Men's Trip

Admittedly, he was only a minor character in the comedy "Never Sex With The Ex Again. Still, pop star Aldous Snow, portrayed by British chaos comedian Russell Brand, was so popular with viewers that he has now been given his own movie. He's joined by Jonah Hill, who has also appeared in "Never Sex With That Ex Again", but embodies a completely different character here.

Hill plays ambitious but still inexperienced music manager Aaron Green, who faces the biggest challenge of his career: getting Aldous Snow, who has been battered by alcohol, failure and drugs, from London to Los Angeles for a big comeback concert. What should sound like a simple mission quickly turns out to be Aaron's biggest nightmare. Not only does Aldous keep postponing the flight as he moves from one party to the next. When he also learns that his ex, pop starlet Jackie Q (Rose Byrne), is in L.A., trying to win her back is much more important to him than the big concert at the Greek Theatre. A side trip to Las Vegas, a wild-eyed boss (Sean Combs) and an unnerved girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss) also make it nearly impossible for Aaron to get Aldous Snow to the Greek on time...

"Men's Trip" is truly not sophisticated comedy cinema. What is given here in raunchy dialogues and bodily fluids of itself, does not really move on a high level. And yet: even if some gags are clearly too low below the belt, the whole thing still works surprisingly well. This is, apart from some self-deprecating guest appearances of well-known stars from the music and movie business, mainly due to the main actors. Russel Brand is simply great and surprisingly believable as a crazed pop star with an over-ego. Jonah Hill, as in most of his previous roles, shows little real ability to change. But here he works great as the exact opposite of Russell Brand, giving the film much of its comedic power.

What's also to the film's credit is that the makers have also gone to great lengths with the soundtrack. The songs that Aldous Snow, but also his beloved ex Jackie Q. sing, are not only funny, but also very catchy and some of them really good. No wonder really, since well-known musicians like Jarvis Cocker, former frontman of Pulp, also worked on the creation of the songs. Also Jason Segel ("How I met your mother"), leading actor and screenwriter of "Never again sex with the ex", has, as in the previous film, again demonstrated his talent as a songwriter.

Director Nicholas Stoller has, as in "Never again sex with the ex", frivolities and obscenities mixed with charm and heart. It doesn't work quite as well as it did the first time around, but the bottom line is that this Judd Apatow production has more laughs to offer than moments of foreign shame, and is therefore, at least for fans of slightly heftier US comedies, absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp