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Get Him to the Greek (2010)
When the world slips you a Jeffrey, stroke the furry wall.
— Aldous Snow
When you hear the word “spin-off”, it usually means impending doom. I did not like Forgotten Sarah Marshall that much. I thought the only highlight of the film was Russell Brand’s Zen rocker character of Aldous Snow. Now, Aldous Snow has he own star vehicle, Get Him to the Greek. It seems like a bad idea to me. Coming away from it, I felt like it was great decision to do so.
We follow Aldous Snow as his new album, African Child is about to drop. There is a media blitz promotion the hell out of it. There is also a video of same name that he performs with his on and off girlfriend of seven years and baby’s mama, Jackie Q (Rose Byrne). When his album comes out, it’s a huge bomb. A devastated Snow pulls a Kanye/Blohan/Winestone with him boozing it up, taking blow, exposing his naughty bits and much worse. He goes underground for awhile.
Jonah Hill—not reprising his role of Matthew the Waiter—is Aaron Green, an intern working for Pinnacle Records. He and his live-in girlfriend, Daphne (Elisabeth Moss) are trying to have sex, but with her hellish schedule, they couldn’t. He is frustrated as all get out.
Aaron gets his ass chewed out along with his co-workers from their boss, Sergio (Sean Combs) from sagging sales of their artists as of late. Sergio wants to know what can be done to remedy their dire situation. Aaron thinks that they should have a reunion concert with Aldous Snow to commemorate the tenth anniversary of him playing the Greek Theater. The subsequent live album was the highest selling in history.
One month later, Snow– who is in London at his mom’s flat—agrees to the gig at the Greek. Since it was Aaron’s idea, Sergio asks Aaron to get Snow, bring him back to New York for a stop at the Today Show and his aforementioned concert at the Greek all within 72 hours.
Aaron thinks it’s just a simple escort trip, but that would be boring. When the shit hits the fan, it splatters everywhere. Daphne breaks up with Aaron, because he doesn’t want to move to Seattle to recreate Grey’s Anatomy. In London, Aldous thought that the gig was in two months instead of three days. Let’s just say that he is unwilling to go unless he goes on his last bender before going to the States. He takes Aaron on his trip of sex, drugs and rock & roll.
This movie is vulgar, offensive and deplorable and I loved it for that. It didn’t give us frank and beans like Marshall did, but it did have its moments. I never thought that I would say this, but Puff Daddy – Puffy – P. Diddy – Sean Combs stole every since that he was in. I laugh my ass off when he came on screen. There are celebrity cameos up the wazoo like P!ink, Meredith Viera, Mario Lopez, Lars Ullrich, and many more. It seems like the long episode of Entourage.
This movie is not the next Hangover, but it does have its moments. I didn’t like the subplot with Aldous and Jackie Q– who supposed to be a parody of Fergie—which I didn’t get. The ending took the bromance a little bit too far. Like Marshall, it has pop culture references that would not mean shit int twenty years. It would seriously date the movie.
Judgment: I cannot believe that I would like a spin-off better than its predecessor.
Rating: ****
Funny People (2009)
Does your act just design to make sure no girl will ever sleep with you?
— George Simmons
Funny People is a movie that I was eagerly anticipating for writer/director Judd Apatow. Thoroughly enjoying his previous movies, I want utterly disappointed with this movie.
In the first trailer of this movie, the whole plot was spoiled. I thought, “What the fuck?” That knocked my rating down considerably.
Adam Sandler is playing a twisted version of himself by the name of George Simmons. A comedian that is unfulfilled by his life with the kiddie movies that he makes, the spacious mansion and he does not have anybody in his life.
He discovers that he has a form of leukemia. Coming to terms with his “death sentence”, he hires a struggling stand-up comic, Ira (Seth Rogen) as an assistant to help him write jokes.
George wants to get back together with the one that got away, Laura (Leslie Mann), but he is set in his ways that he won’t realize that his brand of humor drives people away.
The movie has some funny bits especially with Jonah Hill with his one-liners and Aziz Ansari. Most of the time, crickets were heard in the audience during most of the movie.
I was very bored with the film. I was looking at my shoes, scratching two week old mosquito bites, yawning and dozing a little bit. That’s not good.
Trying to mix comedy with drama doesn’t work. It was a real downer and not hopeful. Some of the characters were horrible human beings. You cannot root for them. I didn’t care about any of them.
George Simmons was fixated on the size of Ira’s cock and balls. The sexual puns and jokes were jarring. Overkill. Enough the cock, balls, sex and asshole jokes. Enough!
Judgment: This movie does not live up to its name. How ironic.
Rating: **1/2
Superbad (2007)
You know when you hear girls say ‘Ah man, I was so shit-faced last night, I shouldn’t have fucked that guy?’ We could be that mistake!
— Seth
Before seeing Greg Mattola’s latest movie, I wanted to revisit another movie of his that at first I hated with a passion at first, Superbad. I saw a bootlegged version of this movie that one of my relatives had and I watched it. I was turned off by the movie after five minutes.
No normal teenage boy talks like this. I was a teenager once. Teenagers talks about sex about ten percent of the time. They talk about clothes, movies, video games, cars, shoes, hair cuts, etc. I decided to let that go.
This is the first produced screenplay by the team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
The main focus of the movie is about three high school friends; Evan (Michael Cera), Seth (Jonah Hill), and Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) trying to get alcohol into a party at Jules’ (Emma Stone) house.
The movie is not complicated. It’s like a road trip movie, but not. It like the new millennium’s version of American Pie.
I have never laughed so hard in my life. The scenes with the penis drawings, Fogell going on patrol with Officers Michaels (Rogen) and Slater (Bill Hader).
I did have some problems with period joke. The endless barfing scenes. I could deal without them. We get it. People are drunk. Let them pass out, piss on themselves, something.
Judgment: If you want to see drunk teenagers trying to get laid, see this movie.
Rating: ****
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
It’s not all about you, you know. People come here not just to follow you.
— Peter Bretter
Saturday night, I was bored as all get out. I saw that Forgetting Sarah Marshall was premiering on HBO that night. I thought, what the hell? I’ll watch it. I commend Jason Segel from having his script produced by Judd Apatow and brought to the big screen. This movie was dead on arrival.
Segal plays Peter Bretter, a composer that is working together with his girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) on her struggling primetime television show, “Crime Scene.” Sarah breaks up with Peter while he is standing in his apartment letting his dong flap in the breeze.
Over the next three weeks, Peter is a blubbering mess. Wailing at the top of his voice every chance he gets. His step-brother, Peter (Bill Hader) urges Peter to get over Sarah by having a whole bunch of one night stands. Then, he suggests taking a trip to Hawaii.
Not surprising, he bumps into Sarah on the island with her new British musician beau, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand).
In order to avoid Sarah, Peter strikes up a quick friendship with the hotel receptionist, Rachel (Mila Kunis). To distract Peter even further, he becomes friendly with a newlywed that is trying to please his wife, Darald (Jack MacBrayer), the surfing instructor Chuck (Paul Rudd) and the bartender at the hotel bar, Dwayne (Davon McDonald).
During the course of the week stay, Peter is basically stalking Sarah and Aldous with awkward conversations and uncomfortable dinners.
The movie was okay. It was not groundbreaking. It was a typical romantic comedy. The jokes fell flat. The brief flashbacks were the only biggest laughs to me. Why was Peter sobbing over Sarah who is a total bitch and treated him like crap? Do we really need to see Segel’s bookend dong shots? Is that necessary?
The only things that I enjoyed with Aldous who is getting his own movie, the bartender, the newlywed couple, Darald and Wyoma (Maria Thayer) and the Dracula musical. That’s it. The rest is forgettable. Pun intended.
Judgment: If you are a big fan of Jason Segel and want to see his dong, see this movie.
Rating: **