Top 500 Films – #461 – Get Him To The Greek (2010)
DIRECTED BY: Nicholas Stoller
STARRING: Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Rose Byrne, Colm Meaney, Elisabeth Moss and P Diddy
FAVE QUOTE: “When the world slips you a Jeffrey, stroke the furry wall” – Aldous Snow
FAVE MOMENT: The entire Jeffrey/furry wall scene is a slow burner then escalates into funny levels of ridiculous.
AWARDS: Teen Choice Award (Best Comedy)
SYNOPSIS
English rock star Aldous Snow relapses into drugs and booze after a break up and a disastrous record. In L.A., Aaron Green works for a record company stuck in recession. Aaron’s boss gives him a career making task – to bring Aldous from London to L.A. for a concert in 72 hours. That day, Aaron’s girlfriend Daphne tells him she wants to finish her medical residency in Seattle. Aaron’s sure this ends their relationship. In London, things aren’t much better: Aldous delays their departure several times, plies Aaron with vices, and alternates between bad behavior and trenchant observations. Can Aaron moderate Aldous’s substance abuse and get him to the Greek? What about Daphne?
VERDICT
At number 461 is Get Him To The Greek.
Get Him To The Greek is a spin-off/sequel (take your pick) film following Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) who was a character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Also he interacted with crazed fan Jonah Hill in Forgetting Sarah Marshall but here in Get Him To The Greek, Jonah Hill plays an entirely different character called Aaron Green. Not that difficult, both were in the same film but only in this one Jonah is a different character completely, okay? Got it? Good!
In Get Him To The Greek we open with the song of ‘African Child’ brought to us by Aldous Snow and his band/artist name Infant Sorrow, which leads to it being labelled as the worst record of all time and his girlfriend Jackie Q (played by Rose Byrne) gets bored of Snow and his sobriety and leaves him, which leads to him going off the wagon.
We’re then introduced to Aaron Green (Jonah Hill), who is a worker at a record label, who pitches the idea of having a 10th anniversary of Aldous Snow’s Greek Theatre concert. So the premise of the film is set that Aaron must travel to London and get the “most self destructive man in rock’n'roll” to LA to play at the greek. Where Forgetting Sarah Marshall was all about the heart of the characters, this film goes 120mph in the other direction as Aaron loses grip on attempting to control a loose cannon such as Aldous Snow and sets up a few scenes on mimicking the celebrity lifestyle of sex drugs and rock’n'roll.
It would be no secret say that I’m not Russell Brand’s biggest fan but I have primarily grown to him as a result of his performance in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and it’s nice to see the character get his own film and has some great acting comedy chops, but there will be plenty that feel that Aldous Snow does so much ridiculous shit in this film that you can’t empathise with him or feel any love for him other than consider him to be a total prick, but the film then goes into the relationship/respectful bond phase in the final third of the film. Jonah Hill is solid as the foil and opposite to Brand’s craziness, really is such a likeable guy and does unleash moments of great comedy whenever he’s pissed, stoned and violated and times his growing frustrations with Snow perfectly.
But this film also has a secret weapon that actually provides the funniest moments in the film and it feels a bit weird to say it – Sean Combs (Puff Daddy, P Diddy) as record label owner Sergio Roma. Not normally known for his comedy acting, he’s great as the essentric Sergio who goes through this film through pan faced threats (‘That’s a mindfuck’) and can easily turn from these threats to absolute psychotic (‘You can’t outrun me, I’m black!) in the Jeffrey scene, which the film gets its biggest laugh as it slow burns of them sitting around smoking the Jeffrey to levels of ridiculousness.
So if you’re a fan of the Brand or the Apatow bandwagon in general then this comedy should be up your street. The soundtrack ain’t to bad either.
Here’s the trailer below
