Get Him To The Greek

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