You have to love Russell Brand, really you do. Any accusations of buffoonery and his sheer preposterous qualities are just water off a ducks back hes way ahead of them. No-one takes himself less seriously and has more self-awareness, which means he has enormous comic skills but also can be serious too.
All of his qualities are in evidence here. He plays Aldous Snow, the absurd, preening rock star he played in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, perhaps the most approachable of the Judd Apatow school of comedy. There he stole Kristen Bell from Jason Segel, here he is living the rock stars life in London. Over in LA, record MD Sean Combs wants some ideas to generate cash, and Aaron Green (Hill) suggests a 10th anniversary restaging of Snows legendary concert at the Greek Theatre.
Its a done deal, now all Aaron has to do is get Snow out of London and onto a plane. Easier said than done partly because Aaron has to cope with his girlfriend (the wonderful Moss), who wants to move to Seattle to pursue her doctors career. His bigger problem though is Snow himself, a rock star with a huge ego who simply refuses to catch a plane on time. Aaron suffers a mad 48 hours in London, before finally they go to New York to announce the gig on the Tonight show.
That is a predictable booze-fuelled disaster, but worse is to come when Snow insists on stopping off in Las Vegas to meet up with his estranged dad (Colm Meaney), now a jobbing musician. That ends up in a fight, and there is no respite when they finally reach LA as Snow wants to hook up with old flame Jackie Q (Rose Byrne).
| Get Him To The Greek – Opening Five Minutes |
Its pretty predictable plot-wise, and the seemingly never-ending scenes of Snow wildly out of control and Aaron trying to tame him do pall a little bit over the 109 minutes running time. Yet it does charm, ultimately for Brands funny, engaging performance. Of course hes pretty much playing himself, a louche, loud, outrageous man hiding the inner emotional life of a child, but there is no-one better than Brand at doing it. Even throwaway moments are witty at one point he tells a make-up man Im not going to wear this hat in the studio, so what youre doing is pretty much irrelevant. He does push himself a little too, in a sweet scene where he plays with his young son to reveal a softer side.
He and Hill have a good chemistry too, even when Brands constant insistence that he take drugs leads to more vomit than is really necessary. Brand also has stage presence in fact, he filmed scenes performing as Snow at comedy show Scandalous, at the O2 arena in London, in front of an audience of 20,000 fans.
Of the female parts, Byrne is particularly funny as Snows dreadful girlfriend, absurdly earnest in her charity work yet happy to end up in bed with Metallicas drummer. She plays it with a convincing Cockney accent, and is very amusing. Theres also a quick cameo from Kristen Bell as Sarah Marshall, in her new drama.
The only sequence that really falls flat is when Snow goes to Vegas to meet up with his dad (Meaney). It doesnt really go anywhere and ends predictably with yet another bacchanal, but the comedy pay-off is hardly worth it.
Overall verdict: With a high gag count and some great comedy performances this has squeezed more life out of the Atapow school of comedy, and given Brand perhaps a career-defining performance.
Reviewer: Mike Martin