It's Just Movies

— by ADAM POYNTER —

Springing to life from the brilliant minds of Judd Apatow, Jason Segel and Nicolas Stoller comes the new comedy “Get Him to the Greek.” It is produced by Apatow (“40 Year Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up,” “Superbad,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) who has a very particular sense of humor that is very recognizable. This film is written by Nicolas Stoller (who directed “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and wrote “Yes Man,” “Fun with Dick and Jane” and the upcoming “Gulliver’s Travels” with Jack Black). The main character in “Get Him To The Greek” — Aldous Snow — comes right from the “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” feature film.

Well, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) is back and his career with his band “Infant Sorrow” has taken a turn for the worse after his latest album, “African Child” (which was critically hated and also offensive), was voted the worst album of all time. One critic said it was the worst thing to happen to Africa, even surpassing famine and disease. His life is in disarray after he decides to go clean, and his wife Jackie Q (Rose Byrne) decides to leave him because he’s no fun sober. Her singing career takes off while he’s left behind, after that he’s off the wagon again, using drugs and booze daily.

Enter Sergio Roma (Sean “P. Diddy” Combs), a senior executive record producer at Snow’s record label who is having a meeting with his staff to try to find new ideas to boost record sales and revenue. Then we meet Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) who is just an average guy who happens to be a big fan of Aldous Snow and suggests they do a 10- year anniversary concert to celebrate the successful live album released after the hit concert. With some reluctance, Sergio agrees and gives Aaron the task of going to London, getting the drunken rock star and transporting him to New York to perform on the “Today Show” and announce his concert, then rush him to LA where he will be performing. Needless to say, when you mix a straight-lace geek like Aaron, with an ever-increasing rebellious druggie rock star like Snow, there’s bound to be troubles (and some laughs).

Since this movie is taking a character from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and giving him his own spin-off movie, I will address this first. “Get Him To The Greek,” although it has a lot of commonalities to the comedy style of “Sarah Marshall,” it is its own entity and doesn’t really need to be compared to the first movie. People are saying that they laughed out loud more with “Sarah Marshall” and although that may be true, I’m going to review this film on its own merits.

I liked this movie because it takes one of the funniest and most outrageous characters from the previous film and gives new life to him and expounds on his persona. At first, Aaron is just a star struck fan and he soon comes to realizes that this trip isn’t going to be all “Bangers, Beans and Mash.” He is told by eccentric music producer Sergio Roma to do whatever he has to do to keep Snow in check while also playing to his vanity; this soon leads to smuggling drugs through the airport for him, plus drinking and smoking all of his drugs and alcohol to keep the “Talent” sober. This leads to Aaron throwing up in all kinds places, having some panic attacks while on a “Jeffrey” (a joint consisting of a mixture of untold drugs) and many more crazy scenarios. There were many laugh-inducing moments in this film, usually when things started getting over-the-top ludicrous.

The two outstanding players in this film are P. Diddy and Brand. Russell Brand proves early on that this was a character worthy of a spin-off movie and though he is completely outrageous most of the time, his dry delivery of some of the movie’s most ridiculous lines makes them even funnier. Then there are his songs, which are pretty eccentric and filled with innuendos — they provide for a great soundtrack. Through all of that, Brand still proves in the third act that his character has a heart and it was broken and that’s why he has been so out-of-control. There are a few moments when he drops the “rock star” attitude to really connect with his ex-girlfriend and his son. Now, P. Diddy on the other hand, is so comically funny, you can tell much of his part was off-script and I think he did an amazing job with his character. He provides about a third of the laughs in this film (“I own 21 CUCK-A-ROOS, I’m gonna be alright!”). Throughout this film, there are tons of great one liners that are bound to end up being fan favorites. One of the best parts of the movie are the too-many-to-count cameos in this film — they have every type of media and magazine, not to mention a handful of “A-List” celebrities and even some quick mentions of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” characters as well.

All in all, I think “Get Him To The Greek” is a funny, wild romp around the world that has a lot to offer the viewer and will be remembered as a funny film (maybe even this year’s version of “The Hangover”). So if you like funny and crass comedy. then head out to go see this film today.

“Get Him To The Greek” is rated R for strong sexual content, drugs throughout and pervasive language.

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Follow Adam Poynter on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CCWGGuy.