The character I wanted to see revisited the least out of 2008's Forgetting Sarah Marshall was Aldous Snow(Russell Brand). The grungy, drugged out, oversexed rocker who read too much like a cliche surrounded by refreshingly real characters. Although Snow made a convincing turn for depth at that film's conclusion, to say that I was less than jazzed about a spinoff featuring him is an understatement. When compared side-by-side with Marshall, Get Him to the Greek is like that filthy old uncle who always stinks of liquor and is rarely sober, but during moments of clarity drops a few nuggets of wisdom. Some of them are even sincere.
Seeing as how this is a branch off the Judd Apatow tree, it sticks pretty closely to the formula he's been establishing for years. At this stage of career, the hard partying Snow has hit a rough patch. After years of hard drugs and alcohol that would put the Rolling Stones to shame, he's now gone sober. With sobriety, come a misguided need for social relevance, so he releases a pretentious track called "African Child", which looks like something out of Paul Simon's worst nightmares. The single bombs horrifically, referred to as the worst thing to happen to Africa since apartheid....or that time Kate Moss posed in black face. Even worse, his relationship with his girlfriend, the dirty pop starlet Jackie Q(Rose Byrne) is on the skids, courtesy of a painful live interview that she must've learned at the Robin Givens School for Blindside Attacks. They have a son together, but when crap hits the fan she leaves and takes full custody. It's not long before Snow is back on TMZ, sleepin' around and stumbling around high off his ass.
Enter Aaron Green(Jonah Hill), an eager musician idolizing intern at Pinnacle Records. Snow's downfall has cost Pinnacle a ton of loot. Aaron comes up with the masterful idea to hold a 10 year anniversary concert celebrating Snow's live show at the Greek. It's a plan that puts dollar signs in Pinnacle CEO Sergio's(Sean Combs) eyes, so he sends Aaron to scoop up Snow and get him to the stadium in time for the show. No easy feat.
Before he can leave, Aaron and his girlfriend(Mad Men's Elizabeth Moss) have a huge fight. Living together but only seeing each other on occasion because of their work schedules, the tension mounts when she decides to take a job in another state. The argument frees Aaron up for nice rebound booty while on the road with Snow. Not that a constant barrage of chicks is the only obstacle in their way. There's plenty of sex, drugs, and yes rock 'n roll to serve as a distraction.
Since Superbad, Jonah Hill has usually found himself as the comedy focal point, but here he's in the unfamiliar role as straight man to Brand. I probably could've done without the girlfriend subplot as it grinds the frantic momentum to a halt sometimes, but Hill is quite good. I've never been able to figure Brand out. Not having really studied him outside of the Aldous Snow character, it's hard for me to gauge his comedy. Maybe that's a good thing, because I couldn't imagine Snow being played by anybody else now. Still, the real shocker for me is that it was Puffy Combs who outshines both of his more experienced co-stars. Maybe it's because he's poking fun at himself as a record exec more than anything else. Look, he's eating his own head.
Director Nick Stoller isn't immune to the Apatow "forced epiphany" that befalls all of his manchild main characters. The final twenty minutes are a half-hearted attempt to make Snow a better man, free from all his wicked demons and sins we've seen him commit for the previous 90 minutes. It doesn't work, and I think at some point the writers realized it, trying to cover it up with a poorly devised "threesome" angle that turns up out of nowhere.It's mercifully brief, thankfully. Sometimes you gotta just let these characters be who they are, and Aldous Snow should be left as crass and foul mouthed as possible.
With raunchy buddy comedies at such a low ebb this year, it wouldn't have taken much for Get Him to the Greek to take claim to the title. While not nearly perfect, it's impossible to deny the comedic chemistry of Brand, Hill, and Combs. Those looking to compare this to Forgetting Sarah Marshall will find that the two have practically nothing in common, but Greek stands out on it's own as one of the funniest films of the year.
