. I found Mezrich's book to be highly entertaining and recommend it strongly. Where "21" stays close to Mezrich's book, it is quite good. The movie does a good job of giving an overview of how blackjack works, how card counting works, how card counting as a team works, and the intricate game of countermeasures that casinos employ to prevent card counters from breaking their games. Unfortunately, the producers or screenwriters apparently decided that story beyond the card counting presented in Bringing Down the House lacked sufficient drama for a movie, so they decided to spice up that story. The main character Ben can't just be a bright MIT student. Instead, he has to be a desperate MIT student who has gotten into Harvard Med but can't figure out how to pay for it (apparently Ben has never heard of student loans). Even worse, the movie tacks on one of those obvious yet unbelievable Hollywood endings. Also, if you know Vegas and Blackjack well, there are a number of small errors throughout they movie that can be annoying. Overall, I enjoyed the parts of the movie that focused on playing blackjack in Vegas enough that I can't say I thought the movie sucked, but I'd definitely recommend that you stick with the book on this one.

Final Grade: C