American Trip

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 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.

Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) is a messed up rock star. He has a damaged relationship with his ex Jackie Q (Rose Byrne). Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) pitches an idea for a 10 year anniversary of Aldous Snow's successful Live at the Greek Theatre show to label head Sergio (Sean Combs). Aaron is given the chance to wrangle Aldous for his big chance.

The Judd Apatow friends gather together to do another hilarious movie. Russell Brand is wonderously wild and childlike. Jonah Hill is a great straight man, charmingly funny and sweet. The combo is a home run. Even P Diddy is great as the bombastic exec. Jonah and Elisabeth Moss are hilarious together in the beginning. The Sarah Marshall call back is hilarious. But it's not just all hilarity. Aldous has real personal problems and not just about the drugs. It's a wonderful mix of heart and comedy. Start stroking the fury wall.

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.

I was lucky enough to see this movie tonight as an advanced screening at my school.

It is the funniest movie of the year so far and I think it will be a sleeper hit like The Hangover was last year. I loved Russel Brand's character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but I was bit hesitant to see an entire movie based around the character. If you feel the same way as I did, stop! This was an excellent spin off with a great cast. If you love movies like Superbad and The Hangover, you will not be disappointed with this. Although, don't go in expecting another Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which is more of a romantic comedy. This is just 108 minutes (approx) of pure fun and a lot of crude humor.

Russel Brand, Jonah Hill, and Diddy are flat out hilarious. I'll go far as to say that Diddy's character Sergio is to this movie as Russell Brand's Aldous Snow was to Forgetting Sarah Marshall. There are a lot of hilarious lines throughout the movie and a couple of awesome cameos.

I haven't laughed as much as I did tonight since I first saw The Hangover last year. If you love comedies, then don't miss this! I highly recommend it.

9/10