American Trip

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.

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.

This movie was great. I expected considering how much I enjoyed Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and how much I enjoy Jonah Hill in general. I was not disappointed. The only reason that I did not give this movie a higher rating was because it was so ridiculous and unbelievable. I could not stop laughing out loud in the theater and neither could the rest of the audience (which was decent sized for a mid week night time showing after release). If you do not like drinking, drugs, and sex than I would recommend that you do not even come close to this one. It is above the top in all three of those aspects. You may be offended by some things, but that is the whole point of the movie... enjoy it. See it soon, I foresee this one growing in popularity as word of mouth spreads. 8/10.

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.

When I saw the trailers for Greek, they looked moderately funny. I hadn't seen Sarah Marshal, so I had no idea what that was all about. But, reviews were good and I thought, hey, what the heck. What I found was a very funny Apatow-filmish take on the rock n roll film. All the elements of a usual Apatow troop film are there: focus on unusual moments, sex drugs and gross out humor, friendship and some serious moments, and the breaking down of typical film trappings. Suffice to say, this is a great summer comedy.

The film, as many know, charges Allen Green with getting washed up rock star Aldous Snow to the Greek Theater in LA for a 10th anniversary concert. As one would guess, things don't go accordingly, and a whole lot of comedy ensues. The film, more than anything, is essentially a rock pic. It's about the life of this rock star who has burned out his bulb and is attempting to put in a new one. And as Aldous Snow, Russel Brand is fantastic. He truly embodies this rock star and you feel he really IS this character. He boozes it up, drugs it up, sexes it up, and whatever other manner of things a rock star might abuse. He's a mess of a guy, and like so many famous people who have gone south, he's a complicated person who has let fame get the best of him. This is translated extremely well. Despite all the comedy, this is an excellent rock and roll biopic type film. Jonah Hill is great as the lead character with baggage of his own and he does what he does best here, although he plays a more awkward kind of character versus his geek-in- charge style that we're so accustomed too.

Stealing the show, however, is Sean Combs, who plays Green's boss Sergio. Every scene he is in is hilarious and he is surprisingly funny. It was definitely pleasant to see him pull off such a funny role. The other supporting characters are great, doing a fine job of being very funny themselves. Most of the film falls into stages of comedy bits, and all are pretty damned hilarious. There's nothing here that's too ridiculous, which is nice. There is once scene that kind of makes you raise a brow, but it's just so damn funny, you forget how insane it is. And that's really the charm of the film. Everything about it is larger than life, yet believable. This is exactly why it perfectly molds both the rock star film and an Apatow comedy so perfectly. It's the kind of comedy you would expect it to be, while not knowing exactly what is going to happen. If you don't like these kinds of comedies, this one may not be for you. But if you've enjoyed other films like Sarah Marshal, Pineapple Express, and other Apatow troop films, you'll find Greek hilarious. I know I did.