Forget Sarah Marshall and get yourself to the theater

Get Him to the Greek is a Judd Apatow film; a world where nice guys don’t finish last and rock stars, even mean-spirited ones, show their soft side by the time the credits roll. I hope I didn’t spoil anything for you, but if you’ve seen any of Apatow’s other films – The 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, to name a few – you knew it was coming.

In Get Him to the Greek, audiences are given a more in-depth look at Aldous Snow, played by Russel Brand, as well as a young, kind-hearted music enthusiast Aaron Green, played by Jonah Hill, whose character is not a spinoff of his character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

The storyline, from the opening credits, is hardly novel, but definitely hilarious. Aldous Snow has just released a new CD, African Love Child, in hopes that it will benefit African communities. But, as is the case with so many rock stars, it is made clear to the audience that Snow knows absolutely nothing about Africa, nor any of its plights. In a montage of magazine articles about the album, one headline in Rolling Stone calls the album the worst thing to happen to Africa since apartheid.

From there, hilarity ensues.

Brand’s character is seen on a television show bragging about his sobriety with his then-wife Jackie Q, played by the scene-stealing Rose Byrne whose character deserves a spinoff as well, who is drunk and tells Snow that she misses the days when he partied. Then another montage runs, and the audience knows that Aldous Snow is once again boozing, binging and doing drugs. More headlines fly across the screen, reading that Jackie Q has left Snow and has also won custody of their child, Naples.

Enter Jonah Hill; the pudgy, lovable, kind-eyed Hill is in his element in the film, playing what seems to be a sort of grown up version of his character from Superbad. While he is incredibly awkward and not the most handsome person, his heart and humor shine through, and as the audience chuckles heartily, Hill is berated on screen time after time by his costars. His boss, played by P Diddy, sends him to London to pick Snow up, take him to New York City for an appearance on the Today Show, then to Los Angeles for his 10-year anniversary concert at the Greek Theater… all in 72 hours.

Of course, everything goes terribly wrong. Green, a long-time fan of Snow’s, sees the darker sides of his favorite musician, and in his attempts to get the rocker to the airport on time, finds himself in one hilarious situation after another. Coupled with Hill’s quirky, awkward demeanor, the film hits audiences in both the funny bone and heart.

By the end of the movie, does the pompous, narcissistic rock star see the softer side of life and learns to enjoy the little things? If you’ve seen an Apatow movie before, you probably know the answer, but you also know that the in-between always justifies a predictable finale.