When Is a Comedy a Terror?

2.75
Good romantic comedies the Farrelly brothers directed/produced. "Dumb and Dumber" was solid, and "There's Something About Mary" was in the pantheon of '90s comedies. "Outside Providence" was decent, but the romantic plot arrived late in the movie, so they get half a good movie for that. "Me, Myself and Irene" is worth a quarter of a good movie. By "Shallow Hal," the Farrelly brothers had officially lost their fastball. And we're not even going to talk about "Fever Pitch."

4
Good romantic comedies produced by Judd Apatow -- he's done "40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up," "Superbad" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." (Yes, I know it's a massive stretch to call "Superbad" a romantic comedy.) I recoil in terror whenever I'm informed that a movie I'm about to watch is a romantic comedy -- add the adjective "lighthearted" in there and I'm going to run screaming out the door. But Apatow brings some genuine laughs and really good side-characters to a genre that's been offensively bad and cliche-ridden through the 21st century.

7
My 10-scale rating for "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." I'd read some lukewarm reviews, and it was better than I expected. Pros: It's funny all the way through; no real lulls in the laughs. The "Freaks and Geeks" strain of humor stays alive in "Sarah Marshall," as it does for most of Apatow's recent movies. Cons: The ending is pretty predictable, but at least I cared how it ended.