Questionable Review: Get Him to the Greek

I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm a Judd Apatow fanboy. Whether he's producing, writing, or directing, I tend to fall in love with almost every project he touches. The emphasis here is on "almost", though. There is the odd movie here and there that I either didn't think lived up to its potential (IE Funny People) or those that I just didn't feel was that funny (IE Pineapple Express). The dude and his constituents certainly know funny, but they aren't infallible, and of all their works, the one most tightly connected to "Get Him to the Greek" is "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"; a movie I have yet to see.

Does this put me at any sort of disadvantage watching Jonah Hill and Russell Brand's new comic road show, does the movie stand on its own and carve out a big slice of funny, or is the movie so bad that this point is moot?

SO WHAT'S THIS MOVIE ABOUT?

The plot of "Get Him to the Greek" is extremely simple. Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) works for a struggling record label fronted by P. Diddy (under the name of Sergio, but trust me, it's P. Diddy). Asking his subordinates to pitch ideas for how to get the company out of their financial slump, Green proposes an anniversary show for rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), celebrating a his defining concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. The only problem is that Snow has been a complete and utter wreck since his last album, African Child, was declared one of the worst albums ever conceived, and has since returned to drug and alcohol abuse after his long time girlfriend (Rose Byrne) left him and took his son. Now, with both their careers hanging in the balance, Green must get the unruly rocker from his home in London to the concert in L.A. in just three days. Chaos (and hilarity?) ensue as this task proves more impossible than the young Aaron could have ever imagined.

SO WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT THIS MOVIE?

The movie benefits tremendously from the comic prowess of its dual lead. Both Jonah Hill and Russell Brand have their unique comic stylings working in tandem here, and for the most part it completely works. Not every gag is knee-slapping, but they come so fast and furious here that you should at least be chuckling through a majority of the film.

SO WHAT SUCKS ABOUT THIS MOVIE?

Kinda... everything else. Yeah, I don't want to be a downer here, but there just isn't really anything else to the film. Sure, Aaron and Aldous get into all sorts of OUTRAGEOUS situations, but every one of these just seem to be pointless, not really having any kind of lasting imprint or impact on the story. At the risk of spoiling too much, I'd like to point out the entire Las Vegas detour the movie makes. The whole point of it seemed to be so Aldous could reconcile with his estranged father, but instead the movie takes a ridiculous mad-cap turn that leaves nothing resolved and only serves to pad out the movie's lengths. Don't get me wrong, some of the more humorous gags in the movie take place in this Vegas lay-over, but it serves no purpose in pushing the movie's message.

And that'd be fine if this was a comedy for comedy's sake, but at many points the movie makes it a point to drive the human drama and preach some type of message about flaws in the story's main characters. These messages are, quite frankly, all over the place and often contradict one another. Aldous Snow is definitely a compelling character, and many of his serious moments are genuinely touching (thanks to some pretty superb acting by Russell Brand), but it's too bad the movie can't seem to decide whether it wants you to celebrate his debauched antics or to pity his loss of humanity until there are literally ten minutes left in the film. Also, despite some semi-witty interactions with our lead characters, the supporting cast here is universally weak (and yes, I'm including P. Diddy in this statement).

ANYTHING ELSE?

I think that, after watching this, my man-crush for Russell Brand has reached a near Paul Rudd-lian level.

SO WHAT'S THE FINAL VERDICT?

It may seem like I disliked this film, but it honestly did make me laugh quite a lot. The biggest problem is that, after the final credits and several days of down-time, there just isn't anything of substance to hold onto with "Get Him to the Greek". It's not bad, it's just nothing really special. This is unfortunate considering the talents of Jonah Hill and Russell Brand, but the fact of the matter is that this is likely to be nowhere near their finest work. If you have a group of rowdy friends, then catch a matinee and you're sure to have a good time. Otherwise, you're not really missing anything by just catching this one when it's out on DVD.