Blu-Ray Review: Very Funny ‘Get Him to the Greek’ With Jonah Hill

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CHICAGO – Like a lot of comedies, “Get Him to the Greek,” now available on Blu-ray and DVD, actually plays better at home than it did in theaters. It doesn’t hurt that the Universal Blu-ray is a beauty, a package with excellent, hilarious special features that enhance the film instead of serving as mere filler. It’s one of the best comedy BD releases of the season.

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0

“Get Him to the Greek” really shouldn’t work. Taking a supporting character whose main purpose as a plot point was to be incredibly annoying and turning him into the lead of his own spin-off feature sounds like a horrible, horrible idea. One would assume that Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” works best in small doses and that turning him into a lead would make for a tightrope act — we don’t want to spend two hours with an a-hole but we also don’t want to watch a once-edgy character go soft. The fact that Stoller and his cast pull it off and deliver one of the funniest and most consistent comedies of the year is something of a genre miracle.

Snow used to be the biggest rock star in the world. He produced hit music, sold out shows, and spent his nights with his hot-as-hell pop-star girlfriend Jackie Q (Rose Byrne). But pop music is all about what people have done lately and after producing an album that was compared to famine and apartheid while also going straight (and getting boring), Snow’s life fell apart. He spent the next several years drinking, drugging, sexing, and generally being nothing more than tabloid fodder.

Get Him to the Greek was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 28th, 2010
Photo credit: Universal

The hardcore Snow fans never stopped loving their rock God and one of those fans, Aaron Green (Jonah Hill), happens to work for the maniacal music executive (Sean Combs) who runs the company that owns the Snow catalog. He suggests that they hold a ten-year anniversary concert for Snow’s wildly successful show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles as a way to boost interest in his back catalog. Sergio orders Aaron to fly to England and serve as chaperone for the troubled troubadour. Of course, before he leaves town, Aaron gets into a huge fight with his super-cute girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss of “Mad Men”), leaving him free to dive head first into the deep end of the rock and roll lifestyle.

Get Him to the Greek was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 28th, 2010 Photo credit: Universal

Green has only been on the ground a few hours before he’s off the rails with Aldous, banging chicks in bathroom stalls, drinking near-deadly amounts of alcohol, and doing whatever drug might be handed to him. From here, “Get Him to the Greek” essentially becomes a buddy comedy with a clock. Can these two unique personalities — the rock star and the “affable nitwit” — make it to sound check without getting either of them killed?

“Get Him to the Greek” is a HARD R made even harder in an unrated version. If you played a drinking game and imbibed when Aaron or Aldous is seen drinking, you’d be wasted before the hour mark. But there’s also a bit of effective heart to the film, something that shouldn’t be a shock when one considers Judd Apatow-produced films of the past. “Get Him to the Greek” fits perfectly in the oeuvre of a man who has made a mint examining the push-and-pull between mans desires to “have fun” and his need to grow up.

And the Blu-ray is a beauty. Not only are the video and audio up to Universal standards but the special features will take hours to work through including some really funny alternate takes and deleted scenes. The standard Apatow “Line-O-Rama,” in which alternate improvised line readings are presented is funnier than most of the comedies this summer. With full music videos, concert scenes, and even karaoke on 15 Snow songs, this is easily one of the most extensive collections of special features of the season. It’s truly a Blu-ray befitting a rock star.

Special Features:
o Deleted And Extended Scenes
o Alternate Intro: The Castle
o Alternate Ending: Riding Daphne
o Two Gag Reels
o Line-O-Rama
o Behind The Scenes
o Full Music Videos And Concert Performances
o Blind Medicine
o Feature Commentary With Cast And Crew
o More Extended And Alternate Scenes
o More Music Performances
o Sing Karaoke On 15 Songs From The Film
o Cast Auditions
o U-Control: Get Him to the Greek Music

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com