ViewGuide

Created Jun 07, 2010 07:53PM PST • Edited Dec 20, 2010 08:51PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   Hugely funny, surprisingly dramatic, trenchantly trendy: Get Him to the Greek upholds the purple perfection of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, its prequel. Easily the best rock star movie ever, it’s funnier and has better music than Spinal Tap, while proving dramatically more affecting than the rather lame albeit pithily named Rock Star. You guessed it: The Greek goes to 11.

   This shouldn’t be surprising given the expectation of quality established by the Judd Apatow players, from whom this confection sprang. The trademarks are all here: a self-deprecating normal guy finds himself surrounded by licentiousness, leading to hilarious hijinks and moments of real dramatic resonance. Oh yeah, Jonah Hill or Jason Segel must star. Here we get Hill, who turns in an almost sweet performance, notwithstanding his normally annoying screen presence.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Russell Brand lives his destiny reprising ultimate rock star Aldous Snow (say it three times fast), the role he originated in FSM. A second rate Mick-Ozzie-Entwistle type, he’s got the killer looks, moves and enough of a voice to be a credible rock Übermensch. No wonder straitlaced girls volunteer themselves and their boyfriends to do threesomes with him.

   Jonah Hill is approaching whale-like proportions, yet manages to mug effectively in one hilarious intoxication scene after another. The guy’s a master at degrading self-deprecation comedy, the position occupied by Jason Segel in FSM.

   Elisabeth Moss nails the always-tired forever girl and delivers an orgasm for the ages. Regarding the latter: Meg Ryan’s table-slapping O has been equaled. Of course, Ryan’s Sally didn’t have a rock star’s head between her legs…

   Sean Combs slays as a P. Diddy-like music impresario. Very, very funny.

   Rose Byrne deserves mention as a 21st Century Marianne Faithfull.

   Loved the cameos too: Mario Lopez, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, Meredith Vieira, Paul Krugman, and on and on.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

   Brand-o-Rockstar & Jonah the Whalestar

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

   Elisabeth Moss is perfect, Rose Byrne great

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

   P. Diddy slays. Colm Meany rocks.

10. Film

    Perfect 5.0

    If it wasn’t so side-splitting funny, I’d tag The Greek a comedy-drama. The drama comes from the penetrating insights into the motivations and conflicts of the wildly self-medicating rock star, the normal guy and his normal girl in their normal relationship, the craven dumbing-down of the music business, and on and on. Regarding that last: the scene in Diddy’s office when all his minions – females included – start head bopping to a terribly misogynistic rap song is an ironic classic.

    Nicholas Stoller wrote and directed this brilliant treat. His is a name to remember.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Really Great 4.5

13. Music Perfect 5.0

    Infant Sorrow’s entire catalog gets aired out, a funnier and more rockin’ set of songs than “Spinal Tap” ever had. The only non-Infant Sorrow song played: Rocks Off, the opening cut from Exile on Main Street. Fitting, since the Stones remain the archetype of high functioning rock star debauchery.

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 2.7

    Sex & drugs & rock ‘n’ roll get celebrated, then spoofed, and finally revealed as dodges from reality. To the movie’s credit, Jonah Hill’s normal guy doesn’t lose his moral bearings when presented with impossible to decline sexual opportunities, keeping with previous Apatow morality plays like The 40 Year Old Virgin.

17. Sex Erotic 2.8

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

19. Rudeness Nasty 3.8

21. Reality

    Glib 1.6

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.9

23. Biological Glib 2.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0