You know you’re at a certain kind of film when objects find their way into rectums on multiple occasions. That “kind” of film usually involves Judd Apatow at some level.
Get Him To The Greek, with Apatow as executive producer, presents many such moments of violation. And they’re all pretty damn funny, as is the rest of the movie.
I have to say, when Forgetting Sarah Marshall first came out, I had zero interest. It took a number of good reviews and some friendly word-of-mouth to get me into the theater. And while it had its share of movie “issues,” it was fresh and entertaining.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and the news that two of the characters (well, two of the actors and one character) were going to return in a kind of “sequel,” and I was intrigued. The resulting film, Get Him To The Greek, is a classic Apatow raunch-romp that only loses its momentum towards the overly-sentimental end.
British comedian Russell Brand plays (again) Aldous Snow, a rock star so self-absorbed and narcissistic that he could actually see himself as the “white African Jesus” portrayed in his hilarious music video for the ridiculously-plausible song “African Child.” Sadly, but not unexpectedly, that musical abomination sends Snow’s career and personal life into the shitter. His bottoming-out coincides perfectly with the declining fortunes of the record company Aaron (Jonah Hill) works for. Aaron happens to be the biggest Snow fan on the planet, and his big idea to turn around the fortunes of the record label is to get Snow to reprise his record-setting concert at L.A.’s Greek Theater. All he has to do is get him there, which is where the repeated anal penetrations come in, no pun intended.
Brand and Hill are predictably solid in their roles, and their travels drive the film’s story forward. But major kudos have to go to P. Diddy for a riotous turn as the owner of the record label Aaron works for. He steals just about every scene he’s in, and more than holds his own with Brand and Hill on screen.
Now, some will be turned off by the drug references, the threesomes, the sodomy and…well…the sodomy. But when you strip away all the dildos, the vomiting, the drug use and the comedic violence, as with all Apatow movies what you have is a charming buddy film. Greek works because the two leads make it work, and their characters grow in ways that you don’t often find in comedies like this.
Get Him To The Greek never quite reaches the comedic heights of The Hangover, but it has enough great gags and wonderful performances to be strongly recommended.
