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Get Him to the Greek review - Bearing a strong family resemblance to a hit movie famous for its swinging dick (and we don’t mean Russell Brand), this raucous rock’n’roll buddy comedy shares a shedload of spun-off DNA (and Judd Apatow’s producer mojo) with its predecessor Forgetting Sarah Marshall .
Brand gleefully reprises his chatty, preening, shag-meister rock star Aldous Snow, this time in career freefall, wildly off the wagon and newly heartbroken by Lily Allen-style songstress Jackie Q (Rose Damages Byrne, deliciously stroppy).
He’s reteamed with Jonah Hill, cheekily recast here as wideeyed Aaron, a shy record label lackey escorting “the most self-destructive man in rock’n’roll” from London to LA for a comeback concert.
If you’re expecting the usual yucks-and-life-lessons trip round Apatown, however, think again. Writer/ director Nicholas Stoller’s raunchy, music-biz bromance runs on a gag driven, globe-trotting energy miles from the goofy sweetness he gave Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
Bitch slapping the dumber excesses of rock celebrity, it’s at its best ridiculing Aldous’ shameless tabloid-taunting lifestyle or satirising record industry ruthlessness as personified by Aaron’s bullying boss, self-styled mind-fucker Sergio. He’s the movie’s stand-out comic creation, not least because he’s played by Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs. Rollicking, rueful and raunchy partying episodes keep the guffaws coming, as Hill suffers vomit-crusted absinthe binges, pervy groupie gropes and a spiked encounter that leaves him literally climbing the walls.
Where Stoller’s film comes unstuck is in trying to shift into heartfelt ‘relationship’ mode. Hill’s pleasant but underpowered straight guy routine can’t sustain much beyond slapstick and isn’t a patch on his motormouthed Superbad stylings, although a disarmingly charismatic Brand has a ball playing a character mined from his own life story.
Prepare to have a bawdy, taboobusting good time. Just don’t expect it to resonate anywhere except your funnybone.
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