Review of Get Him to the Greek (2010) by Walter M — 28 Sep 2011

In "Get Him to the Greek," Aaron Green(Jonah Hill) has a great idea to spur profits at Pinnacle Records that involves rock star Aldous Snow(Russell Brand) giving a tenth anniversary performance in honor of his legendary concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. His boss Sergio(Sean Combs) is at first doubtful but then approves. The only problem is that Snow's last album was so bad that it got a negative review from Rolling Stone, causing his wife Jackie Q.(Rose Byrne) to leave him and him to fall off the wagon. So, now the clock is not only ticking on Aaron to get Snow to Los Angeles in three days time but also on the relationship with his girlfriend Daphne(Elisabeth Moss) who is considering a job offer in Seattle.

With the funniest cameo by an intellectual since "Annie Hall," "Get Him to the Greek" is an amusing sendup of the music industry with a couple of shots reserved for television.(Oh wait. "The Biggest Loser" is a real show? My bad.) To start, do we really need the prologue if the story is told from Aaron's point of view? That's not all as the movie is also anticlimactic. And with all of the extreme behavior on display, the movie ironically holds back emotionally except for a sequence late, opting instead for misplaced sentimentality. Luckily, Sean Combs and Russell Brand are on hand to drive the movie with pitch perfect deliveries while Jonah Hill just comes off as annoying, giving me another reason to pass on "Moneyball.".