Get Him to the Greek

Get Him to the Greek, a "gross-out" comedy that grosses you out but still makes you laugh and almost cry at the same time.

Budget: $40 million. I guess you could say it's slightly above average for a slapstick comedy film

Starring: Russel Brand, Jonah Hill, Sean"Diddy"Combs (Puff Daddy) and a lot of celebrities who appeared long enough for the audience to be able to recognize their faces and then the camera went to the next shot. Although Meredith Vierra really got her chance to shine, especially when she asks Russel Brand's character if he is on drugs during her interview with him. You go Meredith! I bet The View is really missing you now.

If you notice that both Russel Brand and Jonah Hill were both cast in the recent film Forgetting Sarah Marshall maybe it has to do with the fact that Get Him to the Greek is a spin off sequel to the previously mentioned movie. But an interesting fact is that while Russel Brand reprises his role as the self-destructive alcoholic/substance abusive musician Aldous Snow, Jonah Hill is cast as a completely different person. Just some food for thought.

Critical Reaction: Mostly positive. I was surprised, because recently sequels have been falling flat on their faces and Get Him to the Greek has done well both critically and commercially. As of June 17Th, 2010 according to Box Office Mojo, Get Him to the Greek has raked in $41,739,465.


Favorite critical quote: "Stoller deserves further praise for his use of Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, someone I struggle to call an actor. Maybe he's playing himself as a douche bag music exec, but he's kept in check.
Julian Roman, Movieweb.com

My reaction: You know I may be one of the few people in the country that really did not enjoy The Hangover, so it took me a little while to warm up to this film because it really is very similar in many ways to The Hangover. During the first half of the movie the dialogue was like totally vulgar and crude and almost borders being an exploitation. Heavy drinking, sex, drugs, fighting, vomiting, and Jonah Hill sticking a bag of heroine in his rectum; and there is plenty more that could be added to the list. But just when it seems like you can't take anymore and proceed to throw up on the person sitting next to you, something funny happens: you start to see Aaron Green and Aldous Snow as people not just as characters in a movie. Due to excessive and irresponsible drinking, drug usage, and tons of sex they both have lost everything. They both have also got to know each other and have developed a sense of understanding and compassion for one another. In the final scene when Aldous Snow throws him self of a roof into a pole and fractures his arm of the side of a pool, he begins to make a cloud of blood in the pool, then begins purging his emotions by begging Aaron Green for spiritual guidance and acceptance; It really was quite effective. I kind of wish I could have had a few drinks before seeing this film, maybe I would have felt the emotion just a little more. I think the ending was kind of disappointing for me because it seemed like this movie could have gotten away with all of the crude and vulgar content in the beginning of the movie had it incorporated the intellectual and emotional aspect of the latter half of the film. So ultimately I think that Jude Apataw the king of "gross-out comedies" (Thank you Roger Ebert!) has succeeded in making a quality comedy that is making a decent amount of money. There are plenty of other film makers that envision these "gross-out" comedies as being critically and commercially successful films, and often times they do. Quentin Tarentino always is able to blend blood, sex and violence with emotion, intelligence and sweetness in such a way that critics can't help but applaud his films. Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and Inglorious Bastards all bear the stamp of "graphic-but-quality" films. So overall, it was well worth spending the ten dollars (and that was with a student ID!) to see Get Him to the Greek, I just wish I did not have to endure so much in order to get to a point when I started to like the film.

Prognosis: Since Get Him to the Greek is out of the red after only it second week in wide release, I think that it will go on to make at least another $40,000,0000 world wide and will end up with roughly the same amount that Forgetting Sarah Marshall raked in ($100 million). I really don't think that a third movie within the franchise would do Jude Apataw any justice, but the idea of big box office revenue very often makes film producers do crazy things. Some critics have said that this film won't get nominated for any awards, but something tells me that either Jonah Hill or Russel Brand will receive a nomination in the lead actor in a musical or comedy award at the Golden Globes©, I guess only time will tell. I am actually looking forward to when the Hollywood Foreign Press releases the nominations in December.

references:
Roman, Julian. 16 June 2010. Movieweb. 2010.
http://www.movieweb.com/movie/get-him-to-the-greek/REDVtIDH2E55GM

Box Office Mojo. 17 June 2010. Amazon.com. 18 June 2010
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=gethimtothegreek.htm

Ebert, Roger. "Get Him to the Greek". Rogerebert.com. 2 June 2010. 18 June 2010.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100602/REVIEWS/ 100609992/-1/RSS

Splice

Splice (2010)

Producer: Guillermo Del Torro. Most of Del Torro's films have been in science fiction. I like the majority of the films he produces. I am pretty sure he produced the Hellboy movies, but I could be wrong.

Director: Vincenzo Natalie, he has had a semi-prolific career so far. His most notable film was the 1997 Canadian psychological thriller Cube, which was actually a really good film.

Budget: $30,000,000

Opening Weekend Revenue: $7,385,2777 (Box Office Mojo)

Total Revenue so far: $13,000,000. Yes I know, kind of disappointing.

Starring: Adrian Brody, Sarah Polley (I loved her in Dawn of the Dead and GO)

Critical Reaction: Mostly positive. I liked what the review said in the Post Gazette© but I threw it away, oh well.

Prognosis: Splice will most likely end up barely recovering its production costs of $30,000,000 and might garner up a few nominations for the Saturn Awards which are presented by the Academy Of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films©. I have already read that there are talks about a sequel so I guess we can call Splice a terminal film.

*Terminal Film- A single film or franchise in which the first or most recent film is basically as good as it gets.

What I thought:

Overall, I did like this film. I have to say that I was a little disappointed at the opening weekend, although it was a pretty slow weekend at the box office, I thought a good scary science fiction film was exactly what America wanted, but I guess I was wrong. Still take a look back at the other science fiction films such as The Relic and Mimic; they did well critically but not commercially. Then take a look at the infamous Species, which was a summer blockbuster and was pretty much panned by critics. Ironically most people are comparing Splice to Species and I would like to remind people that most critics panned Species for a lack of intelligence in the storyline and applauded Splice for maintaining intelligence in the storyline, so get your facts straight before you go creating stereotypes.

Even though I really am not a huge fan of Adrian Brody, I do think that he did a decent job as a "superstar genetic engineer". It was really kind of nostalgic sitting in the movie theatre with my heart pounding and hands sweating wondering which hybrid animal/person was going to change sexes and destroy whatever life form within a ten feet radius. I do think that the story line started to get a little carried away towards the end, but it never really got to where it would be considered tacky. At times the CGIs were certainly a little bit below standard, but even Avatar had it's downfalls. I think that if Splice were released in 3D it definitely would have made more money, in fact I think that's ultimately what kept a lot of people away from this film. Avatar and Alice in Wonderland have both kind of set a new standard and I just think that 2010 was not a good year to release a science fiction film with a budget of $30,000,000 and expect to really make any money. But if you're in the mood for a jump out of your seat kind of scary film with a hint of humor and intellect then go see Splice. I personally believe that out of all of the science fiction films that try to deliver the message about the dangers of bio technology, Splice is one of the few entries I didn't hate, so rock on Vincenzo! I really did enjoy Cube.

Reference:

Box Office Mojo. 14 June 2010. Internet Movie Database, Amazon.com.

[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=splice.htm]