Movie Review: Get Him to the Greek

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When life gives you a Jeffrey, stroke the furry wall!

Today's been a good day, slept till my back created a hole on the bed, ate a good dinner, did crunches, had a hot shower and I'm now eating chocolates so that cancels out the crunches. Anyhow, I've read in the status of one of my facebook friends that Get Him to the Greek is the first hilarious movie he watched in the year 2011 so I decided to check it out.

It's a story about Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) and Aldous Snow (Russel Brand), the frontman of a band called Infant Sorrows. Like any other rock star portrayed, Snow is a lonely, lonely soul whose been living life on the fast lane -- taking in all sorts of drugs and alcohol, after the release of his career-ending single African Child. Green works at a label and is given 72 hours to get Aldous Snow in the Greek Theatre for a comeback concert. Basically, the story revolves around that story line. It's quite disappointing because the film featured a lot of cliche frames from the rock star scene and it's reminiscent of other films like The Hangover. What made it quite good is that the movie ended in a good note -- Snow gets clean for six months, the band reunites and Green becomes the producer of the Infant Sorrows. All in all, I think the story was superficial and I give it about three stars, if only for it's attempt at comedic acts.

The movie made me think though, about the entire music scene. I used to listen to bands whose lyrics made an impact on me like Incubus, The Script, Yellowcard, Amber Pacific, The Used... I mean, I still listen to them but now, I'm quite open to other genres. Yeah, there are still some in-depth composers and singers who refuse to sing about sex and drugs, but I can't help but think about how Party in the USA (Miley Cyrus) and Baby (Justin Beiber) have polluted the minds of the younger generation. These kinds of songs may have a good rhythm and beat but while it's probably perfectly okay to to nod your head like yeah and move your hips like yeah, we have forgotten that songs, and music in general have to mean something to you and the audience is supposed to be able to relate to the artist and it's just not like that anymore. I mean, really, what the hell is a G6? I wouldn't have known if I hadn't researched.

And then there's the Filipino music scene (OPM). I hate that novelty songs have become such a hit. Sure, it was funny with Ocho ocho and Pito-pito, and maybe Takatak but I don't think songs like:

1. Lawlaw - Low

2. Payong - Umbrella

3. Binibining Ganda - Beautiful Girls

4. Sundalong Bata - Soulja Boy

5. Isisi Mo Sa Akin - Sorry, Blame it on Me

6. Lampa (Ika'y Mag-Ingat) - Clumsy

7. Sa'yo - With You

8. Sugat sa Puso

9. Wag Mong Pigilan (Awit ng Tugtugan) - Please Don't Stop The Music

really showcase our talent and heart.  We have so much emotion that are best related into songs, but we just let our talent go to waste.

There are only a number of Filipino bands that I listen to -- Urbandub, SinoSiKat, Up Dharma Down, Franco... and most recently, I learned that one of my favorite bands, Bamboo has already disbanded. I haven't read up on the facts though, so I want to look in on that. I strongly believe that our music scene should focus on artists - may they be bands or solo singers - who have a lot of soul and who believe in the strength of their beats, rhythms and lyrics. I already hate to see that a quarter of our generation are oblivious to these kinds of music -- music that's supposed to be felt and words that are written so perfectly that you want to hear a certain song when you're in a certain mood -- it would be much worse to see artists flush away their talents down the drain because we're more interested in the novelty that the soulless songs have to offer.