Sunday, June 13, 2010

New Release Review: Get Him to the Greek!

I saw this about a week ago, but couldn't quite find the words to describe what I liked and didn't like about it.  Get Him to the Greek is basically the story of Aaron (Jonah Hill) a fairly big loser, working for a record label (Sean Combs) and reminiscing about the days before music was just reinventions of the same thing ("I found the new Alicia Keys") and proposes a 10th anniversary concert for Aldous Snow (Russell Brand recreating his character from Forgetting Sarah Marshall).  Since the last time we saw him Snow has had an tumultuous love affair with Jackie Q (Rose Byrne from Damages), been totally screwed up on drugs and alcohol, gotten sober, dumped by Jackie and had a son.  He and Jackie also created the worst album ever called "African Child".  The movie starts with the music video for the song and it's crazy, racist, over the top is supposed to be a commentary on where a lot of artists go when they try to change their image and get involved in world affairs.  Now Aaron has to pick up junkie Snow in London, bring him to NYC for a today show appearance and then to LA for a concert at the Greek theater.  The first unbelievable thing that runs the movie off the rails is that Jonah Hill would never have been picked for such an assignment.  We see how schlubby he is in his career, and how lowly he is.  He's never worked with celebrities and the advice Combs gives him about how to "mind f&*" the celebrities to keep them happy but get them to do their work is ridiculous and doesn't actually make sense or make you laugh.  Then there's the rest of the trip where Aaron falls between fitting in with the celebrity crowd and getting drunk and wasted and making a fool of himself.  Snow can handle his drugs and alcohol and has mastered the celebrity life and enjoys hanging out with Aaron, but mostly abusing him.  He's really funny, but Aaron (Jonah Hill) is really, really, not funny.  He was terribly miscast in this role and brought down what might have been a funny movie.  For a reputed comedian, he was as funny as Topher Grace or Tobey Maguire would have been in the same role.  There were a few incredibly funny moments - when they're all high on a drug combo called "Jeffrey" and rubbing a fur-covered wall - and a few really unfunny moments - when they realize a threesome with Aaron, Snow, and Aaron's girlfriend (a really annoying Elizabeth Moss) was a bad idea, and most of the ass-based humor.  Overall, it exceeded my very low expectations, but I went with people who had high hopes and were terribly disappointed.  2 star/lambs

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