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