Movie Log: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

So I'm way behind on movies again, going back to just after the epic family vacation (which I suppose I'm now officially too late to blog about). Let's see if I can run through some quick thoughts on a bunch of them.

First up: Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The Wife and I watched it just about a month ago, and mostly enjoyed it. Jason Siegel -- as Peter, our hero -- seriously overdoes the angsty heartache at losing his vacuous but gorgeous blonde TV-star girlfriend of the title (as played by Kristen Bell). And Russell Brand as Sarah's new boyfriend, the so-laid-back-he's-practically-standing-upside-down Brit rocker Aldous Snow is the best part of the movie -- he doesn't actually steal the scenes, since he's not trying, but he's just there, being more interesting to look at and listen to every second he's on screen.

At this point, I don't much remember the plot, besides that it was a bit dull, predictable, and didn't go much of anywhere. Our hero finds new love and gets over his old love, and his old girlfriend gets her comeuppance for dumping him. There's funny stuff going on, fairly consistently, but it's all just funny stuff, rather than being much of a plot.

And, for a long time, the movie can't quite decide if it thinks Peter's great work -- the puppet Dracula musical -- is a joke or not. It is a joke, and a pretty good one, in the end, but the movie toys for a long time with taking it, and Peter's ambitions for it, seriously.

So, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is just OK, and everyone has already seen it, anyway. But where would North America be without OK movies about sex to see in the summertime?