This sort of semi sequel/spin-off from 2007’s entertaining Forgetting Sarah Marshall takes the most successful aspect of that Apatow produced comedy and gives that most polarising of people, Russell Brand, a big budget Apatow produced vehicle of his own.
Get Him to the Greek is the self explanatory plot condensing title of this hectic sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll romp through 72 hours of crazed debauchery. Jonah Hill, another of the FSM cast, here embodies a completely different character with Aaron Green, an unassuming music promoter that’s given his big chance by expletive spouting record producer, Sergio (Sean Combs). His task; to get alcohol fueled, fallen idol Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) to the Greek Theatre so that he can perform a money spinning, career reviving, 10th anniversary show with his band, Infant Sorrow. The only things stopping him are heroin smuggling, his first taste of absinthe, and an East End narcissist with the attention span of a child and the libido of a rabbit.
GHTTK will take some patience to win over its doubters. The initial set-up is really quite terrible as we are presented with an E Entertainment style background into the turbulent life of our drug-addled rocker, that features the video to his flop single African Child, and some TMZ style footage that conforms to all the things people tend to dislike about the tabloid baiting Brand.
It’s the script’s teaming up of Hill and Brand that lights the comedy touch paper here, even the music improves with the catchy number We Got the Clap, once the two are on the road. Jonah Hill is always watchable; here he is happy to take a back seat to Brand’s showy antics, so he gets the vomit on his top on numerous occasions as the straight man. While Brand exaggerates his familiar mannerisms, he is at his eloquently funny best when allowed to slip into his successful stand-up mode. Both are respectively excellent.
It’s the quite unexpected change in tone during the last 20 minutes that might take the detractors by surprise. It features a couple of introspective exchanges between the leads that highlight some real acting chops behind Brand’s posturing. With this and his forthcoming turn as Trinculo in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, it might be that there’s more to this guy than your preconceived ideas would have led you to believe.
The same can be said for Puff Daddy, or P-Diddy, or whatever he’s calling himself these days, because here he hits an untapped funny bone that manages to steal all the movie’s best lines. It might be one-trick, but it’s extremely funny.
Much like its leading man, this won’t be to everyone’s taste. It’s crude in the same way that American Pie was, and apart from the final 20 minutes, the pace, volume and tone is unrelenting as Green and Snow zip from suicide attempts to inner cavity drug smuggling. A comedy for the anarchist in you.
[etRating value=“ 3”]
Get Him to the Greek is the self explanatory plot condensing title of this hectic sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll romp through 72 hours of crazed debauchery. Jonah Hill, another of the FSM cast, here embodies a completely different character with Aaron Green, an unassuming music promoter that’s given his big chance by expletive spouting record producer, Sergio (Sean Combs). His task; to get alcohol fueled, fallen idol Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) to the Greek Theatre so that he can perform a money spinning, career reviving, 10th anniversary show with his band, Infant Sorrow. The only things stopping him are heroin smuggling, his first taste of absinthe, and an East End narcissist with the attention span of a child and the libido of a rabbit.
GHTTK will take some patience to win over its doubters. The initial set-up is really quite terrible as we are presented with an E Entertainment style background into the turbulent life of our drug-addled rocker, that features the video to his flop single African Child, and some TMZ style footage that conforms to all the things people tend to dislike about the tabloid baiting Brand.
It’s the script’s teaming up of Hill and Brand that lights the comedy touch paper here, even the music improves with the catchy number We Got the Clap, once the two are on the road. Jonah Hill is always watchable; here he is happy to take a back seat to Brand’s showy antics, so he gets the vomit on his top on numerous occasions as the straight man. While Brand exaggerates his familiar mannerisms, he is at his eloquently funny best when allowed to slip into his successful stand-up mode. Both are respectively excellent.
It’s the quite unexpected change in tone during the last 20 minutes that might take the detractors by surprise. It features a couple of introspective exchanges between the leads that highlight some real acting chops behind Brand’s posturing. With this and his forthcoming turn as Trinculo in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, it might be that there’s more to this guy than your preconceived ideas would have led you to believe.
The same can be said for Puff Daddy, or P-Diddy, or whatever he’s calling himself these days, because here he hits an untapped funny bone that manages to steal all the movie’s best lines. It might be one-trick, but it’s extremely funny.
Much like its leading man, this won’t be to everyone’s taste. It’s crude in the same way that American Pie was, and apart from the final 20 minutes, the pace, volume and tone is unrelenting as Green and Snow zip from suicide attempts to inner cavity drug smuggling. A comedy for the anarchist in you.
[etRating value=“ 3”]
