Java Man Reviews "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (Rated R). Directed by Nicholas Stoller. Written by Jason Segel. Starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Bill Hader, Jonah Hill, Kala Alexander, Paul Rudd, William Baldwin, Jason Bateman, Jack McBrayer and Da'vone McDonald. Originally appeared in LakewoodBuzz.com May, 2008.

OVERVIEW:

Schlubby Peter Bretter (Segel) composes music for a CSI-like TV show that stars his gorgeous girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Bell). Relegated to such indignities as holding her purse during photo shoots, Peter is nevertheless deeply in love. So when she tells him that "there is someone else," he is devastated. The someone else is self-absorbed British rocker Aldous Snow (Brand), who could have been separated at birth from Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow.

After a tragicomic montage of meaningless sexual encounters, Peter decides that a trip to Hawaii would be just the thing to encourage him to live up to this film's title. But as luck (and movie logic) would have it, Sarah and Aldous are already shacked up at the same hotel when Peter arrives. Amid the chance encounters and amusing awkwardness, Peter meets Rachel (Kunis), a hotel employee who may be a romantic prospect--or just a competent resort worker who his pleasant to her customers.

REVIEW: 3 out of 4 Java Mugs

If you like movies that begin with a break-up and end with a match-up (and who doesn't?), then this is the film for you. But it is the midsection of the movie, the time spent in Hawaii, that is the most entertaining. The film is a slight variation on the romantic comedy formula: Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy and Girl Both Go to Hawaii. Why so far away? Woody Allen could have filmed this story within a few city blocks of his Manhattan apartment.

Here's why: Since fantasy vacations are becoming so expensive, why not let the movies take us to some of these exotic locales. And Hawaii is one of the most stunning, a place where beams of golden sun bathe land and sea and make everyone look good--including the lead actors and lighting directors.

Segel, who also wrote the screenplay, gives an adequate performance as Peter, and provides some of the film's more embarrassing moments with brief(less) episodes of frontal nudity. The two women in his life are appropriately attractive, though it may stretch credibility to believe either would actually be interested in Peter.

Other memorable performances include Brand as the cynical, oversexed rocker, Rudd as a drugged-out surfing instructor, and McBrayer and McDonald as Christian honeymooners who are just realizing that there is a physical aspect to the marriage sacrament. Some of the funniest moments come with send-ups of the police procedural TV genre, featuring hilarious, straight-faced cameos by Baldwin and Bateman.