Review of Get Him to the Greek

This really feels like two different films jammed into 2 hours. One one hand you have an excessive rock n' roll comedic fantasy that, for the most part, works but on the other hand you have a rather sudden morality tale that awkwardly introduces elements of suicide and relationship drama.

I know it's the status quo for Apatow-involved films to mix raunch with a heart of gold but this is the first time it really didn't seem to work. The rock n' roll excess is the glorious, comedic heart of the film yet we are asked to buy into the after school special that the second half of the film turns into. If there was more time spent developing the characters beyond the stock dramatic fare we have here (Aldous Snow watching old videos of his girlfriend is not good character development) and less time spent on unfunny random dance sequences the movie might have worked better.

It doesn't help that the comedy can be uneven. For every smoking the Jeffrey scene there are two counter productive scenes involving mock music that feels like outtakes from This Is Spinal Tap. The only exception is the hilarious satire on rock star self-importance (African Child) that opens and becomes a recurring theme in the movie.

The big saving grace here is Russell Brand as Aldous Snow. The script doesn't do him justice but he is mostly able to sell the comedic excess and creepiness required. To his credit he is almost able to make the sudden dramatic turns at the end believable. Jonah Hill can't quite escape the flaws of the script. He's playing his role as such a schlub that most of the stuff that happens to him - in both his world and Snow's fantasy world - is utterly unbelievable.

So, while there are moments of comedic brilliance at play here Get Him to the Greek can never quite escape the pitfalls of its script. There are some interesting ideas here but it never coalesces into a cohesive whole.