DAY 27
Film Number 31 – Get Him To The Greek
The last Apatow comedy of the decade pairs Russell Brand’s eccentric rockstar character- Aldous Snow, with a bumbling naïve doofus played by Jonah Hill. Brand’s character is also one of the leads from 2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall, here his band Infant Sorrow is scheduled to play a ten year anniversary show at the Greek Theater in L.A.
Hill’s character - Aaron Green works for Pinnacle Records and is hired by his boss Sergio (P Diddy) to get Aldous Snow from London to New York to be on Good Morning America then to L.A. to play the show all within three days. In true “Road To…” fashion they go through a series of hilarious bizarre calamities along the way. Brand has recently ended his seven years of sobriety and is in a self destructive streak after breaking up with his long term girlfriend – pop star Jackie-Q.
Now the plot of the film is masqueraded by the outlandish jokes and gross out moments this is a good thing because if I were to decipher it correctly I’m sure it would result in explosions. I will start with the problems because I actually feel that there is a lot to praise in the film. The problem with these kinds of buddy team up films is that people must always change the unhappy ways in which they are living their lives, I don’t know why near the end of the first decade of the twenty first century we still have to have these revelatory moments. The moments here involve Jonah Hill realizing that the music industry is a cruel mistress and opting to go Seattle at the end of the film to start a small label. The problem is that often the films’ plotting puts itself in these tight corners where the only way out is an awkward and unfunny scene, something a very quick rewrite or re edit could have solved. For instance when Russell Brand finds out that he is not the father of Jackie Q’s son, this causes Snow to have a very awkward conversation with the child that pretty much fucks up the tone of the whole scene because it is just sad and not funny, basically there was no need for the kid at all. There is a moment where Brand takes a detour to Vegas to see his father (Colm Meaney) whilst there they bond on a night of debauchery and then learn they hate each other again – so basically again waste of time that is covered by some great funny moments. Then for Jonah Hill and his girlfriend to reconcile Russell Brand suggest that they all have a threesome to make up for Hill cheating on her during their journey. Sounds like a funny scene but it fell flat and just ended up being very awkward with a couple of jokes. Nearly every moment of drama in the film feels incredibly forced and manufactured, cliché after cliché of what we expect the characters to do; to give the film credit though all the cast do a great job of covering these faults to the point where they only pissed me off when I actually thought hard about the film later. The humor feels at times to be quite uneven; in Sarah Marshall all the jokes felt smarter and more natural, subtle and consistent in tone. In Get him to the Greek the jokes come like a solid punch to the larynx; there are broken bones breaking through the skin, vomit everywhere, blunt innuendo, silly drug hallucinations – it is defiantly in the realm of the nutty Harold and Kumar type adventure.
Now time for the positives – the humor is funny – yes that line pretty much negates the last paragraph that I wrote but it really is funny stuff. Crude humor can be overdone so easily and lose its punch but here they mostly know when to hold back. The cast is for the most part impeccable, Jonah Hill has the role down well, very funny and allows his “straight guy” to have more complexity and heart then we usually see, he is believable because he lets loose quite quickly all whilst trying to be a voice of reason. Russell Brand has finally won me over to thinking he is funny; I resisted his charm for some time finding his stand up and T.V. career pretty unwatchable. I do wonder if there is much versatility to him, his character here feels like a slightly more exaggerated version of himself in real life, it would be interesting to see him in a different sort of role. P Diddy also deserves an honorable mention for his eccentric quirky angry CEO character Sergio, somehow Sergio has some of the best lines in the whole film “you can’t out run me I’m black.” His delivery is nearly spot on every time and it also helps that he is willing to really take the piss put of himself. Same goes for Russell Brand who knows he is making fun of his outlandish life style yet exploits it to the max. The film is littered with other great Cameo appearances too many to mention, except Lars Ulrich was a big surprise.
One of the things that also pleased me the most all the original music that was created for the film, Aldous Snow’s “African Child” a gentle ballad with a video depicting life in war torn Africa with Brand walking dressed in white like a messiah is a perfect example of bad taste and deemed the “Worst thing to happen to Africa since the apartheid.” My favorite is “The Clap” which sounds like a 60’s Beatles homage that could be very radio friendly until you hear the lyrics “I got it off the back of a toilet seat”- listen to that. It’s actually pretty ironic that Brand isn’t in a band in real life, the scenes of him singing live look like it’s what he should have been doing from the start.
Anyway in short – it’s a film that needs a lot of work and does feel like a slightly rushed production but at the same time there was a lot of effort put in, the characters are brilliant and I was entertained for most of it. A lot of fun and probably the best comedy offering that we have had so far this year.
7 and a half out of 10
0 comments:
Post a Comment