Written and Directed By: Nicholas Stoller
\nStarring: Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Elisabeth
\nMoss, Rose Byrne
\nRated: R for strong sexual content and drug use throughout, and
\npervasive language.<\/p>\n
\nComedy is a tricky thing. There are types of humor that will elicit
\none of two responses in viewers, laughter or offense, and not much in
\nbetween. “Get Him To The Greek” is full of those kinds of humor. If
\nyou find the same things funny that its writer\/director does, you will
\nprobably love it. If you don’t, it will be uncomfortable at best and
\nactively enraging at worst.
\nThe plot is straightforward: Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) is a young
\nrecord company employee who loves music. He comes up with an idea to
\nhelp the company do better: have aging rock legend Aldous Snow
\n(Russell Brand) do a live performance to mark the tenth anniversary of
\nhis landmark concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. The company
\ncan sell all kinds of rights as well as his back catalog. His boss,
\nSergio (Sean “P. Diddy” Combs) decides he likes the idea and assigns
\nAaron to escort the star from his home in London to the concert. He
\nhas 72 hours to get the fellow there. This should be plenty, but
\nAldous has fallen spectacularly off the wagon after a bad breakup and
\nis in full drunken rock star mode. Young, naive Aaron doesn’t stand a
\nchance.
\nThe film begins with a brilliant montage chronicling Aldous’ rise to
\ngreatness and subsequent fall, using news clips, papparazzi photos,
\nand segments from his music videos, including his dreadful, maudlin
\nballad against war, “African Child.” This is probably the film’s high
\npoint — writer\/director Nicholas Stoller has a poison pen and is
\nspot-on when it comes to skewering the music industry.
\nUnfortunately, the film soon devolves into jokes involving Aaron
\ngetting thoroughly humiliated as he tries and fails to do his job.
\nThat’s not my cup of tea, but some folks like it, so okay. Then,
\nhowever, the film has one of those “rape is funny if it happens to a
\nguy” scenes. This is the point where it went from cringe-inducing to
\nactively offensive and totally lost me. The inclusion of several
\nsurprisingly serious scenes before the film’s ridiculous conclusion
\ndidn’t help.
\nIt’s a pity, really, because the things that are good in “Get Him to
\nthe Greek” are really, really good. Brand can actually sing, and he
\ndoes a fantastic job of being a rock star on stage. He moves his lanky
\nbody like he’s been in a major, stadium-concert band for years. Hill
\nis sympathetic and almost entirely likeable. Combs is hysterical and
\nhas fantastic timing in his scenes (he reappears late in the film to
\nhelp Aaron and steals all his scenes easily).
\nWhether you should see “Get Him To The Greek” or not is entirely a
\nmatter of personal taste. If the good points sound like they’ll
\noutweigh the bad, go for it. Otherwise, stay away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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