Preview review: Jonah Hill and Russell Brand in ‘Get Him to the Greek’
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We’ve long been anticipating ‘Get Him to the Greek,’ the movie from Judd Apatow protege Nicholas Stoller who worked with Jason Segel on the enjoyable breakup comedy ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall.’ Thankfully, the trailer for the new Universal film -- a kind of spin-off of ‘Sarah Marshall’ -- doesn’t disappoint.
Russell Brand and Jonah Hill are both back in this movie. In ‘Sarah Marshall,’ Hill’s sycophantic character idolized rock god Aldous Snow (Brand). In this film, Hill plays a different character, Aaron, who still admires Snow but this time lands a gig working as his assistant.
The first few seconds of the trailer make it clear that many of our favorites from the Apatow gang will be back-- Aziz Ansari and, of course, Hill. In the trailer, Aaron’s bright idea is to put on an anniversary concert with Snow at the famed Los Angeles venue the Greek Theatre. Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs plays a hard-edged music executive looking for a way to make a buck (and seems to be able to pull off the comedy -- ‘I got six kids! You know how many Air Jordans six black kids wear?’ he screams to a room of underlings).
Diddy sends Aaron to London to retrieve Snow, and a comedy of errors ensues, many of which are pretty raunchy -- Aaron having sex on a toilet in a nightclub and later sneaking Snow’s illegal drugs into the country with an interesting, er, anatomical trick.
But there are still plenty of questions. After ‘Funny People’ fell flat, will the Apatow-produced film be able to bring the laughs? Can the movie succeed without Segel in front of the camera? After two years of hosting the MTV Video Music Awards, are you Russell Brand-ed out? Share your thoughts (and comic asides) below.
[For the Record, 2:20 p.m.: An earlier version of this post said Jonah Hill’s character in ‘Get Him to the Greek’ was the same character he played in ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall.’ Hill did appear in ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall,’ but is playing a new character in ‘Get Him to the Greek.’]