"English singers never die. Ozzy Osbourne is going to out live Miley Cyrus."
With the exception of Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is indisputably my favorite Apatow Family production. I laughed consistently and loudly through the entire film and I remember being a little pissed that it didn't receive the same attention that Knocked Up and 40 Year Old Virgin enjoyed. It seems to have achieved a greater level of appreciation since it came out in April of 2008 and was apparently successful enough to generate this spin-off. This film was announced while Forgetting Sarah Marshall was still in theatres and it seemed both obvious and premature. Sure, Russell Brand came out of nowhere (I know he was big in England before this, but America doesn't care about that) and stole the movie, which was filled with plenty of other great comedic performances to begin with. But by 2009 Brand had seemed to wear out his welcome, being the MTV Awards creepiest host yet and becoming tabloid fodder due to his engagement to Katy Perry. I would have thought the smarter career move would be to distance himself from his breakout role which was, in many ways, autobiographical.
Turns out, doing what you know (or lived) is the best way to go. In Get Him To The Greek, Brand plays the character of Aldous Snow, an immensely successful rock star who has released one of the most critically villified albums of all time (the ludicrously un-PC African Child) and subsequently fallen off the wagon. In an effort to revive his career (and apparently, the music industry) Aaron Green (Jonah Hill), a record label peon is charged with transporting Aldous from London to the Greek Theatre in LA, where he is to perform a 10th anniversary concert commemorating the biggest show of his career. Wacky hijinx ensue.
Comedies belonging to the Apatow genre tend to succeed or fail based on their characters and the actors playing them. The plots are often extremely straight-forward, a loose construction of events around which the characters can riff and be funny. In this regard, Get Him To The Greek is something of a mixed bag. The character of Aldous Snow doesn't feel quite as fresh in this film as he did in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where his prescense was completely unexpected and his humor fairly unpredictable. This film attempts to cash in on the promise of an Aldous who is completely unhinged from reality, as compared to the first incarnation, who had been sober for seven years. And while several of Aldous' antics live up to the hype generated in the first film, it all still feels a bit predictable. Which isn't to say that Brand doesn't take the character further. One of the things I liked so much about Aldous in Forgetting Sarah Marshall was that, despite essentially being the antagonist in a romantic comedy (a thankless part if there ever was one), he managed to be so goddamn likable (best exemplefied by Jason Segal finally admitting, "Fuck, you're cool."). And despite doing several unbelievably douchey things throughout the course of the film, Brand manages to create an engaging arc of redemption for Aldous. By the end of the movie, I was definitely rooting for him to get his act together.
On the other hand, I felt that Jonah Hill got the short end of the stick character-wise in this film. Playing a watered-down version of his usual irritable yet eager to please persona, his character does feel a bit too much like a stick in the mud for most of the film. Of course, that's exactly what he is to Aldous, so it makes sense, but the attempts to create a story arc for his character are less successful. Most of his solo scenes concern his failing relationship with his workaholic girlfriend who wants them to move to Seattle so she can pursue her medical career. It wouldn't surprise me for an Apatow movie to feature a shrewish, naggy wife/girlfriend, but at least when Leslie Mann plays the character, its kind of funny. Elizabeth Moss (of Mad Men fame) plays the character fairly straight and doesn't really get any jokes of her own. Jonah Hill's character is equally selfish in his desire to continue pursuing his floundering career, and both of them come off poorly in their scenes together. Consequently, the movie feels like its missing a major supporting pillar in their relationship.
Much more successfully done (in terms of female characters and relationships) is Rose Byrne as Jackie Q, Aldous' pop-star ex-wife, played as a crazed combination of Lady GaGa and Amy Winehouse. In addition to being incredibly beautiful, Byrne brings the same slovenly charisma to Jackie that Brand brings to Aldous. From her overblown posh London accent to her ridiculous music videos, she was the one character that I wanted more of.
Also surprising was the humor and self-awareness in Puff Daddy's performance as Jonah Hill's megalomaniacal record executive boss. Playing up on the image he cultivated for himself on Making The Band, Mr. Combs has the same (if not quite as hilarious) effect on this film that Tom Cruise had in Tropic Thunder. The climactic scene in which he attempts to out-rock star Aldous is one for the books.
All in all, I'd say this is one of the less successful Apatow ventures (the scope of movies he seems to be involved in nowadays is massive, it's almost tough to catalogue) but still worth the time spent watching it. One thing I would love to spin out of this film would be a CD of the music written for the film. Aldous Snow's "Clap" is a genuinely fun song in the EuroRock vein of Franz Ferdinand and Jackie Q's "Ring Round", a barely veiled ode to her own asshole, had me pissing my pants in the theater. I would totally buy that album.
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