Friendship Forged in Chaos of "Get Him to the Greek"

Aldous Snow Preens Again in Judd Aptow Comedy

Remember Aldous Snow from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall?”
The vain, preening bombastic British rock star from that movie now has his own feature.
“Get Him to the Greek” stars British comedian Russell Brand as the over-the-hill, alcoholic, drug-addled Snow and co-writer Jonah Hill as a new character, Aaron Greenberg.
Aaron is a 23-year-old Capitol Records intern assigned to get his idol Snow from London to Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre within 48 hours, or die trying.
It’s a very simple premise that relies almost entirely on the appeal of its two main characters. It doesn’t hurt that Russell Brand evidently has a lot of friends in the music business.
Sean “Diddy” Combs for instance is virtually playing himself, though he is called “Sergio Roma,” the record producer who is Aaron’s big boss.
Jonah Hill is a very smart guy who doesn’t mind throwing any shred of dignity away and playing the fool.
Aaron is the fall guy, punching bag and butt of jokes in Aldous Snow’s warped world, but we see a real friendship being forged in the madcap misadventures in London, New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Russell Brand knows his role from the inside out, as he is a self-confessed recovering alcoholic and drug-abuser, and he knows the tricks and treacheries of such a libertine.
Aldous Snow is a vapid, pretentious poser, and he is given some perfectly terrible songs to sing, the worst of which, “African Child,” is justifiably mocked by even the most tolerant critics. Snow’s fall from stardom is his excuse for a downward spiral that results in rejection of him by his long-suffering fellow pop star girlfriend, Jackie Q (Rose Byrne) and the loss of his beloved son Naples (Lino Facioli).
This is pretty serious business, but this is a comedy, and a very funny, laugh out loud kind of comedy at that.
Aldous Snow is not the only extreme character. There is his perfectly horrible dad Jonathan (Colm Meaney), a loutish leech who has cheerfully used his son all his life.
There is Elisabeth Moss as Aaron’s girlfriend Daphne, who provokes some of the most unexpected laughter in a most uncomfortable bedroom scene.
Joining in the merriment is a parade of star cameos, from Christina Aguilera to Pink and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister.
“Twisted” is name for the sophomoric humor of writer Hill and writer-director Nicholas Stoller, but twisted can sure be funny.