Hey FOOLS! If you've seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall then you no doubt remember the two guys in the banner above. They were both in FSM and Brand's character Aldous Snow returns in Get Him to the Greek.I want to stress before I progress with this review Jonah Hill plays a different character in GHTTG than he did in FSM. I actually wasn't aware of this, as was the case with my wife and she couldn't understand why Hawaii was never mentioned between them. So there you've been warned. The premise of the film is that Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) is given the task of escorting Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) from London to L.A. for a show to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Infant Sorrow's much loved and respected show at the Greek Theatre. This is Aaron's first big job for the record company he works for and soon finds how hard it is to deal with someone who is a superstar even if they are slightly washed up. Snow just wants to party and Aaron struggles to ensure that Snow fulfills the media requirements in the lead up to the show.
Get Him to the Greek really is a film of two sides. The first is a film about partying and living like a rock star and it's filled with cameos from stars like Pink, Lars Ulrich and even Malfoy from Harry Potter (who is the only star that Aaron doesn't give any respect to and it is hilarious). But on the other side GHTTG is actually a film with a lot of heart about how lonely it is as a star who can get everything and the struggles of a life lived in the spotlight. Whilst jokes are made about Snow's drug habits, bad relationships with women and a disfunctional relationship with both his parents in the end Snow is just a lonely guy who happens to be famous. Throughout the film I knew that this side was present but it didn't click until three quarters of the way through for me, and in honesty I was thinking this was just another Hangover style film up until then. I should have expected it because it's become an Apatow trademark but of all the Apatow produced and directed films this one actually came across the most genuine.
Russell Brand is one of those guys that people either love or hate, I've actually never seen any of his stand up routines but the films I've seen him in I find him really charming, a bit crazy but charming. Brand plays the out of control rock star so well and his attempts to trick Aaron into partying and pretty much avoiding doing a concert he's not sure he wants to do are hilarious. But it's when you realise just how lonely Snow is that Brand actually steps up a gear. Without sounding dicky, it's just a really honest performance by him and I think that honesty gives the film so much heart. Up until GHTTG I'd only seen Jonah Hill as an actor who is in the background of films and comes out with the odd smart ass comment every now and then but Hill actually shows that he can hold a film and he does it well. You could almost say this is the film that might actually kick his career up a notch and it might have already with Hill joining Brad Pitt and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Moneyball next.
I have to also mention two people that I loved in the film. Firstly Rose Byrne is hilarious in this film as Aldous Snow's ex-wife Jackie Q. Imagine a female version of Snow and you've got Jackie Q. Her film clips, parodying Gwen Stefani are so funny and crude. But I couldn't believe how funny Sean 'Puff Daddy' Combes was. He has some of the best lines of the film, not just the Air Jordan one from the trailer, and I actually found I could wait for him to appear again. His excitement over watching The Biggest Loser with his kids still makes me laugh. If there was one thing that I regret about the film it is that when Snow sings his songs I just didn't get an opportunity to soak in all the lyrics. With song titles like 'The Clap' and 'My Beans, Bangers and Mash' you know that they would be really funny lyrically so I'll definitely need to watch the film again in order to get all that but I guess that's a good thing because it means repeat customers.
On my drive to the cinema to watch GHTTG someone on the radio said the film was funnier than The Hangover. This is a funny film but it's funny for totally different reasons than The Hangover so a claim like that is redundant. It wasn't till half way through Get Him to Greek that I realised just how much I love Forgetting Sarah Marshall and it's because Russell Brand has the ability to be a complete and utter bastard but in a way that is so endearing that you can't help but still love him. I loved the film and while it won't be in my top 3 in next week's Mid Year Review I still had a great time watching it.