LAKE OCONEE — “Get Him to the Greek”

Rated R for strong sexual content and drug use throughout, and pervasive language.



“Get Him to the Greek” is about a pudgy, low-ranking recording executive (Jonah Hill) getting a former rock star (Russell Brand) from his home in England to New York for a Today Show appearance and, later on, a concert in Los Angeles at a club, known as “The Greek.”

Sex, drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll, being what they are, make this assignment a unique challenge. Aaron Green is neither burdened by the curse of thinness nor pleasing looks. He is in a committed relationship with a sweet and rather innocent soul who is a medical intern. His eccentric, record label owner is Sergio Roma (played manically by Sean “P. Diddy” Combs).

Green loves Aldous Snow’s mucic…except for his career-ending song “African Child,” which has lyrics that are, at the very least, appallingly insensitive, if not racist albeit unintentional. Green is a fan and is delighted to get Snow back into the limelight and on the stage.

Problem is that Snow is a drug and sex addict…and any trip with Snow will involve…well, sex, drugs…and, for the poor schnook Green, awkward sex, vomit-inducing alcohol and drug use, and very little Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Green thinks he broke up with his MD girlfriend over her decision to move to Seattle so he feels free to fall into the lifestyle. However, Green is desperate to accomplish his task. He has to “Get Him to the Greek.”

This movie is yet another film that is wickedly funny about the ugly, pathetic side of life; in this case: Rock ‘n’ Roll celebrity. What may seem to be exotic fun (sex, drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and bad boy behavior) isn’t so much fun. Perhaps the love of his girlfriend is better than all of these things.

The film has plenty of gross-out scenes, naughty sex jokes, and sleazy gags. But what is being skewed in this film is the Rock ‘n’ Roll celebrity nonsense and the empty life such success can bring.

Underneath all of this crudeness, there is a sweet moral to this quest-travel tale. Brand plays a character not too far from his own, so there isn’t much of a stretch to achieve believability. Hill plays his usual role: a schlemiel caught in a hamster wheel of his own “be careful of what you wish for” hell.

If you choose to see this movie, try to see it with some twenty to thirty somethings; it will help to let you know what is particularly on-target funny

“Get Him to the Greek” earns three and a half bow ties out of five.



“Splice”

Rated R for disturbing elements including strong sexuality, nudity, sci-fi violence and language.



I also saw “Splice” a horror film that just screams “It is not nice to fool Mother Nature.” It is filmed either in a dismal looking lab or outside, at night, in some place colder than the Arctic Circle.

A couple (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) work for a drug company involved in gene splicing and cloning. Sarah Polley’s character, Elsa Kast, injects her own DNA into a creature, a new organism.

At first, the child looks like a deformed child with a tail. Kast bonds with her “mother.” When she develops into a sexy, winged creature, she bonds (wink-wink) with Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody’s character).

Needless to say, their fate is “unsettling.” I was barely able to stay awake for the first twenty minutes of “Splice” and the end was as obvious as Brody’s proboscis.

Nothing is original or clever. It is overly-serious, ponderous, and simplistic. This film seems to argue that scientific research is amoral, reckless, and disastrous.  Frankly, I am pleased as punch that a scientist decided to monkey with moldy bread.

“Splice” earns two bow ties out of five.