From Here to Fraternity
MOVIE REVIEW
Get Him to the Greek (2010)
Glen Wilson/Universal Studios
“Get Him to the Greek,” the latest from the Judd Apatow bromance factory, is a spin-off from the “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” orbit. Brit comedian Russell Brand reprises the role of Aldous Snow, the pompous and wasted English rock cliché who could have been the bastard lovechild of Liam Gallagher and Amy Winehouse. Then you have Seth Rogen Jr., a k a Jonah Hill of “Superbad,” playing lowly record company operative Aaron, who has the unenviable task of escorting Aldous from London to Los Angeles for a comeback concert and dodging – albeit unsuccessfully – all the groupies, booze and drugs along the way.
True to Apatow form, you have a couple of relative unknowns goofing around like a couple of A.D.H.D.-afflicted adolescents after getting their sugar high from a bulk-size tub of Twizzlers bought at Costco, all leading up to the inevitable gay-gross display of affection.
Mr. Hill is all grown up and transformed into some sort of a bear god. But to be frank, it’s quite exhausting to watch Messrs. Hill and Brand at full speed for nearly two hours. Otherwise, the film is quite funny. The best bits involve W. T. F. moments supplied by a parade of cameo appearances by the likes of Lars Ulrich (playing Aldous’s romantic rival), Pharrell Williams and Paul Krugman. Even Sean “Diddy” Combs is amusing as the head of a record label.
Still, writer-director Nicholas Stoller doesn’t know quite how to end the film. Toward the finish line, the story crashes and burns with an ill-conceived threesome involving Aaron, his fiancée Daphne (Elisabeth Moss) and Aldous. This climactic gay panic doesn’t work and feels like a forced nod at the running theme of its producer, Mr. Apatow, especially since there hasn’t been any homosocial tension or anxiety up to that point. That is, unless you count the scene wherein Aldous demands that Aaron smuggle a bag of contraband in his rectum during their transcontinental flight. With the film’s plot becoming increasingly improbable, a happy ending just seems disingenuous.
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