2010 / 109 Minutes / R
Reviewed by Dale J. Nauertz

It’s not often that the side character from one movie gets a movie of their own. Aside from “Get Him to the Greek” and “Evan Almighty”, in fact, no others come to mind. In “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, Russell Brand played pompous British rocker Aldous Snow. His main purpose in that film was to steal the hero’s girlfriend. But as an object of scorn he was just too bizarre and cool for even that film’s hero to completely hate. Brand stole nearly every scene in which he was featured in that film, so I suppose it was a natural progression for Snow (and Brand) to get his own film…although “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, despite being one of the finest American comedies of the past decade, did not exactly set the box office on fire so making a film revolving around one of its side characters and releasing it during summer blockbuster season seems a particularly brave/foolhardy enterprise.

But all of that is just business. Let’s discuss the film itself. As I already mentioned, “Get Him to the Greek” revolves around Aldous Snow, self-important British rock star. As the film opens, Snow has released an album entitled “African Child”, made for the sole purpose of informing people less socially conscious than Snow himself (people in comas, perhaps?) of the plight of African children. The album tanks (Rolling Stone magazine ranks it third behind AIDS and Apartheid on a list of the worst things ever to happen to Africa) and Snow loses his girlfriend, his pop culture cachet and his sobriety. The cool, collected Snow that famously declined booze in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” soon becomes the most hedonistic party-hardy rocker of all time, the sort of fellow that even Keith Moon might have told to ease up on the drugs.

Several months later record label drudge Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) suggests Snow is ripe for a comeback and even advances the notion of Snow performing a show at the Greek Theater where he originally erupted onto the music scene ten years earlier. His boss (played surprisingly well by Sean Combs, AKA P. Diddy) initially rejects the notion. But when other money-making ventures fizzle out, Combs warms to the idea and appoints Green as the one to bring Snow from London to Los Angeles to play the concert.

Shenanigans ensue.

“Get Him to the Greek” takes plenty of jabs at the music industry, some of which are hard-edged and hilarious (like Combs insistence that a generic hip-hop tune about sex and partying is a “game-changer”) though some are fairly tired (such as the idea that all rock stars are drug-fueled party animals). This pretty much sums up all of the film’s humor. “Get Him to the Greek” relies on a mix of relationship observations (I enjoyed the idea that the rich rock star has a harder time with relationships than the overweight schmuck), rock star stereotypes (sex, drugs, a little rock and roll) and gross-out humor (which largely pertains to the aftermath of the sex and drugs). The relationship stuff works pretty well, actually, without dragging the film down to the standard romantic comedy level (the film features more cheating on one’s significant other than doe-eyed declarations of love). The rock star stuff works most of the time (as I said, some of the music industry satire is rather trenchant, some is merely by the numbers). The grossout humor works occasionally (the highlight of this schtick is Jonah Hill’s attempt to keep Brand from getting wasted by ingesting all his drugs and alcohol himself…just before they go on the Today show) but since the renaissance of R-rated comedies, we’ve gotten a lot of this kind of material and, frankly, I’ve seen better. For example, I didn’t find much humor in the image of Jonah Hill shoving a baggie of Heroin into his rectum but, as is always the case with this sort of thing, results may vary according to taste. I didn’t think “The Hangover” was anything special either and look how that turned out. Overall, the movie is more hit than miss. I’d say it kept me laughing quite hard roughly sixty percent of the time (a better percentage than “The Hangover” but not as high as “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”).

“Get Him to the Greek” also contains quite a few poignant sequences, which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering that Judd Apatow’s name is on the credits. Brand plays Snow largely as a hedonistic cartoon yet there’s an inherent sadness to his portrayal. As with most addicts, Brand’s Aldous Snow is using drugs and alcohol to fill a void within himself. A running sub-plot in this film (or is actually the plot?) concerns what that void is, where it comes from, and how/if Snow can successfully (and permanently) fill it. This is compelling stuff, and much headier subject matter than one would expect from a film of this type and it would not succeed without the fine work of Russell Brand. Brand is pitch perfect as Aldous Snow, illustrating the same kind of comic invention and fearlessness as Sacha Baron Cohen did in “Borat”. He even conveys the selfish and self-destructive tendencies of Snow without softening them up. Take for example the moment where Hill disposes of Brand’s stash and Brand threatens him with physical violence. It’s an honest and powerful moment born of an actor committed to all facets of a richly developed character.

As for Jonah Hill, I can honestly say that I’ve never enjoyed him more. I usually find him irritating, playing characters that are too abrasive and actively annoying for my taste (as in the highly-overrated “Superbad”). Here, however, Hill plays Aaron Green as a gentle soul, perhaps even a pushover, whose encounter with someone he admires becomes its own personal hell during the course of seventy-two crazy hours. A good portion of the credit for these performances rests with writer/director Nicolas Stoller who also directed “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”. He orchestrates this insanity with a sure hand and gives the film plenty of unexpected curves that keep the material fresh when it threatens to devolve into a slightly more humorous episode of “VH1’s Behind the Music”. Of course Hill and Brand find a relatively happy ending, but the script refreshingly delivers them at this ending in a roundabout manner that avoids many of the standard script beats and cliches inherent in this sort of story. Besides, Hill and especially Brand bring such vitality to their characters that they earn such endings. And they get superlative support from such fine and diverse actors as Elisabeth Moss (who proves as adept at comedy as she is at drama in “Mad Men”), Colm Meaney (terrific as Aldous Snow’s father) and, though I never thought I would say it, Sean Combs. Many might cringe at the notion of P. Diddy in a movie, but he actually manages to steal most of the scenes in which he’s featured.

If the natural progression started by “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” continues, Sean Combs’s eccentric, oft-angry record executive Sergio Roma may very well be the next character to get his own movie. As long as Russell Brand/Aldous Snow makes a cameo (and performs some of his toe-tapping, hilarious songs), I’d probably give it a shot.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 8:14 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.