GET HIM TO THE GREEK: let's hear it for the geek!

GET HIM TO THE GREEK is a far better film than I expected. It's certainly not high art or even high brow but it is fun and that's due in large part to Jonah Hill. He was the nerdy roly-poly one in 2007's "Superbad" and he plays a pretty similar role here albeit a few years older and slightly more successful with women.
His Aaron Green is a geeky intern at an LA record label run by the foul-mouthed meglomaniac Sergio Roma (a fine performance from Sean 'P Diddy' Combs). In the opportunity of a lifetime Aaron is sent to London to collect out-of-control British rock star Aldous Snow and escort him to LA in time to perform a money-making comeback concert at the Greek Theater. It sounds like a simple enough assignment except that Snow's not a man given to doing what he's told or following a timetable.  
What ensues are the three most exhilarating, terrifying and challenging days in Aaron's entire life as he attempts to cajole, persuade and drag an increasingly distracted music legend from the UK to the West Coast.
It's Brand who has the showy part in this story and he succeeds in portraying Snow as extravagant, eccentric, willful, unpredictable and mildly self destructive without ever going over the top, but Hill still manages to steal the film from him.His reactions to the excesses and indignities heaped upon him by Snow are priceless and, perhaps most importantly, he's likable where Snow isn't. Snow is what we Brits would call "a bit of a wanker." He's entertaining enough to be around (providing you're not in his firing line) but he'll screw you over in a heartbeat if the mood takes him.

GET HIM TO THE GREEK is not the first film to set itself in the world of rock star excesses but it is perhaps the first to present it in a disapproving light right from the get-go. There is nothing attractive or appealing about Snow or his lifestyle, and it doesn't take more than five minutes for Aaron's illusions about his music idol to be shattered.
Producer Judd Apatow has carved a niche for himself as Hollywood's premier purveyor of overage man-child comedies ("Anchorman", "The 40 Year Old Virgin", "Knocked Up", "Superbad" etc) and while this latest addition doesn't break the mold it does succeed in feeling fresh and funny.