Tag: russell

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New Despicable Me(2010) Clips

Check these out, new clips from Despicable Me, the new animated feature starring Steve Carell(The Office, Dinner For Schmucks), Jason Segel(Forgetting Sarah Marshall), and Russell Brand(Get Him to The Greek). Synopsis: In a happy suburban neighbourhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn. Unbeknownst to the neighbours, hidden deep beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by an army of tireless, little yellow minions, we discover Gru (Steve Carell), planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon (Yes, the moon!) in Universal’s new 3-D CGI feature, Despicable Me. Gru delights in all things wicked. Armed with his arsenal of shrink rays, freeze rays and battle-ready vehicles for land and air, he vanquishes all who stand in his way. Until the day he encounters the immense will of three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad. One of the world’s greatest super-villains has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes. Clip 1: Gru talks to his mother while she Kung Fus Clip 2: Gru tells his minions his next plan Clip 3: Gru tries to get girls to sleep LOL, sweet. This looks hilarious, Carell just has a voice you simply HAVE to laugh at. Well, not that funny. Still laughable. Kazed.

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Get Him To The Greek (2010) Review

Synopsis - We were first introduced to Russell Brand’s out-of-control rock star Aldous Snow in 2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where he hilariously appeared as the love rival to Jason Segel’s recently-dumped protagonist Peter. While Brand’s role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall was relatively small, and asked very little of him in the way of acting, writer/director team Segel and Nicholas Stoller give him centre stage in Get Him to the Greek, in this, less sequel, more spin-off, to the 2008 comedy. While my expectations of Brand were high after his handling of the role in Sarah Marshall, where he played a rather exaggerated version of himself, he generally failed to impress in this first attempt at a major role. Snow is a role suited to the flamboyant, ex-heroin and sex-addicted,  dandy from Essex, whose stand-up and Ponderland shows I absolutely adore, so it was disappointing when he overacted the part. After Brand bombing as host of the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, it is perhaps understandable that the movie’s producers were keen to edge away from his recognizable humour and mannerisms, but, to me, this fell short of the mark; Snow as a character is not far enough away from Brand himself to merit a response praising impressive acting, nor close enough to encourage the kind of hysterical laughter we are used to with his usual antics. In my opinion, Brand should stick to what he knows, and perhaps take a leaf out of one of our other national comical treasures, Ricky Gervais’, book, who has basically made a living out of constantly re-dressing David Brent. Similarly, the film as a whole seemed to be lacking something, which stopped it just short of being a fantastic comedy. Don’t get me wrong, there were moments that left me crying with laughter (see ‘Geoffrey and furry walls’ scene, and Snow’s snidey comeback to a certain heavy-metal drummer), but there was no consistency in the humour. It seemed to sit on the fence between cracking farcical comedy (a la The Hangover and Superbad), and sentimental, yet light-hearted drama. While rom-coms pull this off all the time, Get Him to the Greek just couldn’t get the mix right, and any attempt at tragedy or emotional engagement left me feeling rather flat with the whole experience. It wasn’t all bad, however, and the upsides included some fantastic cameos (of which P Diddy was NOT one) and an excellent selection of pop-culture references, some rather more obsure than others; see aforementioned drummer comment and the best introduction to prog supergroup The Mars Volta ever. Jonah ‘Superbad’ Hill also played his role of  the responsible record company chaperone being led astray by Snow down to a tee, not disappointing but not particularly shining either. In all, Get Him To The Greek is a fun, pretty harmless piece of entertainment, but don’t expect a laugh-a-minute, as you’ll have plenty of time to rest between the sporadic aisle-rolling hysteria. 6/10 Steve