Viewed in
2011
Formats
DVD
Premise
Jonah Hill and Russell Brand star as music label lackey and disgraced rock star, in which Hill tries to get Brand from England to Los Angeles in one piece.
Loved
Sean "Diddy" combs.
Liked
Hill and Brand.
Hated
The dramatic last act.
Thoughts
The first hour was quite hilarious.
Diddy pretty much stole the show with his comedy. It really was shocking how natural he was at being loudly hilarious without being annoying. Hill and Brand had their moments of buddy comedy that worked most of the time. The funniest moments usually were when the film went over-the-top with sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll. There were tons of amusing cameos, the ones that left me in stitches were Paul Krugman, Pharrell Williams, Metallica's Lars Ulrich, and Tom Felton (aka Draco Malfoy).
The movie lost me after the Las Vegas scene. Suddenly it nosedived into super-serious character drama that I did not care for, and frankly, got weirded out in a couple of scenes. Obviously, it was expected that both Hill and Brand's characters would reach some sort of epiphany about their lives, but the writing and execution became prolonged and clumsy.
It had its moments of hilarity, and I could not get enough of Diddy. Then it made the cardinal mistake of changing genres in attempt to be more than a silly buddy comedy.
What I would change
Taken out the melodramatic scenes from the third act.
Personal
It was cool to see Star Trek: The Next Generation alum Colm Meaney, but his character was pretty useless.
