Get Him to the Greek – Blu-ray Disc Review

September 30, 2010 – 11:07 pm - Posted by: Justin Sluss

Tags: Aziz Ansari, BD-Live, Bonus View, Digital Copy, Elisabeth Moss, Jonah Hill, Judd Apatow, Kristen Bell, Lars Ulrich, Nicholas Stoller, Nick Kroll, Pocket Blu, Rose Byrne, Russell Brand, Sean Combs, T.J. Miller, U-Control, Universal

has an average rating of 6.8 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
are great and include some bonuses!
– &
– 2010
– 110 minutes & 114 minutes (UNRATED)
– Universal
–
This uses 42.6GB total.

Overall Verdict – A Solid Recommendation

Buy it for $19.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Justin Sluss —

Trailer:

The Movie Itself was written and directed by Nicholas Stoller and is a sequel (of sorts) to then 2008 film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” — as in contains the character of “Aldous Snow” (played by Russell Brand) that Jason Segel created for that film and we see him carried over into this film. The character of Aldous now is at a low point in his career with his Rock band “Infant Sorrow” because he had a very offensive and unsuccessful single (music video) titled “African Child“. He also has a rough break-up with his former girlfriend “Jackie Q” (played by Rose Byrne) who also happens to be in the music industry, she’s a pop star known for her very, very sexual songs.

Once we’ve seen all the music videos, the news clips and such about Aldous Snow and Jackie Q, it’s at this point once we have been introduced to our character vital to the plot that we are introduced to the main character that the film really revolves around. This may confuse some but this character IS played by Jonah Hill, who also was in the first film that this is a sequel to, but this is NOT supposed to be the same character at all. The character here in this film is named “Aaron Green” and he’s an intern at a record company, “Pinnacle Records” ran by a man named “Sergio Roma” (played by Sean “P. Diddy” Combs). The idea to have a 10 year reunion concert to reignite the career of Aldous Snow is pitched originally by our main character to the record executive and he turns it down but a few weeks or month or so later, he comes to his senses and decides to opt for the idea. Sergio sends our leading man Aaron to the United Kingdom to pick up Aldous Snow and get him back to America for a press tour and finally a concert at “THE GREEK” in Los Angeles, California. That’s the whole plot of this film. Aaron has to get this heavily drug addicted rock star back to American within a certain amount of days and is forced to party his ass off to keep up with Snow. As a result of all the partying, Aaron really makes tons of mistakes and comes close to not making his deadline and even losing the entertainer that he’s supposed to be escorting.

I have to admit, this really turned out to be funny as hell in my honest opinion but a lot different than “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” in many ways. This film is more of a crazy drug and alcohol fueled road trip from hell at times — even more-so than “The Hangover” honestly. My favorite parts in the film include all of the music videos as they just downright are hilarious and worth watching individually on the bonus materials, the part where they smoke a “Jeffrey” and end up stroking a furry wall in Las Vegas. That’s some pretty crazy shit to be telling you if you haven’t seen the film I know but trust me, once you see it, you’ll probably be agreeing with me. Sure this film isn’t for everyone as it does have some pretty childish humor to it and lots of drug use (in a funny way) but I think it’s definitely worth giving a chance if you enjoyed the character “Aldous Snow” that Russell Brand reprises here from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall“. Plus fans of Jonah Hill and his style of comedy as well as Judd Apatow films will enjoy thisl mainly because Apatow produced it. Lots of good co-starring roles here from folks like Aziz Ansari, T.J. Miller, Nick Kroll, Elisabeth Moss, and even Kristen Bell briefly in a fake commercial reprising her role as “Sarah Marshall“.

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the VC-1 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. According to IMDb‘s technical specifications under aspect ratio this was shot on 35mm film using Panavision cameras and makes for a pretty solid transfer visually to Hi-Def here. The amount of detail in close-ups like in this shot for example looks impressive. There’s a solid black level here, the fleshtones are accurate and the color palette is pretty vibrant at first and then a bit subdued the rest of the film for a bit. There’s no real problems at all here visually, there’s a good amount of film grain still present and it doesn’t seem they have used any digital filters or anything like (DNR or EE). This earns a solid “4 Star Rating” for overall video quality. It doesn’t exactly “pop” off the screen at you but the film has some interesting cinematography, especially in the close-up shot I mentioned earlier.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. For a film that revolves around a rock star (“Aldous Snow“) you’d expect this to have a pretty “rockin’ 5.1 mix” and I’m happy to report to you that it does. During the musical performances by his band “Infant Sorrow“, the vocals are distinctly delivered from the center channel, the music gets a good “oomph” presence in primarily the front left and right channel speakers with a bit of rear channel presence made up with mostly the cheer of the audience and such as well as an obvious good amount of LFE (bass) present. When there’s not music going on and it’s being the dialogue-driven comedy film you’ll find it never misses a beat (so-to-speak). The dialogue is never drowned out by any of the crazy action (Foley, sound effects, screaming and whatnot) that goes on in this film. It’s not quite a front-heavy 5.1 mix per se but it does use the front channels mostly for the dialogue, Foley, music on the Soundtrack and such with a good amount of LFE (bass) presence. If you like the music that Russell Brand performs throughout the film as “Aldous Snow” you’ll really enjoy the audio presentation here. For a comedy this manages to definitely get the job done and earns a solid “4 Star Rating” for overall audio quality.

Bonus materials are presented in both High Definition (HD) and Standard Definition (SD) video quality with both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound. Since there is a variety in both video and audio here, I’ll be indicating the audio mix in each bonus feature’s description below.

Disc 1 (the Blu-ray Disc) also includes:

• BD-Live (as always) is included on this Universal Blu-ray Disc release. This allows users with Internet connectivity and a “Profile 2.0” capable Blu-ray Disc Player to access online content and features. Features such as Pocket Blu which allows you to use your iPhone, iPod Touch, Android or Blackberry phone/device to control the film as well as access bonus features. Unique to this release you have the added EXCLUSIVE feature to stream ONE out of THREE films via BD-Live or via Pocket Blu on your portable devices. The three films are “Uncle Buck“, “Dazed and Confused“, and “LIFE“. All of these titles sadly are not yet available on Blu-ray Disc but I’m guessing this is a sign we can expect them soon; plus it’s just a really cool feature to add in. In fact, they’ve added even more exclusive features for BD-Live to this release. You can RENT these FOUR other comedies for $2.99 each — for a limited time. The films available for rental include: “The 40-Year-Old Virgin“, “Knocked Up“, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall“, and “Role Models” — all of which are already available on Blu-ray.

• “U-Control: Get Him to the Greek Music” uses Picture-In-Picture (Bonus View) which requires the user to be on a “Profile 1.1” capable Blu-ray Disc Player.
Documentaries:
• “Getting to Get Him to the Greek” (32:07 – HD) features Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. This includes interviews with writer/director Nicholas Stoller, producer Judd Apatow, as well as stars Jonah Hill, Elisabeth Moss, and of course Russell Brand.
• “Getting in Tune with the Greek” (13:47 – HD) features Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. This takes a look behind the scenes at the most of the fictional band “Infant Sorrow” that is in the film and how Russell Brand actually performed the songs vocally and such. Lots of behind-the-scenes footage of the studio recording sessions, performances and such as well as interviews with folks like the music supervisor Jonathan Karp, composer Lyle Workman, and songwriters Mike Viola & Dan Bern.
• “The Making of African Child” (6:26 – HD) features Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. This gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the music video for the song from the film sung by “Aldous Snow“. This proves to be funny thanks to Russell Brand‘s sense of humor, improv abilities and the absolute offensiveness to this absurd song.
Music:
• Music Videos (13:52 – HD) for the songs “African Child“, “I Am Jesus“, “Ring ‘Round“, “Supertight“, and “Just Say Yes” are included. These all feature Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.
• “The Greek Concert 1999” (6:35 – HD) includes two songs and features Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
• “The Greek Concert 2009” (11:36 – HD) includes three songs and features Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
• “The Today Show: The Clap” (3:04 – HD) features Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
• “VH1 Storytellers: Furry Walls” (3:22 – HD) features Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
• “World Tour: Riding Daphne” (3:48 – HD) features Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
• “London O2 Concert” (11:00 – HD) includes two songs and features Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. This features cameos by Jason Segel and Jack Black who perform a song, you may remember it from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall“.
Karoake (HD) is included for the following songs:
• “African Child“
• “I Am Jesus“
• “Ring ‘Round“
• “Supertight“
• “Just Say Yes“
• “Gang of Lust“
• “Going Up (1999)“
• “Bangers, Beans & Mash“
• “Yeah Yeah Oi Oi“
• “Going Up (2009)“
• “The Today Show: The Clap“
• “VH1 Storytellers: Furry Walls“
• “World Tour: Riding Daphne“
• “I Am Jesus / Inside of You“
• “Dracula’s Lament“

Disc 2 is a DVD and DVD-ROM. It includes:

• “Gag Reel” (10:18 – SD) is in two parts.
• “Line-O-Rama” (9:12 – SD)
• “Alternate Intro: The Castle” (5:53 – SD)
• “Alternate Ending: Riding Daphne” (3:17 – SD)
• Deleted Scenes (18:20 – SD)
• Extended & Alternate Scenes (35:47 – SD)
• “Blind Medicine” (2:31 – SD) is an extended clip of the parody show that “Sarah Marshall” (Kristen Bell) from the film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is supposed to be doing now in this, its sequel.
• “Interviews” (18:02 – SD) from “The One Show”, MTV, “The Today Show”, and “The View” are included. These all are FAKE and were done for the film, not in promotion for the film.
• “Auditions” (17:47 – SD) for co-stars Rose Byrne, Elisabeth Moss, Nick Kroll, Aziz Ansari, and T.J. Miller are included.
Plus:
• Digital Copy of the film is included which is compatible with both Mac and PC, iTunes and Windows Media portable devices.

Overall, the bonus materials are pretty damn in-depth, to say the very least. There’s hours of material of which is mostly in Hi-Def, as well as Standard Definition content on the DVD disc that also functions as a DVD-ROM for the Digital Copy of the film. Plus, the really exciting thing here (if you have a player capable and Internet connectivity) is the ability to stream 1 out 3 bonus films discussed above to either your TV or portable device such as iPhone, iPad and I would think Android and Blackberry as well via the Pocket Blu app. This feature is an industry first that we originally saw on the remake of “The Wolfman” in its Blu-ray Disc release, where you could watch the original film via it. To see it now being used to let users pick from 1 out of 3 films and even be able to rent films in Hi-Def is pretty impressive.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Be PATIENT with the loading times, as you should keep in mind that these files are (on average) at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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