Get Him to the Greek

Starring: Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Rose Byrne
Directed by: Nicholas Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”)
Written by: Nicholas Stoller (“Yes Man”)
 
What happens when you take the most irritating character from the very funny 2008 comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and create a spin-off movie just for him? While a first impression of actor Russell Brand’s narcissistic British rock star Aldous Snow might be as grating as an Emerson, Lake & Palmer track (shudder), he actually grows on you in the new film “Get Him to the Greek.” And even if he doesn’t, you’ll be laughing too hard to care.
 
In the film, Brand reprises his role as a less-sober version of Aldous, lead singer of the popular band Infinite Sorrow, who has since fallen off the wagon when his life begins to spiral out of control. His latest pretentious song “African Child” is receiving some critical backlash (its called “the worst thing to happen to Africa since the Apartheid”) and his Victoria Beckham-esque girlfriend Jackie Q (Rose Byrne) has dumped him.
 
His career is all but over until lowly record company minion Aaron Green (Jonah Hill, who was also in “Sarah Marshall,” but played a different character) suggests to his high-strung boss Sergio Roma (Sean Combs in a scene-stealing role) that booking Aldous for a 10-year anniversary concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles is just the thing the record label needs to make some serious cash.
 
To make it happen, Aaron must fly to London to pick up the fried musician, escort him to N.Y. for some press and then to L.A. for the performance. But when Aaron arrives, Aldous becomes much more interested in partying hard than getting on the flight. When he promises Aaron the time of his life, the concert at the Greek falls a few slots down on the priority list as the two make a mad dash cross country in a riotous road-trip comedy.

As a raunchy, hard R-rated flick, “Greek” resembles some of the more recently successful foul-mouthed comedies of the past few years including “Superbad” and “Knocked Up.” Director Judd Apatow, who seems to have his hand in most of these movies in some form or another, serves as producer on this one.

Brand, who might be viewed as a one-trick pony, gives Aldous more of a human element here that would not have fit well in “Sarah Marshall.” Most of the comedy does work because his character is so reprehensible at times, but the cockiness is balanced out nicely by some surprisingly genuine scenes that deal with depression and loneliness. Also there to keep Brand from going overboard is Hill, who over the last six years has become a comedic genius. His timing, subtle delivery, and overall likeability are taking him places.

While a film like “Almost Famous” might have romanticize what it would be like to spend some time on the road with musicians, “Greek” does the opposite. It takes the rock star lifestyle into extreme territory. It’s only halfway through the year, but “Get Him to the Greek” is the most side-splitting comedy to hit theaters thus far.

Adam

Starring: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher
Directed by: Max Mayer (“Better Living”)
Written by: Max Mayer (“Better Living”)

It’s no “Rain Man,” but the new romantic dramedy “Adam” paints a realistic picture of someone living with a development disorder and combines it with a sweet and gentle love story that is hard to resist even during its most mawkish moments.

Hugh Dancy (“Confessions of a Shopaholic”) gives a fine performance as Adam Raki, a 29-year-old man living a lonely life in Manhattan with a type of high-functioning autism called Asperger’s Syndrome. The disability causes Adam to feel anxious in social situations and affects certain aspects of his behavior.

When Adam’s father passes away, he is left to make it on his own and falls back into the comfort of his daily routine as a mechanical engineer for a toy company. It’s a perfect job for the introverted Adam who is able to keep to himself and tinker away with gadgets without being bothered.

Adam’s habitual lifestyle is given a little boost when he meets Beth Buchwald (Rose Byrne), a new girl who has moved into his apartment building and cautiously takes a liking to Adam’s oddities. Adam, an expert in all things space related, attempts to befriend her with his knowledge of astronomy and the theory of relativity. Beth is fairly interested, but seems more fascinated with his little idiosyncrasies (he takes things too literally, rambles, and can’t connect emotionally to people). He’s like a less self-pitying version of Zach Braff’s character in “Garden State.”

As their friendship and relationship blossom, Adam and Beth learn more about each other and what makes the other tick. While director/writer Max Mayer (“Better Living”) keeps his couple at the center of his cinematic universe for the majority of the picture, a secondary storyline about Beth’s father (Peter Gallagher) comes out of left field and burdens the picture with a family dynamic that just doesn’t fit into the framing of the story.

Still, Mayer does as satisfactory job with his two leads. He never lets Adam’s limitations become a one-note joke or easy way out of a difficult scene. As Adam and Beth continue their relationship, Mayer, while playing it a bit too safe in the narrative, allows them to develop their bond logically and without the stereotypical plot points you would see in other offbeat romances.

Who knew guys with Aspberger’s Syndrome were going to become the most dateable guys around? At least that’s what Dancy does with Adam and all his charms. With some inviting depth to the character, “Adam” is more than a movie about someone learning how to deal with his or her special needs.

Knowing

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury
Directed by: Alex Proyas (“I, Robot”)
Written by: Alex Proyas (“Dark City”), Juliet Snowden (“Boogeyman”), Stiles White (“Boogeyman”), Stuart Hazeldine (debut), Ryne Douglas Pearson (debut)

Actor Nicolas Cage has only been making consistently terrible choices in movies since 2006, so why does it seem longer?

After doing a fine job in the Oliver Stone–helmed “World Trade Center” where he played a New York City Port Authority police officer, Cage went on a massive losing streak with critical bombs including “The Wicker Man,” “Ghost Rider,” “Next” and “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” and “Bangkok Dangerous.” While it’s only been three years of cinematic gaffes, the torture Cage has put us through seems endless.

He continues his mission of futility with his latest bomb, “Knowing,” an absurd sci-fi movie posing as an end-of-the-world thriller, both of which support the idea that moviegoers should always do their research before going to the theater and raise a red flag when a production gives more than a couple of screenwriters credit for the work. In “Knowing,” five (!) writers are credited and none of them come close to making anything credible or inventive.

It might be just a mediocre combination of ideas, but “Knowing” ends up being a haphazard mess starting from the top. Cage plays John Koestler, a college professor and astrophysicist who stumbles onto a sort of numerical puzzle that reveals the dates, coordinates, and death toll of the world’s most major tragedies.

The list of random numbers comes from a time capsule buried 50 years prior at the school where John’s son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) now attends. Back in 1959, schoolchildren were given an assignment to draw a picture of what they thought the world would look like in the future. Instead of drawing robots and astronauts like her classmates, one of the students, Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson), an antisocial little girl with dark circles under her eyes who hears voices, begins to handwrite a sequence of numbers on her paper.

Fifty years later, Caleb ends up taking the excavated note home where his father begins to decipher what it means. For this plot point, all the five-headed screenwriting team could come up with for John’s interest in the numbers is that a stain he accidently makes on the paper directs his eyes to the numbers 9112001, code for the attacks on 9/11. From there, John, like Jim Carrey in “The Number 23,” becomes obsessed with his set of digits, the last of which point to the date of the earth’s demise.

The end of the world doesn’t come soon enough as Proyas and his team focus more on the computer-generated disaster scenes than they do on the actual narrative. Cage and the rest of the cast, which includes Rose Byrne (“28 Weeks Later”) as Diana Wayland, Lucinda’s grown daughter, become pawns for the unpredictable albeit mangled conclusion. “Knowing” thinks it’s more meaningful than it actually is, and that’s the most disturbing part of its inconspicuousness.