Get Him To The Greek, the unexpected sort-of sequel to Forgetting Sarah Marshall, looked like the kind of comedy where most of the funny moments were just in the trailer. Written and directed by Nicholas Stoller (also the mind behind Forgetting Sarah Marshall) it seemed like it would be exactly the same as every other Apatow Production: humorous underdog(s) come up with harebrained scheme and must get to final destination, handling poor choices that put them further behind and in more trouble while dealing with lots of intoxication and sexcapades. To The Greek does follow these traditional outlines: music lover, Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) gets the job he always dreamed of, bringing his idol, washed up rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) from London to an anniversary concert at the Greek Theater in L.A. in three days. And you better believe Snow isn’t going to make it easy for him. So the plot line of the film was fairly predictable, but I found it to be much funnier than I expected.
The most unexpected humor in the movie came from Sean Combs who plays Green’s boss, Sergio Roma. His character is confident, in control and gets to take every other character down several pegs with his stone cold delivery. His scenes were the ones I found myself laughing at the hardest. As for Jonah Hill, I happen to have a personal dislike for him; his perpetually stoned looking eyes and loud awkward delivery don’t really get my funny bone. And in this movie he plays the same character he always does: awkward, loud and trying too hard to be the cool guy. But Hill and Brand play excellently off each other. Russell Brand and his character Aldous Snow are both loud, confident personalities, that have no trouble making total fools of themselves and still coming out looking totally unshaken. So watching the two characters, Green and Snow, play off each other is really quite funny and their classic juxtaposition is excellent. One thing that is confusing though is if we go back and look at Forgetting Sarah Marshall: both actors are in that movie as well, Brand once again playing Aldous Snow and Hill, an obsessed fan. But in the transition from that movie to this one, Hill’s original character seems to have been forgotten entirely. He is no where near as pathetic and needy, leading us to wonder, “where did that crazy stalker go?”
Another wonderful part of the movie is the musical numbers, for after all Snow is supposed to be a rock star, the music is fairly important. The funniest songs are written by Jason Segel (star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall) as they are just the most absurd. But Brand’s voice isn’t half bad, the tunes are catchy, and the lyrics are absolutely hilarious. It’s like one big joke on the rock music industry: it doesn’t really matter what you’re singing about, be it “Bangers, Beans & Mash” or “Inside of You”, it’s all about the performance.
While Get Him To The Greek has it’s moments and shows extensive humor and creativity in creating songs and music that’s downright hilarious it doesn’t seem like a comedy you see more than once. The jokes are funny the first time around but the humor doesn’t really seem to stick and didn't seem as funny or relatable as Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It’s funny and enjoyable but I’m not taking to the rooftops to scream of its comedic genius.
Trailer (though most of the scenes aren't even in the movie) :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckQEFV4mwIo
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