Film Review: Get Him To The Greek

Rating:

Get Him To The Greek is a spin-off to 2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall, both directed by Nicholas Stoller and written by Stoller and Jason Segel. GHTTG is a hilarious comedy following Aaron Green (Jonah Hill), playing a completely new character a few years later when he is somehow working in the music industry. He receives the almost impossible mission of escorting British rock god Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) to LA’s Greek Theatre for the first stop on his tour.

After a cringey opening of Aldous’ new music video, African Child (which could only be described as like a scene out of Bruno), he returns to heavy alcohol and drug abuse as a result of receiving bad press for this new single, potentially ruining his career. Although Brand plays the same character as he did in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, GHTTG is more like The Hangover than the romantic comedy nearing on two hours of absinth bingeing, crude humour, orgies, crazy drug-fuelled nights and vomit. Yet Aaron seems to be participating in and suffering from, this more than Aldous does. And so the countdown until the Greek begins…

The humour kicks in with the introduction of Aaron’s manager, Sergio (Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs); an unlikely actor but a role he fits so well as understatedly one of the funniest characters in the film through constant jokes referring to his race and the unbelievable advice he gives to Aaron. Sergio’s relationship with Aaron presents similar jokes to producer Judd Apatow’s Superbad (in which Jonah was the main character). But here, Jonah takes the back seat as the jokes are made at him for a change. It’s an odd change to see Jonah as the ‘innocent’ one when this would have been an ideal life for his role in Superbad, yet his character is well-played throughout.

Russell Brand always plays a character not far from his everyday self. Now as the lead to the film, you have to enjoy him as a comedian to like the film to a large extent. By the end of the film, sobered up and attempting to commit suicide, Brand tries to show a little emotion. It’s only at this point that you remember that he’s not a real actor, and is his only downfall in the film.

I was surprised by the film as a whole. I really enjoyed Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but I thought the change of focus to Brand would have been a downside. But overall, it was a good comedy, and a film I would watch again.

(As a Harry Potter fan, there’s also a funny scene where Aaron meets Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) and asks him to join their table. “Feel free to bring Professor Snape…Come on, we’ll play some late night Quidditch.” – Click here to watch.)