Russell Brand is being rude. This time it’s not Andrew Sachs who’s his target, but MTV news anchor Kurt Loder.
Faced with a few inane questions, Brand unleashes a torrent of profane responses, odd sexual threats (“I could laminate you”) and finally, a stream of hot piss all over the studio floor. This interview is over.
Of course, it’s not actually Russell Brand behaving badly, but his rock star alter-ego Aldous Snow, first seen in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller again directs) and now the subject of this off-kilter spin-off.
The line between character and actor is pretty fuzzy – Brand is unsurprisingly convincing as a hard-partying lothario, but co-star Jonah Hill bravely plays it straight as the “affable nitwit” tasked with getting his hero to a gig on time.
It sounds like a simple caper movie, but Greek’s erratic, improv-heavy screenplay frequently minces off on hit-and-miss dramatic tangents, attempting to beef up its caricatures by giving Snow stormy issues with his father (played by Colm Meaney) and a drug habit that’s played for laughs one minute (a calamitous toke on a mega-spliff called ‘Geoffrey’) and emotional beats the next.
Bizarrely, it’s P Diddy who races off with the comic spoils as angry producer Sergio (“You cannot outrun me! I am black!”).
This being an Apatow production, there’s the usual array of deleted, extended and alternate scenes and line-readings in the bountiful supplements. Plus two gag reels.
Which is a bit indulgent, but you will laugh quite a lot. Just like the main feature, then.
