"Get Him to The Greek"

Ben’s review of Get Him to the Greek

From the same producer, director, and writer of Forgetting Sarah Marshall we now have Get Him to the Greek. Get Him to the Greek is suppose to be a pseudo sequel to Marshall in that it involves rock star Aldous Snow, once again brilliantly played by Russell, Brand and an aspiring music exec Aaron Green, played by Jonah Hill. The plot is centered on the current problem with the music industry in that it has become very hard to sell records and find new artists. The head of the record label where Aaron works, Sergio, played by Sean “Puffy Daddy, P-Diddy, Doo Doo Ditty, Shama-Lama-Ding-Dong” Combs, wants his group of execs to find a way to make money for his label. The execs make several pitches (an especially funny sale is from Nick Kroll who claims to have the Mexican Jonas Brothers which leads to Sergio yelling at Nick about his last find Chocolate Daddy). After dismissing all of these ideas Aaron brings up the possibility of having a reunion show for Aldous Snow at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. After initially dismissing this idea, Sergio agrees and gives Aaron his big break to go find Aldous in London and bring him back for the show which is scheduled for three days later.
Reeling from a break up with his Doctor in Residency girlfriend, played by Elizabeth Moss, Aaron dutifully goes to find Aldous and escort him to the show. Aldous is in the midst of his own career crisis with the failure of his concept album, African Child, and is dealing with the divorce from his wife, played very well by Rose Byrne. Predictably, Aaron has no idea what he has got himself into and has to deal with all of the rock star antics of Aldous including not leaving London on time, drinking anything and everything, drugs, and sex with several different people. Despite being overmatched by the hard partying Aldous, Aaron dutifully does everything he can get Aldous to the show. Will Aaron get him to the show and is it worth the wait?
This movie violates two of Ben’s rules about good story telling: 1) the movie needs to consistent; and 2) you need to be able to identify and root for one of the characters. The premise sounds hilarious and there were certainly some very amusing parts and surprising performances, including a shockingly hilarious Sean Combs. However, despite all the funny moments and some stand out acting, Get Him to the Greek is very disjointed. Jonah Hill and Russell Brand seem to work well together but the direction and the script constantly have them oscillating between funny, absurd, and downright depressing. Aldous’ character is revealed to have some very dark issues regarding drug use and the relationship with his parents. Throw in a disturbing three way scene, and Get Him to Greek is all over the place. The other troublesome aspect is, while Jonah Hill was in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I do not think he is playing the same character.
This movie is missing the heart and creativity that made Forgetting Sarah Marshall great. It is okay, not good. I would give it 2.25 bags of heroine out of 5.


Elisa’s Review of “Get Him To The Greek”

“Get Him to the Greek” centers around a washed-up rock star, Aldous Snow’s “can-he-do-it-come-back”. Reprising the role of Aldous Snow, he first made iconic in the break-up film, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is Russel Brandt.

Greek is a FSM reunion of sorts, as Jonas Hill is cast as Aaron Green, the straight-man to Brandt wild, rocker character.

We learn, Green is living a hum-drum, quiet life in Los Angeles. His girlfriend is a medical resident, working the night-shift. Instead of rocker shows, and clubs, her idea of a night-in consist of catching up on “Gossip Girl” and take-out. A fate, even I would not subject any man too.

Hill’s character has the LA dream job: working for a record company in the modern times of “hit-singles” and “downloadable appeal.” His boss, played by Mr. Sean-John himself, Puff –Daddy (I graduated high school in 1996, he will always be Puffy to me) has some of the funniest moments in the movie. Searching for a new one-hit wonder, Green suggest an anniversary concert of Aldous Snow’s unforgettable concert at The Greek Theater in LA.

Clearly bored out of his mind with the Doogie Howser lifestyle, Hill’s character is ecstatic to fly to London to not only meet his idol Aldous Snow, but travel with him to New York to promote the concert at The Greek, and then to LA for the show.

While the set-up seems plausible, the wild antics leading to the “will they get to The Greek” fall way short. Yes, there are wild parties in no less than four major metropolitan cities: London, New York, Las Vegas and Las Angeles. Yes, there are stripers, drugs, alcohol, gratuitous amounts of sex, to include a scene with a gigantic dildo, there is nothing clever, or really even funny that happens on the way to “The Greek.”

Instead, the movie takes a very dark turn looking at the personal relationships and family of Aldous Snow. He finds himself to be miserable, and in the most bizarre scene of the film, decides to exercise the phrase, “misery loves company” which the writers of this film interpreted as an awkward threesome.

Jason Segel who stared in, and wrote “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” developed the character of Aldous Snow, was not credited as a writer in “Greek.” FSM was everything “Greek” was not: clever, funny, and gave us someone to cheer on. I hope he learned his lesson, and will not hand-over creative freedom to someone else to destroy his well-developed characters in the future. Will I watch Greek when it airs completely edited with commercials on TBS---I doubt it. I will be running through last season’s “Gossip Girl.”