GET HIM TO THE GREEK first full review.

GET HIM TO THE GREEK (Preview Screening)
I was a huge fan of FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL. It was probably my favorite comedy in the last few years. (Or one of them anyway.) Because this is a work-in-progress, I will keep this short and sweet. While I was very encouraged early on to learn that while this film had SARAH MASHALL's director writing and directing this time around, I was completely heartbroken to learn that while Jonah Hill has a starring role in this, he's not the same character he was in SARAH MARSHALL. Watching the movie, you kind of get over that really quick. (Although he easily could've been that guy.) In fact, there are quite a few faces from the earlier movie and its fine if a tad distracting. But Jonah Hill is great here, it might be his best work to date. Russel Brand plays Aldo Snow this time around with a lot more complexity and dimension, and the dark and weirder sequences this film gets into kept constantly suprising me. This is not a mild comedy, this is a great hilarious comedy that I suspect will be a huge hit and I'm happy to report might even make a screen star out of a way funnier than expected P. Diddy. I know they're still editing and what I watched will most likely end up being some sort of "director's cut" on the dvd, I saw enough to know that this movie is a huge winner and if you liked the earlier movie, this one is a must see. If you haven't seen the earlier movie, this stands alone as one of the wilder comedies I've seen in years.
While it's unfair to grade this based on the workprint I was shown, I'm going to go out on a limb and reward this early cut with:
Grade: A


THE KING OF COMEDY (DVD)
Just recently rewatched this 1983 absolute gem from Martin Scorsese. Somehow, in the middle of world reknowned classics like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Scorsese and DeNiro, as Rupert Pupkin, shot this in NYC 27 years ago right before a WGA strike threatened to close all production. This is as good as the aforementioned films and perhaps even darker in its implications. I'm not going to bother with much of a synopsis of this film - if you haven't seen it yet, just see it. Rupert Pupkin (played to absolute perfection by DeNiro) is an awful comic who has never even taken the stage, yet dreams of having a close entertainment friendship with Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis - playing a dark variation on Johnny Carson.) Jerry Lewis gives arguably the performance of his life (the actor gave the film a lot of tips on celeb life and this is truly an underlooked performance) and DeNiro could not be better as a showbiz nut who is so far gone he can't seperate fantasy from reality anymore. The only possible component here that doesn't quite play as well as it did is perhaps Sandra Bernhard, who is certainly fine, but a bit over the top and frankly, a bit too much like herself here in her solo scenes with Jerry. That aside, this may be the very best film about show biz I've ever seen, and one of Scorsese's absolute greatest. And for all the praise I just heeped, keep in mind this is an extremely small film whose pleasure come not in huge set pieces but in a low key knowledge of certain types of show biz animals. It holds up better than ever and if for some reason you've skipped it, correct that.
Grade: A +

SNL has been okay the last few weeks, but Zach Galfanakas has been their best guest host in 2 years. His opening bit on the piano 2 weeeks ago was pitch perfect.

THE BAD GIRLS CLUB (OXY)
Wow. Things really heated up in the last batch of episodes. This might be the most insane bunch of ladies since the first season. I never want it to end! If you like these types of reality shows, this one is the bomb!
Grade: B +