When I was a kid, I was lucky enough to have a family that had pretty great taste in movies. Now, I’m not saying that when I was little, people were trying to show me “Citizen Kane” or “Metropolis”, but I was introduced to some of the best comedies of all time. Mel Brooks and Monty Python filled my childhood, as well as a few other key films from before I was born, leading me to quote them with no one knowing what the hell I was talking about.
Recently, my mother and I went to see ‘Get Him to the Greek’ and as the credits rolled, we both looked at each other and knew what was in the other’s mind. It was a remake of her favorite movie, ’My Favorite Year’. Probably one of the best comedies of all time.
Now, I thought ‘Get Him to the Greek’ was pretty great. It was funny, had pretty decent writing and good actors.
It stars Jonah Hill as Aaron Green, the slightly quiet, yet goofy guy. He works at a recording studio for P. Diddy, who plays an extremely insane spoof of himself. Aaron suggests bringing in Aldous Snow for an anniversary show in order to bring in more money, to which P. Diddy basically makes fun of him then tells him to make sure to get Aldous into town safely.
Aldous is played by Russel Brand, who played the same character in ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’. He does a great job being the drunk, difficult to deal with rock star the whole way through.
Initially Aaron has a difficult job getting Aldous back to L.A. but once both characters learn something important about themselves it all becomes a happy ending. You know, the usual formula that works as long as the rest of the movie is good.
And it is. It’s worth the watch.
Anyhow…
‘My Favorite Year’ was released in 1982 and is based in 1954. It stars Mark Linn-Baker as Benjy Stone (AKA Benjamin Steinberg), a junior comedy writer for a sketch show. The character is based on a mixture of Mel Brookes and Woody Alan. The sketch show Benjy is working for announces they have gotten Alan Swann (played by Peter O’Toole), a washed up yet famous actor, to be a guest on the show. However, when he shows up, he’s hammered. Right as they’re about to kick him off the show, Benjy stands up for him and promises to get him to the rehearsals and performance on time and sober.
Alan hears this promise and sticks with sobriety until a few bumps in the road cause him and Benjy to get drunk the night before the big performance. Alan runs off to go see his daughter the next morning, leaving Benjy to panic.
Luckily, Alan shows up on time and is ready in costume. He worries about the live taping and says he’s not going on until Benjy says a heartfelt speech causing everything to end happily ever after.
Both movies have the same plot. The washed up star, some sort of inebriation and the guy that is both a big fan and has to take care of the star.
Aaron and Benjy are pretty much the same sort of character. The small differences being Aaron already having a girlfriend and sex is less of an issue with him, whereas Benjy is chasing a coworker almost the entire movie and mentions sex multiple times.
Aldous and Alan are also essentially the same. They were both once famous and have lost it all with an underlying sadness about their children basically being lost to them. Also, their breakdowns are both the same. Aldous calls up his ex, Jackie and visits her and his son before dissolving even further into alcohol and drugs and lashing out at Aaron. Alan gets drunk with Benjy, they bond and then he leaves Benjy in the hotel room to go visit his daughter. However, while Aldous actually does visit his family, Alan can’t even get out of his car to say “hello”.
A smaller similarity is the star of the sketch show Benjy works for is pretty much insane, like P. Diddy’s character.
Both movies are fantastic, and whether it was intentionally a remake or not, ‘Get Him to the Greek’ was one of the best I have ever seen.
