Smart, silly, endearing laugh fest

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2019)

I've recently watched and reviewed actor Jonah Hill's directorial debut in his coming of age skatepark drama "mid90s" which impressed me, so I wanted to check out his other work. I haven't seen Jonah Hill in a lead role before, and neither Russell Brand who I was also impressed by in his voice acting role in "Trolls." I was excited to see these two leads together in one film because I think they are funny, intelligent actors who normally get more sidekick, supporting roles. Dunno why I haven't heard about "Get Him to the Greek" (2010) before here in 2019, but I am glad to see it featured in HBO's Amazon Prime channel because it is a fantastic comedy that had me and my sister laughing.
"Get Him to the Greek" has kind of a diabolical "South Park" bent, especially with the antics of Russell Brand's character and his spoof "African Child" music video which opens the film. I love "South Park," I enjoyed this film. There's a similar satire, self-awareness, childish but unsentimental quality that comes across as brutal but refreshing, while still being funny. In one scene maniacal music manager P. Diddy gets hit by a car and then chastises Jonah Hill for not picking up his phone when even he did. Later Russell Brand shows his broken arm to P. Diddy and they laugh it off as "just a scratch" and continue their show.
Other than "South Park," "Get Him to the Greek" has the same type of humor as "The Hangover" as well as those same endearing parts. While it doesn't fully land, Russell Brand has good acting moments as popular but lonely rock star propped up by idiot lies.
Everyone in "Get Him to the Greek," even Brand, is a bit of a dork, with much too much eagerness to please. The characters are written as lovable but realistic simpletons who do stupid things which are bad ideas, but are well intentioned enough. This makes them pretty enjoyable to watch in what is ultimately a very simple (but effective) point A to point B story. Kudos.