Get Him to the Greek

As movie spin-off sequels go, Get Him To The Greek has to be one of the strangest.

Extracting Russell Brand's British rock star character Aldous Snow from the hit comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall,  then transplanting him into an entirely different plot about a musical  comeback and copious substance abuse, the end result has about as much  in common with its source material as it does with Toy Story 3.

Luckily many of the same people are involved behind the scenes, ensuring that Get Him To The Greek at least lives up to Sarah Marshall's laugh count. Hollywood comedy uber-producer Judd Apatow lends his Midas touch once again, while director Nicholas Stoller returns behind the helm. There's even a contribution from Sarah Marshall star Jason Segel, and a cameo by Sarah Marshall herself (Kristen Bell).

To think of Get Him To The Greek as Forgetting Sarah Marshall 2 would be a mistake, though, as Brand and co-star Jonah Hill give the movie a much edgier vibe. If the original was a (rather gross)  romantic comedy, then this is a movie-length homage to sex, drugs and  rock'n'roll.

Brand is, of course, well acquainted with the first two, but his  competence with rock'n'roll comes as a surprise. His swagger has always  hinted that Keith Richards might be his long-lost father, and his  natural confidence lends some spunk to his vocal duties too. He's  certainly no less credible than most aging Eighties rockers.

While Brand does what we've come to expect from him, however, it's Hill  who provides the genuine surprise. He may not look like typical leading  man material, but alongside Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss he gives the film a tender and humanizing heart.

OK, so he also vomits a lot, has sex literally in a toilet, and  spends half the movie with something stuck in his ass - but the fact  that we still care about him after all these digressions is a minor  miracle.

For those who care about plot there's a slim narrative to follow, but  it's largely a vehicle for back-to-back partying and some of the  grossest comedy to hit cinemas in the last few years. Young music exec  Aaron Green (Hill) is sent by his mildly crazed boss (Sean 'Diddy'  Combs) to escort Aldous Snow from London to a sold out revival show at  LA's Greek Theatre.

To say that all doesn't go smoothly is an understatement, and the entire  movie sees Aaron desperately trying to seize his big chance with both  hands, while Aldous is more interested in seizing any girl who wanders  within reach. As a bond forms between them, so they gradually deal with  their various relationship issues, and reach some kind of conclusion  just before the curtain comes down. Whether it's happy or not depends on  your tolerance for drugs and alcohol.

There's not much to Get Him To The Greek beyond the partying and bad behavior (and some truly funny Spinal Tap-style  songs), but it's something that Brand and Hill do so well that it  really doesn't matter. What we end up with is a gross-out reworking of  the classic buddy movie, mixed in with a little rock parody and a giant  helping of Russell Brand.

That may not be a recipe for genius, but it's certainly worth 90 minutes  of your time. Just don't treat it as a drinking game, or you'll be  staring at the hospital walls within 30.

3/5

Rating: 2.5/5

Get Him To The Greek is a spin-off film for the Aldus Snow character  from Forgetting Sarah Marshall played by British comedian Russell Brand.  Now I liked Forgetting Sarah Marshall, it was a fun and silly film with  some great performances from Jason Segal, Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell. I  thought Russell Brand was good as well but I found him to be  disgusting, which perfectly fit the character but it didn’t feel like  much of a stretch for him. Obviously they felt the character was popular  enough to warrant his own film, and here lies this film.

So as the title suggests, this is meant to be a kind of road film.  Jonah Hill plays Aaron Green, he works for a record company run by  Sergio Roma (Sean Combs). He has the bright idea to have a 10th  anniversary concert at the Greek theater in L.A. for Aldus Snow (Russell  Brand) and his band. It has been three years since Aldus has done  anything music wise, since his last album African Child flopped big  time. Aldus is the typical rock star, drinks and does drugs, comes on to  anything that moves, yet still hung up on his ex singer Jackie Q (Rose  Byrne).

I was expecting this to be one of those really crazy films, where all  sorts of really outrageous stuff happens and there’s no way they make  it to the Greek. But I was wrong, this was actually really toned down,  it wasn’t was well gross and crazy as I was expecting. Aaron Green is a  typical nice guy character, a big fan of Aldus, he’s in a relationship  with his girlfriend Daphne (Elisabeth Moss). Of course that side story  line gets mixed up when Aaron gets the task of picking up Aldus. That  part I thought worked, we have a cute couple who have their issues, and  Aaron does some rather stupid things because of Aldus. Meanwhile Aldus  wants to party and drink and do drugs, and while things get crazy all it  does it delay their flight to New York for the Today Show. After that  Aldus wants to see his father Jonathan (played oh so well by the always  awesome Colm Meany) in Vegas. Yes this is a set back and lessons are  learned but it is not as crazy as it should have been. This probably  provides the funniest moments in the film, along with the really stupid  songs Aldus has.

I didn’t mind Russell Brand in this, he was toned down and he was not  as gross as he was in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Jonah Hill is likable,  and he plays this role well, these two actually had some great  chemistry which helped the film along. The stand outs though were Rose  Byrne as the clueless singer and ex, she was just insane, loved it! Sean  Combs showed his stuff as Sergio, and he really was quite good. Colm  Meany proves he can do anything, he was great as his father, what a  perfect piece of casting. However the film suffers from a very poor  script, there was so much potential but it did not deliver. What should  have been a lot more crazy and outrageous was really more tame and  silly. There are laughs to be had, and a few really awkward moments but I  felt this could have been a lot better.

First Published at SuperMarcey.com

Last updated: 2010-07-01 01:03:10 by SuperMarcey

Get Him to the Greek is a spin-off of the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall from two years ago.  It focuses on the character Aldous Snow, played by Russell Brand.  In my opinion, he was the funniest thing in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  It's rare that it would be the British comedian that stands out to me considering I've never cared much for British humor in general.  So I thought it was a great idea to let him get the spin-off.  He's a pretty wild, eccentric character to focus a whole movie on which is why Jonah Hill plays the primary character in the film.  He had a much smaller role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall but he plays an entirely different person in this film so that we get a fresh story here.
His character, Aaron Green, works at a record company which is looking for something big to reinvigorate the company's success.  He decides they should get Aldous Snow to play a big comeback concert that they can profit from.  Snow is considered sort of a rock god whose career has been in decline since getting sappy on his last album.  Sean "Diddy" Combs plays Sergio, the head of the record label, who is pretty much an inflated version of Diddy himself if you've ever seen his Making the Band show where he makes people do ridiculously over-the-top tasks in order to work for him.  It's fun to see him sort of mock himself and just go completely overboard with the character.  He decides to give Aaron's idea a shot but makes Aaron be the one who gets Aldous Snow to the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles where it will be the 10th anniversary of a famous performance he gave there.
Aaron is excited at this chance to meet Snow who is a music icon in his eyes.  But he soon learns that getting him to the Greek is no easy task.  Snow is a drugged-out, completely unfocused party animal.  Aaron has to go along with his partying ways to stay on his good side but also try to get his focus back on the concert along with promotional spots like The Today Show on the way.  As we know from both the Cheech & Chong franchise and the Harold & Kumar films, drugs make for very funny movies.  Though we don't get marijuana here, Snow takes much more serious drugs and is a big time drinker too.  Bringing good guy Aaron in on his wild nights, we get some hilarious scenes of Aaron freaking out and not being able to handle this crazy lifestyle.
The songs could have been a little better, but Russell Brand is perfect for the brash rock star that he plays.  He has the look and the right attitude as well.  We also get to see a serious side of him and find out what drives him to become so reckless.  He's got issues with a father that was never there for him and still misses his Lady Gaga-like ex-girlfriend who so perfectly fit with his rock star ways.  Aldous Snow can be endearing at times and just straight out mean at others.  He's a complex character that you never know what will do next.  Aaron walks the line of being a huge fan of his and also finding himself completely frustrated by his lack of focus.  But the two of them have a great chemistry together on screen.  The movie is completely unpredictable and you can never tell where it's going next.  It's one of those films that shows the rock star life that many of us wish we could live, but also the perils of being famous.  I can't remember the last time I heard an audience laughing so much, and at the same time, the characters totally grow on you while you're laughing at them.

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-philadelphia/danny-porcaro

I am not sure how many people actually expected Get Him to the Greek to be good, I know I wasn't really expecting anything. The trailer just made this film feel like the next Apatow-induced flick that gets vomited out by Hollywood every year and every drunk college kid thinks it's the best thing since Christmas. It's as if every movie studio imagines that if they throw the word "Apatow" on the poster their movie will sell millions. Well, it's true, because it does, and whereas I haven't been satisfied by many of the Apatow era, Get Him to the Greek has a few sparks behind it that keep it fresh.

Get Him to the Greek is technically a sequel, or a sidequel if you will. Both main characters, Aaron Green (Jonah Hill), and Aldous Snow (Russel Brand), both appeared in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (my favorite Apatow movie). So even though they were just supporting cast, they got a pretty good spinoff.

Aldous Snow is the lead singer for a band called Infant Sorrow, who runs off on his solo career and creates an album titled African Child, that is so bad that it is declared the worst thing for Africa since apartheid. Aaron Green somehow made his way off of Hawaii and now has a job as a music industry peon. As Aldous disintegrates into drugs, scandals, falling music sales, and divorce, Aaron wonders what is happening to his favorite rock icon while looking for his once chance to make it big in the music industry. He gets that chance when he announces the idea for a comeback concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles for Aldous Snow. His boss, Sergio (Sean Combs), likes it and sends Aaron to London to grab Aldous and get him to Los Angeles in time for the sold-out show. Hilarious hijinks ensue.

The strong points for this film are by far the actors. Comedy veteran (not really) Jonah Hill is surprisingly not annoying, which is my usual complaint. He keeps it fresh he keeps it real and tries his best to counteract Aldous' violent behavior, by drinking all of his alcohol and smoking all of his drugs.

Russel Brand is my new favorite comedian. The things he says with the expressions on his face had me chuckling. Dancing around the various stages like a combination of Christina Aguilera and Elvis, singing songs like "We All Have the Clap" and "My Beans and Mash." Although honestly, there is only so much of his British accent you can take before you start yelling at the screen, "ITS WITH NOT "WIF" YOU INVENTED THE LANGUAGE PRONOUNCE IT RIGHT. It's a bit heavy at times.

The absolute best part of Get Him to the Greek by far is Sean Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy Combs. If you had told me he was going to be this funny I would have made fun of your shoes. But he wins at every corner, outclassing both Brand and Hill. "You cannot outrun me, I am black!" You cannot outact me either. Throw in a hilarious Carlton reference and impression and you have won me over.

Well, P. Diddy won me over. Greek goes the way of Funny People by trying to push in some melodrama in the lives of the characters, and it really just makes the movie about a half hour too long. It starts when Aldous decides he misses his wife and it just gets more downhill and depressing from there. The best word for it is borrrrrinngggg. After quick paced parties and one-liners it's just all wrong and sadly bumped this movie down half a star.

2 and a half stars out of 4

-Christopher O'Connell

There might not be the greatest expectations for comedies nowadays considering they all follow the same formula of layered raunchiness, a dash of sentimentality, and loads of obscene language. Director Nicholas Stoller has taken one of his above average characters from the relatively successful Forgetting Sarah Marshall and given him his own feature film, which inevitably feels like a desperate attempt to repeat the timely summer success of last years The Hangover. Get Him to the Greek is just one of those films that could have been an excellent and witty parody of the music industry but ultimately falls flat and drags. Instead the result is much of the same raunchiness and continuous use of obscenities that plagues potentially good scripts. Hollywood has fallen back on a standard that really is average at best when it comes to comedy and unfortunately these lackluster attempts still make money. Fortunately for Get Him to the Greek it has some inadvertently memorable one liners and a decent enough cast to lead you through the over the top and desperate film that really fails due to the undeveloped and unredeemable characters that feel too out of this world to be relatable. If people really want to copy The Hangover they should learn that Todd Phillips understands that exaggerated character doesn’t mean alienating, and unfortunately Russell Brand and Jonah Hill are a bit too out of the movies to be real in any way.
            Get Him to the Greek opens as though it’s a VH1 behind the scenes of the life and times of Aldous Snow, a wild and ignorant rock star character continued from the semi-successful comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall and is still played by stand up comedian Russell Brand. A befuddled Jonah Hill who always seems to play out of expected character to the point of pure repetition plays Aaron Green who proposes the idea of a reunion concert for Aldous Snow who is depressed and down on his luck. The move would put Aaron in a position to further his career and is hired to pick up Aldous and make sure he gets to the Greek Theater in three days. The task isn’t as simple as it seems considering that Aldous is the definition of Rock Star, constantly partying, drinking, and doing drugs whenever it’s possible. Basically the film is a bawdy and chaotic venture into the supposed stereotypes of the music industry that lacks the inventiveness of say other industry parodies such as Tropic Thunder or This is Spinal Tap. There isn’t anything vastly complex to the story nor does it try to explore anything other than the superficial clichés of the music industry, making jokes rather than clever satirical observations. Get Him to the Greek is slightly funny if only for its vulgar and unhinged presentation of party bedlam with somewhat charming characters to get you through it.
            Charming is generally the best word to describe the lead actors Jonah Hill and Russell Brand if for very different reasons. They both exude known personalities that are familiar and humorous enough to bring a smile to your face. However, the characters they are portraying are lacking due to the superficiality of the script with a dedication to unbelievably awkward situations and interactions that lack pertinence. Consider Jonah Hill’s relationship with a seemingly awkward and boring Debra (Mad Men’s Elizabeth Moss) who then, all of a sudden and out of character, is willing to have a threesome with a Rock Star. This makes for an uncomfortable and semi-humorous situation in the end but it just seems forced and out of flow with both characters. The alienation continues with just the obsessive use of vulgarity that seems to be the core of English used in the film. Obscenities can be creative and often times used creatively but it just seems the script filled the lulls with more and more profanity. When you introduce an audience to a world they are generally unfamiliar with, such as the party atmosphere of the music industry, there is a great risk in leaving your audience behind with a lack of understanding. This is essentially the core flaw of Get Him to the Greek where we are put into focus on the drug abuse and excessive drinking of the Rock Star lifestyle rather than using the opportunity to parody our uneducated perceptions. This could have been the Tropic Thunder of the music industry but doesn’t embrace this opportunity at all. Instead we’re left with the typical raunchiness and exaggerated profanity that most comedies in the last 10 years have used as a crutch.
            Really it’s the cast that saves this mediocre comedy from being completely forgettable. Jonah Hill, while remaining repetitive in his role choices, still has some great delivery with a few select memorable lines and situational gags. His counterpart Russell Brand makes the most with repeating his already established spin-off character using his personality and British wit to make some of the duller moments light up. In a surprising semi-success comedic debut Sean Combs lets himself ease into the role as a self-involved and uncaring music producer, perhaps due to his familiarity with the music world. Many known comedians and actors make strange select appearances without much rhyme or reason, but the familiar faces make it enjoyable if not intelligible as to why they were cast in such flimsy roles. This cast really let those select comedic moments shine and will definitely allow the audience members looking for a release this summer through comedy to get what they’re looking for. But if you’re looking for a comedy that is fresh, original, and attempting something new than don’t bother with Get Him to the Greek because it really defines formulaic.
            Perhaps it’s the high expectations of what comedy can accomplish but Get Him to the Greek doesn’t nearly come close to being what is known as quality comedy. It drags a bit too long, depends too much on profanity and coarse situations, and lacks relatable characters that give the audience a believable redeeming ending. But it is the June comedy and the first big one of the summer season, which means audiences will see it no matter what is written about it in the critical field. What can be said in Get Him to the Greek’s favor is that it is probably the better comedy choice this weekend when compared to the new Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher film Killers. Despite its obvious flaws, Get Him to the Greek will entertain those who expect the raunchy approach that is vastly similar, but not nearly as good as, American Pie and The Hangover.

Genre: Comedy
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Elisabeth Moss, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Rose Byrne, Colm Meany
Running Time: 109 minutes (plus trailers)

“This is rock n' roll. Did you enjoy the party?”

If comedy were a house party, the new film written and directed by Nicholas Stoller would be the crazy drunk guy running around with a lampshade on his head. Loud, obnoxious and completely off his face, this guy stumbles from place to place, sometimes hilarious, sometimes cringe worthy, before finally collapsing in a pool of what you hope is only his own vomit. Jonah Hill stars as Aaron Green, a junior record company executive given the near impossible task of getting washed up rock-star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) from London to Los Angeles in time for an anniversary concert at the Greek Theatre. The resulting three day journey quickly turns into an odyssey of sex, drugs, rock n rock, alcohol, drugs, anal penetration, sex, celebrity cameos, drugs, litres of bodily fluids, several near death experiences, and drugs. If last years break out comedy hit The Hangover showed us what happens the morning after a wild night on the town, then Get Him To The Greek provides us with the missing hours we’d rather forget.

This is not the first film to feature narcissistic rocker Aldous Snow – English comedian Russell Brand reprise the role from 2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall, also directed Stoller, written by and starring Jason Segel of How I Met Your Mother fame.  I honestly think that Segel is one of the funniest people currently working in the entertainment industry, and his lack of involvement in Get Him To The Greek is obvious. This film comes nowhere near the comedic brilliance of its predecessor, easily the best film of the Judd Apatow produced stable, and perhaps one of the best comedies of the last twenty years. Never the less, Get Him To The Greek is funny, thanks mostly to the performances of its two leads, and more importantly, their willingness to abandon all dignity for the sake of a good laugh.

In Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Aldous Snow was proudly celebrating his sobriety; in this film he is well and truly off the wagon and determined to drag the normally sensible Aaron down with him. This is your pretty standard comic/straight man double act, and most of movies big laughs come from watching one or both of them blitzed past the point of no return on several different substances of varying strength and legality. And make no mistake, there are some big laughs in this film; the sheer, unadulterated, debauched craziness of some of the scenarios in this movie are so ridiculous and manic that I almost had tears in my eyes – the film also raises the bar for one of the most uncomfortably realistic sex scenes in a comedy, coming albeit after several more preposterous ones earlier on.  

But in-between the more ridiculous set-pieces, this is at its heart another improvisational comedy in the same vein as The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and the aforementioned Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The way these movies work is you take a bunch of funny guys – included but to limited to Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and even Jonah Hill, who has himself appeared in several of these films (including Sarah Marshall, in a totally different role) – and let them bounce off each other and try and make the audience laugh. Sadly, of all the films from that stable, this is first one that felt as though it was very deliberately trying to make me laugh; the improvisation often feels forced rather than flowing freely, the comic timing sometimes just a little off.

Additionally, as a satire of the music industry and, in a broader sense, celebrity culture, the film is only okay. Some of the cameos did get a chuckle and the creative criticism of Snow’s failed charity single “African Child” makes me wish I got the chance to write that scathingly more often (my personal favourite was a review that called the song “the worst thing to happen to Africa since apartheid”). Unfortunately, like the improv, some of the jokes works, but just as many falls flat: P. Diddy’s role as Aaron’s boss had some people in my theatre laughing hysterically, but personally I thought he was just a much less funny version of Tom Cruise’s Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder (who by the way is receiving his very own spin-off movie.)

But before I shout down that project, I guess it’s important to remember that Get Him To The Greek is itself a spin-off starring a relatively minor character from another film, and while it fails to live up to the original, it’s still funny enough to warrant a look, at the very least on DVD. In fact, given the inordinate amount of jokes in the trailer that weren’t in the film itself, the cut scenes in the DVD may very well be better than the movie as a whole. That is so often the curse of film like this; the people involved are much funnier than the final product, and what you end up with is the feeling that it would’ve been much more fun to be on the set than in the theatre. But even as a lesser entry into this raunchy new era of comedy, Get Him To The Greek is still funny and gross enough to warrant being spun-off in the first place.

Rating: 6/10

You can find all my reviews at http://tomclift.blogspot.com