Would You Like to Pick Out the Outfit You Want to Break Up with Me In

It seems the only way a comedy can become a hit these days is to have the name Judd Apatow. The guy who perfected the lovable loser in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. And the guy is building up a family tree that rivals that of Bill Walsh has in the NFL. And to help them out, Apatow slaps on the “produced by” tag for himself so their movie gets an extra boost, the latest is from Jason Segal, who worked for Apatow in Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, Knocked Up and has now written Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Segal doesn’t steer to far from Apatow territory with the lead, which he cast himself as, is yet another lovable loser who has taken to eating Fruit Loops out of an oversized bowl while watching Project Runway in sweatpants. And that is what is happening when he is dating television star Sarah Marshall, for who he does the music for (the movie is almost worth the price of admission for her television partner and be sure to stay for the credits for her second special co-star) so things only gets worse when she dumps him for known player Aldous Snow, lead singer for Infant Sorrow.

Also an Apatow trait is the numerous cameos and their plenty of them here including hilarious turns from Apatow regulars Paul Rudd (Knocked Up), Jonah Hill (The 40 Year Old Virgin), and Bill Hader (Superbad) as well as new comer into the fold Jack McBray (Mariah Carey Touch My Body video) who gets some of the best lines in the movie. They even brought in some native Hawaiians for some memorable characters.

It is nice to see Kristen Bell in something good not named Veronica Mars (there is a not so subtle dig at Bell’s Pulse in the movie) the only problem, despite being the title character; hers is the most poorly written in the film. In fact writing for woman is apparently not Segal’s strong suit because Mila Kunis (American Psycho II: All American Girl) as the potential rebound girl isn’t much better. But with a lesser actress, Sarah could have turned into your token cold hearted ex but in Bell’s hand there are times you will find yourself rooting for her to land the good guy in the end.

Oh and did I mention there are puppets? Seriously. Go see this movie or at the very least wait for the DVD for hopefully an extended version of the puppet scene.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.