Film

Get Him To The Greek

Joe Coyle 09/11/2010

Rating: 3.5/5

Its 10 years since Infant Sorrow with lead singer Aldous Snow ( Russell Brand) performed a legendary show at the Greek theatre in Los Angeles and it's Aaron Greens (Jonah Hill) , a low level record company scout, task to return him to the scene of his greatest triumph.

This film by director Nicholas Stoller sees Russell Brand reprise the role of scene stealing Aldous Snow from the film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” for a fun filled Rock star road trip. Russell Brand plays the down on his luck Rock star with typical abandon and while he's not always likable and sympathetic he manages to bring a humanity to a wildly over the top character.

Jonah Hill's character of Aaron Green hovers between personal
breakdown and despair as his inability to control Aldous becomes both frequently hilarious and frustrating at times. Normally a supporting character actor, Hill has stepped up well, although he doesn't possess the charm of contemporaries Paul Rudd or Jason Segel, he plays his man on the edge pretty well.
Both stars of the film are blown off the screen by P. Diddy who is a comedic revelation as Sergio the record companies demanding owner, blasting off line after line of hilarity with such precision. Its hard to imagine that acting is not his day job.

Add to that great turns by Colm Meaney as Aldous' father and Rose Byrne as Jackie Q the on/off girlfriend of Aldous. Litter in a great range of cameos from the likes of Pink, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter) and you have some nuggets of comedy gold.

Like many of the recent films produced by Judd Apatow. Get Him to the Greek is patchy. Some of the scenes are the funniest I have seen in years and others are just not. Fortunately for cast and crew the former is more prevalent. As a companion piece to “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” it works well, whilst not having the consistency or the emotional punch of that film it more than matches it for laughs due to its three leads how are all on great form. In essence this movie never claims to be more than it is. It doesn't out stay its welcome and is very amusing. Get Him To The Greek is slightly episodic and there is no tension about if Aldous will ever reach the show but when the film does finally get there a satisfying conclusion leaves you with a big smile on your face.