Dispatched to London by his boss to deliver an out-of-control rock star to his sold-out concert, mild-mannered record-company intern Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) knows exactly where he's going in the crass, odd-couple comedy "Get Him to the Greek."
He's going to Los Angeles' Greek Theater, and, if he wants to keep his job, he'll have Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) with him when he gets there, come hell or high water.
If only writer-director Nicholas Stoller ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall") had the same urgent sense of focus.
Instead, as funny as Stoller's film can be -- built on spurts of raunch, laugh-out-loud outrageousness and a revelatory supporting performance by real-life recording mogul Sean Combs -- the longer it goes on, the more one gets the feeling that, aside from getting them to the Greek, Stoller had no real idea where he was taking his characters when he sat down to write his rambling road movie.
And, really, that shouldn't come as a huge surprise. This is a Judd Apatow-produced project, after all, and it only further adds to the missed-it-by-that-much pattern that has emerged from his high-profile resume.
He's directed some good ones ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin, " "Knocked Up") and he's been connected to some duds ("The Year One, " "
"). Mostly, however, Apatow's resume is crowded with comedies that try just a little too hard, go on a little too long and fall a little too short.
So it's natural that "Get Him to the Greek" follows the same genetic blueprint. It's funny, it's got heart, it's got an appealing originality. And in the third act, when it is time to bring it all home, it rambles incessantly.
What it does have going for it are its lead actors -- Brand and Hill both know exactly how to deliver a punch line -- and a lead character who represents one of the best bits of rock 'n' roll satire since "This Is Spinal Tap."
Brand's booze-guzzling, drug-smuggling Aldous Snow is such a great character, in fact, that almost from the moment he began stealing scenes in 2008's "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" -- a role that put the exceedingly self-satisfied English funnyman on the map, stateside -- Universal decided to give him his own spinoff project.
"Get Him to the Greek" is that project, a cameo-filled comedy built on an at-times bizarre mix of high-brow and low-brow comedy. (I for one can't think of another movie that features New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman sharing a scene with a vomit-covered co-star.)
The plot is as simple as it sounds: The schlubby, chubby Hill -- "an affable nitwit" as Brand's Snow perfectly describes him -- must make sure Snow shows up for his big concert. That's not nearly as easy as it sounds, however, given that Snow is easily distracted -- by wine, by women, by smack.
The unplanned detours start on the way to the airport and include a side trip to a London nightclub, to a New York drug dealer's street corner, to Las Vegas, to a lonely L.A. rooftop.
All along, there are antics. There are shenanigans. There is general drunken hooliganism. (Most memorable: a particularly satisfying scene of nonstep mayhem, set in a Vegas hotel room.)
It's a side trip to Hill's apartment, however, that most threatens to stop the movie dead in its tracks. Uncomfortable, unfunny and unnecessary, it's a perfect example of the type of extraneous scenes that always conspire to sabotage Apatow's movies.
I love that amid the fearless sense of humor, he works so hard to inject his films with heart. I love that he tries to make them more than just a string of poop jokes.
I'd love it even more, however, if he nailed it.
| Movie trailer: 'Get Him to the Greek' |
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