A music-industry satire with laughs and naughtiness

How to put this politely? Though frequently riotous, Get Him to the Greek, the Forgetting Sarah Marshall spin-off with Russell Brand and Jonah Hill reprising their characters as shaggy British rocker Aldous Snow and his fawning fan, is Hamburger Helper with more helper than hamburger. This time, the supporting players are the stars.

Yet even while these secondary figures don't fully rise to leading-man dimensions, the film succeeds as a music-industry satire, a very naughty version of Almost Famous. This time, the fanboy does not write the legend of the rocker but restores him to former glory. Call their misadventures - which involve more sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll than Keith Richards indulged in during his debauched days - Almost Infamous.

Resembling a Goth Willy Wonka, Aldous - who once topped the charts with his album Infant Sorrow - releases a new album, African Child. Promptly it is denounced as the worst thing to hit that continent since apartheid. After the bad reviews and the breakup with his Spice Girl-type wife, Jackie Q (Rose Byrne), Aldous hits the skids and the bottle.

Back in Los Angeles, music-industry executive Sergio Roma (P. Diddy, unexpectedly funny) is about to cut Aldous loose. Then Aaron (Hill), a puppyish junior exec at the label, suggests mounting a comeback concert on the 10th anniversary of Aldous' celebrated live show.

Now all they have to do is get Aldous, who drinks his weight in beer every morning and consumes heroin like cornflakes, from London to Los Angeles' Greek Theatre for the gig. Hence the film's title.

Director Nicholas Stoller (who likewise helmed Sarah Marshall and is a charter member of the Judd Apatow fraternity) ticks off the differences of this mismatched duo for Laurel-and-Hardy comic effect.

Aldous is lean as a string bean; Aaron round as a doughnut. Aldous is a loose cannon; Aaron is firmly anchored. Aldous has no emotional ties; Aaron has a live-in girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss, a medical resident).