This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.

Granted, it’s only June and there is still plenty of 2010 left, but if the world were to end tomorrow, Get Him to the Greek would easily go down as the funniest movie of the year. Borrowing more than a little from 1982’s My Favorite Year, in which a junior writer commits to the daunting task of chaperoning a carousing movie star, Get Him to the Greek is laugh-out-loud hilarious, the sort of film that makes you want to stand up after months of middling films pretending to be comedies and shout, “Now THAT’S funny!”

Aaron Greenberg (Jonah Hill) is a low-level employee at a record company tasked with a career-making assignment: fly to London and escort British rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), once a megastar but now a bit down on his luck, back to L.A.’s Greek Theatre (by way of New York City and Las Vegas) for a comeback concert. Sounds easy enough—except that the obstinate Aldous is out of control, a loose cannon self-destructively searching for the meaning of life in debauched orgies and drug-filled parties. Trying to strike a balance between sycophancy and tough love, Aaron is forced to say and do things he never thought possible, all in a desperate attempt to get Aldous to the Greek in one piece. He might just figure out the meaning of life himself on the way.

Get Him to the Greek is a sequel of sorts to the very funny Forgetting Sarah Marshall, reuniting Jonah Hill and Russell Brand with director Nicholas Stoller. Though Brand is reprising his rock legend role from the first film, Hill’s character is new (in the first film, he played an obsequious waiter). Judd Apatow, the director of such films as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Funny People, returns as producer and his creative fingerprints are everywhere. Get Him to the Greek follows the now familiar but thoroughly enjoyable formula of shockingly crude vulgarity and equally shocking sentimentality.

As if proving that Newtonian physics works in film as well as the physical universe, for every dose of earthy bad manners, there is an equally heartfelt counterbalance in the end. These tender, even sweet dénouements should not be overlooked or dismissed too quickly—they are the only things keeping Apatow’s films from being hilarious, but ultimately unredeeming wastes of time. If the end is a bit too sweet, it’s not as if the film hasn’t earned it in the bluest way possible (though, in comparison to other Apatow projects, this one is rather tame). And while we may laugh at the results of the film’s portrayal of addiction, it is clearly not meant to be a laughing matter.

It would be equally irresponsible to overlook the extraordinarily likable cast. All involved are a delight, and the use of real celebs and news personalities lends the film an air of authenticity it would otherwise not be able to achieve. Get Him to the Greek is powered by a sort of manic energy (probably because Aaron, our conduit into the narrative, spends the majority of the film inadvertently smashed out of his mind). Unlike in past films, Hill is actually the more mature, straight man to Brand’s zany lunacy. Brand, whose superpower is making acting funny look as effortless as breathing, certainly stands out, but even he cannot compete with the surprise show stealer, Sean Combs aka Diddy, who absolutely runs away with every scene he’s in, playing a (slightly) exaggerated version of his actual persona.

© Copyright 2010 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.

Directed by Nicholas Stoller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Sean Combs, Elizabeth Moss, Rose Byrne, Colm Meaney
Rated R for strong sexual content and drug use throughout, and pervasive language.
Running Time: 109 minutes