Get Him To The Greek is a spin-off of the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, based on Russell Brand's character, rock star Aldous Snow. I thought Forgetting Sarah Marshall was a really good, funny movie. And I thought that Aldous Snow was a fun character. I didn't know how well they could pull off a full movie based around him, though. For the most part, they do, to my surprise.
They make it work by not just making it about him – they make it a buddy movie. They give him someone to bounce off of, rather than trying to carry it himself. This is smart because it's what made the character so fun in Forgetting Sarah Marshall - he's in his own world, not that concerned about what other people think, and the other characters reacting to it.
The other thing they do really well is actually make him a complete character. He actually has purpose, feelings, and inner-workings. With a character like this, it'd be very easy and tempting to make him a caricature of every drugged out rock star there's been, keeping it strictly on the surface. His career has gone down the dumps, his girlfriend left him and has custody of their son, after six years of sobriety he's back drinking and on drugs. And you see that all of these things have an effect on him. He loves his son and it hurts him not to be near him. He obviously has unresolved feelings for his ex. And, naturally, the subject of his career is a bit touchy.
His buddy is Jonah Hill's Aaron Green, a young representative from Snow's struggling record company. He comes up with the idea of doing a show to mark the 10 year anniversary of Snow's classic live album at the Greek Theater. He is put in charge of getting Snow from England to the show (hence the title).
They don't do such a good job with Aaron. Specifically, his relationship with his girlfriend, Daphne. It seems unnecessary and feels forced. They have an argument and they kind of, sort of, maybe break up. So he goes to get a rock star who is always surrounded by beautiful women. While Aaron is gone, they decide they want to get back together but when she calls, or his phone accidentally calls her, he's with girls. Uh-oh. So, why'd they have to break up to begin with if you're going to have these problems anyway? Seems to me these issues would work better if they were actually, for a fact, still a couple, these compromising situations creating tension between them. He's already under pressure from his scary boss (a wonderful Sean Combs) to deliver Snow to an appearance on the Today Show and to the Greek Theater on time. That's enough. That and trying to patch things up with Daphne on the road is just messy.
The film is consistently funny throughout, you never go more than a few minutes without a good laugh. Until they get back to Los Angeles. There, the movie just kind of loses its steam, all at once. It starts with a great scene when Aldous visits his ex. After that, though, it gets really awkward with a very uncomfortable scene between Aaron, Daphne and Aldous. After that, the movie never really regains its momentum.
It's really funny for the first two-thirds of the movie. Russell Brand is a lot of fun as Aldous Snow. It's enjoyable - Aldous getting to, and on, the Today Show and the portion of the movie in Las Vegas where they go to see Aldous' father were the stand outs. And there's actually some pretty good heart to the story.
2 1/2 out of 5
