6-10-10 Movie Review: Get Him to the Greek

Noncommercials are beginning to revive, with two offerings over the next week. Tonight at 8, and yes, it will be dark enough, the Tallgrass Al Fresco series at the Brickyard is presenting Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey winning Oscars in Cabaret, which took other Oscars for art and set decoration, cinematography, and director Bob Fosse. The Brickyard is at 119 North Rock Island; the kitchen opens at 7, the movie, preceded by a Tallgrass short subject, starts at 8. And next Wednesday, the Murdock starts this summer’s reprise of last season’s Metropolitan Operas with Verdi’s Aida on the big screen, with subtitles and intermissions. And if you’re interested in producing a movie of your own, you might want to hop down to the downtown library this very night at 6:30 for a panel discussion with Peter Jasso of the Kansas Film Commission and local moviemakers Tyler Emerson, Paul Klusman, and Ron Pocowatchit showing their work: that’s 6:30 tonight, downtown library.

And commercially, there is good entertainment for the not delicate in Get Him to the Greek.

The Greek is a theatre in Los Angeles, the He is Russell Brand as a rock singer in somewhat of a slump, and the man who is to connect the two is Jonah Hill as a record-company employee who has to ride herd on a heroin addict party monster who has no sense of responsibility but blames everybody else if things go wrong.

And surprisingly little does: Get Him to the Greek evokes little suspense, being mostly interested in the two stars and not so much their relationship with each other as their relationships with the rest of the world, including their jobs. The girl friends are Elizabeth Moss as the doctor – not nurse, doctor. And Rose Byrne as the rock singer; the ruthless record producer is Sean “Diddy” Combs, the unattractive in-laws are Colm Meaney and Dinah Stabb, and a whole series of people like Christina Aguilera and Pink put in appearances along the way. It’s basically a road movie featuring clubs and parties, with a lot of music, mostly little fragments. And except for an impressive amount of bad language and frequent emphasis on the elimination system and a heroine maybe too liberated, there isn’t a lot to offend anybody.

Our heroes are more likable than admirable, especially Brand, who does expect the world to bow down and allow him liberties because of who he was despite numerous reminders that that’s not what he is; but Hill’s willingness to sacrifice dignity and all, including girl friend Moss, for professional success is not so attractive, either. But neither one has malice in his system, and despite director Judd Apatow’s claim that Get Him to the Greek “tries to explore some serious themes,” the whole thing is too silly and juvenilely vulgar to make a serious point.

Though I did appreciate the willingness to use characters as morally questionable as Elizabeth Moss and as unsexy in appearance as Jonah Hill as the romantic heroes; there is a core realism in the simple lack of stereotypical idealism in Get Him to the Greek that kept expecting to give in; maybe that’s one of the things that kept my attention right up to the end.