Jonah Hill and Russell Brand in Get Him to the Greek, in theatres Friday.

Filmmaker Nicholas Stoller has a little surprise for you in Get Him to the Greek: Sean “P. Diddy” Combs is funny. Hilariously funny. Laugh-out-loud funny. In the role of an abusive and absurd record label head, Combs manages to steal most scenes he’s in. Who knew?

Get Him to the Greek is a wild-eyed comedy about a serious young music biz intern charged with bringing an out-of-control rock star from England to Los Angeles. He has 72 hours to complete the trip from London to the Greek Theatre in L.A, where the rock star is supposed to headline an anniversary concert. It seems like a simple assignment, but there are many detours along the way, and they all involve sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll.

Jonah Hill is the bumbling intern and Russell Brand reprises the Aldous Snow rockstar role he played in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, also from director Nicholas Stoller. You needn’t have seen the first film to appreciate the spectacularly needy and narcissistic Aldous Snow here, a complicated man with dreadful habits who will continue to make you love him nonetheless. Brand’s portrayal of Snow is nothing short of brilliant; he manages to convey all the vanity and self-referential nonsense of the rock milieu while never completely hiding the vulnerability of his character.

Hill, meanwhile, in the role of the escort intern, gets to be a grown-up in the story. (Nice to see someone graduate from the virginal nebbish schtick.) He can’t believe his luck, getting to travel to England to escort one of his favourite rockers, and despite the rigours of the job (drug smuggling, drinking to excess, wild sex, barfing) he handles himself with three-dimensional aplomb.

The main story in Get Him to the Greek is funny. The little side excursions in the tale are funnier still, and most involve either Sean Combs or Russell Brand, and sometimes both. Puffy screams at people and talks nonsense as the all-powerful record label boss. Brand goes off on tangents involving his ex-wife (Rose Byrne) and his father (Colm Meany) that are spectacularly funny. The writing is inspired. So is the send-up of all the silliness of the recording industry. Some of the dialogue will make you weep with laughter, and more’s the pity that so much of it is far too blue to quote here.

The movie does go off the rails once or twice with bits that don’t work quite as well, but overall, Get Him to the Greek is a heck of a lot of fun. It’s rude and crude and manic throughout, but there’s so much more going on than you’d anticipate — and Sean Combs’ comic ability is just one of several happy surprises.

Those hoping for a summer celebration of wretched excess to rival The Hangover need wait no longer.

(This film is rated 14A)

liz.braun@sunmedia.ca
More Movie Reviews