In viaggio con una rock star

This quasi spin-off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall is definitely not as good as that comedy classic, though it has its moments. The music is straight up great. It's impressive that the songs in this satire of music films is better than most actual music films. The cast is reliable and there are plenty of legit laughs, however some of the raunchiness can be a bit much. It lacks the heart or consistency of FSM, but it's still a pretty entertaining comedy that makes good use of its stars.

This is one of my favorite comedies ever. I can not give it higher than an 8 because it has some weak spots, but overall I though Russell Brand and Rose Byrne give two of the great comedic performances of the 2000s. I enjoy a lot of the music, and there are some other standout moments, such as P. Diddy's "Gamechanger" scene. It's a very simple story, and it does try to hit some dramatic beats as well, but it's at its best when things get ridiculous.

Opening up with the shooting of Aldos Snow's latest music video and then showing his downward spiral that leads to present day was the hilarious, perfect beginning for this innovative comedic spin-off. If you saw 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' then this is exactly what you would expect a movie about Aldos Snow to be like. This movie has a heart that I did not expect to see, it's buried under lewd, vulgar and brilliant wit, but it's in there.

Russell Brand just opens his mouth and his words are comedic gold. Jonah Hill takes a step out of his comfort zone, a bit, and plays a "no confidence good guy". (Usually he's the overconfident prick, for all you naysayers). Diddy delivers a surprisingly strong performance that I'm sure shocked anyone who sees him. He's actually hilarious! His repartee with everyone he comes into contact with is spot-on. The entire cast has hilarious one-liners and the two main characters really make this movie a joy to watch.

The plot is actually a creative one, something we don't see a lot of nowadays. Albeit the humor treads into "familiar gross-out" jokes, there are clever jokes too. But it's all you have to expect when following "Rock and Roll personified". Another point I was surprised by was that a lot... a lot of the scenes from the trailers were not in the movie. I thought that was a good and bad thing. Good because it didn't show us stuff we've already seen and gave us the chance to see new stuff. But bad because a few of the scenes were real funny.

For the critics who are hating this movie: Do you like comedy? Do you like Apatow's stuff? Do you like Russell Brand or Jonah Hill? If the answer is no to any 2 of these... why are you reviewing this movie? Your opinion is pointless for the people that actually DO like these movies.

This is Nicholas Stoller's first mainstream film in which he both wrote and directed, exploring the high's and lows of Jason Segal's Forgetting Sarah Marshall's character "Aldous Snow".

Aldous Snow is the controversial, alcoholic, drug addict rock star stereotype played by Russell Brand. He does it well and leaves us with a strong and convincing performance, but then It's hard to criticise his acting when he for the most part just plays himself, and to that point he does it well as always.

The story-line is basic but strong, and doesn't skimp on the laughs... or the nauseating, leaving the theater in stitches and disgust several times throughout. It takes you on a journey of the highs and lows of life as a rock star, the publicly glorified side and the more somber, touching on the loneliness and struggles with relapse.

It flew by fast and felt squashed at the end, the resolution was a tad jammed and left me slightly disappointed, but i'll be watching it again.

If you liked the hangover, you'll defiantly like this.

Man, you gotta love Aldous... but love him to a point of giving him a full movie about the character? Come on guys seriously. There are times that I replay Forgetting Sarah Marshall. But after watching this I feel I'm too Aldous-overdosed to watch it again.

PRO(s)

>> Jonah Hill's occasional funny lines (because his character doesn't require to, we wouldn't have the usual foul-mouthed characters he'd previously done).

>> Sean Combs. His acting is average, but you gotta give the guy credit for being insanely-stupid funny as hell.

>> Aldous Snow's songs. Seriously, in this movie the songs are the only reasons to love Brand's character

>> The furry wall. I gotta buy me one of those. Watch this, you'll get what I'm sayin'.

CON(s)

>> Uninteresting storyline.

>> The constant party/drugs scenes that were made to cover up for the uninteresting storyline. I gotta admit without these scenes, the film will likely to take up 30 mins screen time. The story is just that simple. I don't know, the crazy-stuffs works for me most of the time, but in this movie I felt like it was a bit overused, an excuse to patch it up to 2 hrs running time. I guess I got a bit tired of the Aldous thing going on. Not like other comedies I've watched when there's a hilly-billy threesome (Harold and Kumar), stupid-crazy Cops (Superbad), or a Vegas-fuckup scene (Knocked Up). Then only crazy scene that made me laugh was the one regarding the furry wall. That aside there's just Aldous on crack.