Rating: Unrated and R
Starring:
Russell Brand as Aldous Snow
Jonah Hill as Aaron Green
Elisabeth Moss as Daphne Binks
Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs as Sergio Roma
Rose Byrne as Jackie Q
Colm Meaney as Jonathan Snow
Aziz Ansari as Matty
Lino Facioli as Naples
Kali Hawk as Kali
Nick Kroll as Kevin
Ivan Shaw as Pinnacle Executives
Ellie Kemper as Pinnacle Executives
Derek Resallat as Dr. Coltrane
Dinah Stabb as Lena Snow
Kristen Bell as Sarah Marshall
Roger Joseph Manning Jr. as Infant Sorrow Keyboardist / Guitarist
Sean Hurley as Infant Sorrow Bassist
Victor Indrizzo as Infant Sorrow Drummer
Elena Beuca as Monique
Directed by Nicholas Stoller
Special Features:
Deleted And Extended Scenes
Alternate Intro: The Castle
Alternate Ending: Riding Daphne
Two Gag Reels
Line-O-Rama
Behind The Scenes
Full Music Videos And Concert Performances
Blind Medicine
Feature Commentary With Cast And Crew
More Extended And Alternate Scenes
More Music Performances
Sing Karaoke On 15 Songs From The Film
Cast Auditions
Includes Digital Copy of Get Him to the Greek For Portable Media Players
Other Info:
Widescreen (1.85:1)
DTS-HD MA 5.1 Sound
French and Spanish Subtitles
French and Spanish Languages
Running Time: 114 Minutes
The Details:
The following is the official description of the film:
“Jonah Hill and Russell Brand reunite with the director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall in this outrageous comedy about Aaron Green (Hill), an aspiring music executive, who has 72 hours to deliver the wild rock legend, Aldous Snow (Brand), from London to Los Angeles for a comeback concert. In order to keep his job, Aaron must navigate a minefield of mayhem and debauchery to get Snow to the world famous Greek Theatre on time! From the producer of Knocked Up and Superbad.”
“Get Him To The Greek” is rated R for strong sexual content and drug use throughout, and pervasive language
Mini-Review:
If you saw “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, then you pretty much know exactly what you’re getting with “Get Him to the Greek.” It’s a raunchy comedy with a mix of sexual humor and heart. You may be ashamed for laughing at it, but it is funny.
The theme for this story seems to be “bad friends corrupt good behavior.” Aaron Green is tasked with escorting rock legend Aldous Snow from London to New York and then to Los Angeles. Along the way he finds himself pulled into the decadent world of rock stardom. The audience laughs and cringes at what Aldous is able to talk Aaron into. From getting drunk to doing drugs to stuffing heroin up his butt, the line for what Aaron will and will not do keeps getting pushed farther and farther back. It’s shocking how far Aaron will let Aldous go before standing his ground. But along the way Aldous realizes how toxic his relationships with others has been and he becomes determined to change his ways. So despite the disgusting sex and drug humor, there’s deeper material being played out at the same time.
The film parodies the rock and roll world and there’s certainly a lot of material to draw from. They mock the thinly-veiled sexual references in many rock songs by making them overtly sexual. The lyrics are incredibly vulgar and cover every topic imaginable thus poking fun at them. And as you already figured out, it makes fun of the ‘sex, drugs, and rock and roll’ lifestyle. Aldous smokes a frighteningly potent combination of drugs called a ‘Jeffrey’ with amusing results. Aldous’ drug addiction also drives him to literally pull drugs out of Aaron’s butt. There’s nothing glamorous about it, that’s for sure. The film also mocks the interview process on the “Today” show, the lax attitude towards timetables and schedule, fragile egos, and pretentious music videos. Overall as a parody of rock and roll, “Get Him to the Greek” is quite effective.
Russell Brand is good again as Aldous Snow. He’s not quite as crazy as you might expect, but he still captures that rock star attitude. In fact, he has a number of serious scenes that show he’s capable of drama, even in a comedy like this. Jonah Hill is also good as Aaron Green. He’s the hapless victim of Snow’s eccentricities. You feel sorry for him for what he goes through, but you also can’t help but laugh at his misfortunes, too. There were two big surprises for me in this film. The first is Rose Byrne as Jackie Q. I had only seen her in dramatic roles in the past, so seeing her as this wacky pop star was quite shocking. She more than holds her own with Russell Brand. In fact, some of her song lyrics and music videos make you say, “Did she just say what I thought she said?” If people didn’t think of her as a comedic actress before, they will now. The other surprise was Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs as Sergio Roma. He generated a lot of laughs, too, as an over-the-top record executive. From his rants towards Aaron Green to his outrageous fight scene in Las Vegas, this is a memorable role, too. Elisabeth Moss is also noteworthy as Daphne Binks. She has great chemistry with Hill and really surprises in the finale with Aldous Snow.
As fun as the movie is, the ending isn’t quite as satisfying as you might hope. The dark tone and the serious scenes drag the pacing of the film down. I think I was hoping for a bigger finish than we got.
I’d recommend “Get Him to the Greek” to anyone that’s in the mood for a raunchy comedy, fans of Jonah Hill and Russell Brand, and of course anyone that enjoyed “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”
The Blu-ray contains a ton of bonus features. You’ll find alternate intros and endings, deleted scenes, gag reels, full music videos, and a lot of other great stuff. You also get to see more of the improvisations and other goodies. And as you know, this also contains the ‘unrated’ version of the film which is 4 minutes longer than the theatrical version. It’s about as complete a set of bonus features as you could ask for.
