Get Him to the Greek does a lot of things right, and well enough that its shortcomings just sort of fade away in the face of what it delivers. The spin-off of 2008’s spectacularly funny Forgetting Sarah Marshall, directed by Nicholas Stoller and written by How I Met Your Mother’s Jason Segel, now sees Stoller as the writer and director with Russell Brand returning as Brit rock star Aldous Snow. If you liked the simple but notably different story of Sarah Marshall, you’ll find Get Him to the Greek is an entirely different animal, looking more like a road trip connecting a series of vignettes taking their cues from every outlandish thing rock stars are known for doing.
Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) has his dream job: he works as an agent for a top record label and gets to pitch ideas to the head honcho himself, Sergio (Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs). When Sergio turns to his employees for their input on the “next big thing”, Aaron gets his chance to shine, but when he recommends the label sponsor a 10-year commemoration concert for Aldous Snow's huge concert at The Greek, the response is tepid, at first. And what would you expect? After all, Aldous Snow's last album before vanishing into obscurity was a colossal bomb derided by critics for both its musical and political implications. Aldous lost everything because of that album (including his wife played by Rose Byrne), and wants little to do with the rock and roll scene. However, after a few days of mulling it over, Sergio agrees and sends Aaron to fetch Aldous in England and bring him to New York and then the concert in 72 hours, just as Aaron has a major fight with his longtime girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss) over a proposed move to Seattle.
He goes to England. He finds Aldous. And his life is never going to be the same because of it. The seemingly simple task of getting Aldous from point A to B and then C goes awry at the very first moment. Aldous just wants to party, and so he does with Aaron in tow. Aaron’s timid nature must shift to some semblance of leadership if he ever hopes to herd Aldous to the concert amidst the obstacles of drugs, booze, and sex. It’s a wild, hilarious ride for the first two-thirds, the duration of which incites many a belly laugh – a rare thing from comedies these days. In the final third, things get serious and pretty weird. It’s an odd end to the film, but it gives some sort of lesson (albeit an unneeded one).
Where Greek fails is in the cast. Brand is the strongest link in the main three players consisting of himself, Hill, and Combs. Brand nailed the perpetually wasted rocker persona with hollow bits of advice in Sarah Marshall (though in that one he just behaved that way despite being clean and sober), and it clearly doesn’t take much for him to continue it in this one, which he does to great effect. Perhaps it’s because the first film offered him so much practice, or perhaps it’s because Brand’s personality is so close to Snow’s to begin with, whatever the case, Brand’s performance makes Get Him to the Greek worthwhile. Hill has always been, in my mind, the lesser of the actors to be birthed from the Judd Apatow craze. He’s not quite the loveable loser that Rogen plays and he’s nowhere near as good a leading man as Paul Rudd or Jason Segel; he gets by sputtering in muted frustration. His shtick is that he plays the powerless guy who mumbles about in the background and whom whose friends rail upon without end. He doesn’t have the personality nor the practice required to really carry a film, and for the most part he’s continually outshone by Brand. Combs, while having a few funny moments here and there, doesn’t quite have the Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder moment he was looking for. His acting falls flat and really he just seems like stunt casting in the end. The film has an outstanding selection of cameos and supporting cast members including Colm Meaney (as Aldous’s father), Lars Ulrich, Pink, Mario Lopez, Christina Aguilera, Aziz Ansari, and Harry Potter’s Tom Felton.
Russell Brand made Aldous Snow an entertaining character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and now, with this spin-off, he’s cashing in on the goodwill established there. For the most part, Get Him to the Greek delivers everything it promises: plenty of laughs and music with highly suggestive lyrics. It’s easily the funniest movie of the year so far.
"Get Him to the Greek" opens June 4, 2010 and is rated R. Comedy. Written and directed by Nicholas Stoller. Starring Colm Meaney, Elisabeth Moss, Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Sean Combs.
