Pun Salad

I'm normally a fan of the raunchy comedies produced by the Judd Apatow factory, but this didn't really do it for me. (85% on the Tomatometer, though, so your take could be much more favorable.)

It centers on Peter, a composer of background music (or, as he describes it, "tones") for the TV series Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime. He's also in a relationship with the star of the show, Sarah Marshall. But that lasts about as long as I took to describe it: she announces (to his full-frontal male nudity) that she's seeing someone else and breaks up with him. He's morose, he goes to a Hawaii resort to try to recover, but Sarah's there with her new man, a spacy British rock star named Aldous. Peter meets a sympathetic hotel clerk, Rachel. Hijinks ensue.

What's good: Aldous is played by Russell Brand, and he's funny. There are some very funny performances in small roles: Kristen Wiig as a resort yoga instructor; Paul Rudd as a surfing instructor; Steve Landesberg (Dietrich on Barney Miller!) as Peter's doctor.

And everything about Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime is hilarious, from the title to the small clips we see of the show.

But (at least for me) Peter's character never became very sympathetic, which is deadly for this kind of movie. In addition, the raunch, while expected, seemed to be tacked on, much in the way brain-dead action movies insert explosions, chases, and fights every ten minutes or so. (Yes, I have high standards for raunch. Also explosions.)

The most amazing thing: it's been about 30 years since Steve Landesberg was on Barney Miller, and I don't think he's aged. How does he do that?