Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Get Him to the Greek - 2 1/2 stars

This movie had a lot of potential. It started out really funny, and for a while they are just throwing out jokes left and right. Not every one works, but enough work that I was laughing constantly.

Then the movie gets weird, and then the movie gets serious. And it doesn't work anymore. Too much sentimentality just doesn't make this kind of movie better. It kills the momentum.

Jonah Hill and Russell Brand are both best as supporting characters, but Jonah Hill is the lead in the movie. He actually does a decent job of playing the straight man, but I think the movie would have worked better with a better actor that we can relate to. He plays Aaron, a guy working at a record company run by P. Diddy. Diddy is really enjoying playing the asshole, and he gets some laughs, but his scenes should have been trimmed just a bit.

Aaron's job is to pick up rock star Aldous Snow (Brand) and take him from London to the Greek Theater in LA in time to play a big concert. Snow is a typical rock star - all he wants to do is drink, do drugs, and get laid, and he doesn't really care if they make it to LA in time. Meanwhile Aaron's live-in girlfriend Daphne (Elisabeth Moss) works round the clock shifts at the hospital. She is offered a good job at a hospital in Seattle, and when she suggests they movie there, she and Aaron fight and split up.

There are some great cameos in the movie, including Rick Schroder, Lars Ulrich, and Tom Felton. Colm Meaney plays Aldous's dad, and he is always good. Aziz Ansari is very funny, but he is only in the first 10 minutes of the movie. I think the movie should have been about 15 minutes shorter, and they should have lost the stuff regarding Aldous's emotional issues (he is lonely and depressed, and that's why he acts the way he acts). If the movie had stuck with the funny, it would have been worth recommending.

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