After recently seeing two movies, Get Him To The Greek and Jonah Hex, I have come to two conclusions: British accents automatically make a person more interesting and Megan Fox should only be cast in silent movies. However, since I saw GHTTG first, I’ll save Jonah Hex for another post.
GET HIM TO THE GREEK:
Let me preface this by saying I took my younger cousin to go see this movie not taking into consideration how inappropriate most of the subject matter would be. My bad…but back to my review! We all know the basic formula behind a Judd Apatow comedy pretty well and there are very few departures from it in GHTTG. Although I wouldn’t jump to conclusions and say this overly-used formula made for a terrible movie, because it definitely did not, the only real suprise we see is a shockingly funny performance by P.Diddy. Really? Yeah.
GHTTG is a spin-off of the 2008 comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall which is an absolute gut-buster in my book so I can see how it must have been somewhat difficult to live up to its predecessor. Russell Brand, with whom I have a love/hate relationship with, reprises his scene-stealing, vain rocker character, Aldous Snow, who is now a crashed and burned-out version of the pretentiously sober yoga-addict we saw in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Although this would potentially open up a window of opportunity to further develop Brand’s character, it feels like he is repeating most of the schtick we already saw in FSM and its not until the very end of the movie when we see Aldous evolve. I suppose because Aldous is, in fact, a one-dimensional person its almost expected he is portrayed the way he is until his relationship with music industry intern, Aaron, (Jonah Hill) develops.
Although GHTTG is a bit on the predictable side, it does have plenty of raunchy bodily function humor, overtly sexual dialogue and hilarious one-liners that, in my opinion, make for the most memorable comedies. I wouldn’t say Get Him To The Greek is on the same playing field as Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall or even 40 Year Old Virgin but its definitely worth seeing and will probably be one of the best comedies to come out this summer. Don’t expect to be crying with laughter but you’ll definitely enjoy this spin-off if you dug Aldous Snow in FSM. If not, go see Toy Story 3. The toys are aliiiive!
GET HIM TO THE GREEK: 3/5 stars
-Lori
