I don’t know how it happened. I can’t really explain how I found myself in this situation, and I’m almost positive that I cannot justify it.

But there I was, in the spring of 2008, sitting in a sold out movie theater with my hands creating make-shift horse blinders to block my view of the audience members to my left and right, while Jason Segel dropped towel exposing…well everything within the first five minutes of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It doesn’t sound that bad does it–just a little full frontal nudity, right?

This wouldn’t have been awkward at all, except for the fact the people to my left and to my right were my mother and my older brother. There was no empty seat in theater to save me, not an out-of-order one or even an oddly stained chair that moviegoers had left to lie; I was trapped. With no escape, I settled in for what seemed like eight insufferable hours of sex scenes. I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as I recall. The writing was probably clever, and the acting well done, but under the conditions my memories of it are only filled with flashes of Russell Brand dry humping inanimate objects and the people I sit next to at church by my side.

When I see a preview for any flick touted with the Judd Apatow produced seal of approval, my response is a little less than enthusiastic. I’ve endured endless Facebook status updates from friends quoting McLovin’, the birth scene in Knocked Up nearly left me dry heaving at the miracle of life, and excuse me for saying this, but one person can only take so many Ron Burgundy impersonations six years after Anchorman’s release. I mean sure, these movies are good for a quote or twenty, but I like to fancy my taste level a tier or two above an hour and a half of craftily written sexual jokes.

So color me surprised when I actually, dare I say it, enjoyed Get Him to the Greek. The movie is a spinoff sequel of sorts to Marshall. It’s written by the same duo of Segel and Nicholas Stoller, with Brand reprising his role as the pretentious, vain, obnoxious, seemingly half-witted rock star Aldous Snow.

Aldous is your stereotypical narcissistic musician whose been fed the word ‘yes’ so many times, he truly believes he can do no wrong. He no longer writes songs he actually believes in; instead garbling out whatever his music producer mixes together, assured all the while that his image alone is enough to justify and sell a record. But, his latest single “African Child” has been dubbed the worst thing to happen to black culture since The Apartheid. Mix that blow to his already fledgling career with an addictive, destructive personality and a pop star wife, Jackie Q (Rose Byrne) whose recently fallen off the sobriety wagon, and Snow‘s life begins to completely unravel.

Jackie, who makes Lindsay Lohan look like a charmer, shacks up with Lars Ulrich, the drummer from Metallica (playing himself) and calls it off with Aldous. He pretends to be all-to-pleased after “laboring under the burden of monogamy” for several years, though his definition of the term is simply letting his wife know about his adulterous affairs. But his denial simply results in a sick spiral of drugs and alcohol that take control of the superstar’s life once again.

Enter music intern Aaron Green (Jonah Hill). His record mogul boss Sergio Roma (Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs) sends him on a mission to escort the rocker from London to the famous Greek Theater in L.A. for his comeback show. Although Aldous has plans of his own, and though he seems like a simple-minded addict, it’s all just smoke and mirrors for this master of manipulation. Before he knows it, Aaron is being taken for the ride of his life, mixed in with a drug trip or two.

Though it may not be marked by the amazing lone-wolf speech or tiger lullaby that made last year’s The Hangover so great and memorable, Greek still delivers with a nice change of pace from complete gross out comedy to a smart script with a dryer wit than any other Apatow film. Brand, a real life former sex and drug addict, doesn’t have to stretch too far to play the part of Snow, but he does add some nice depth and likeability to a role that so easily could be a superficial shell. And, he also shows off a surprisingly nice Brandon Flowers (The Killers) esque voice in the film’s songs; witty little gems like Furry Walls, Bangers and Mash, and a catchy take on sexually transmitted diseases called ”the clap”. No pun intended. Ok, maybe a little. But it’s Hill who gives the best performance of the movie, endearing the audience to his do-gooder character that is thrown in to a whirlwind of morally reprehensible situations.

The laughs aren’t constant, but the well written build up makes the ones that do come, huge. Get Him to the Greek is well worth a trip to the cinema; just don’t bring your mother.