There are two kinds of cynicism at work in Get Him to the Greek. One is expressed through the knowing, pomposity-lacerating performances of Russell Brand, Sean Coombs and Rose Byrne as narcissistic kings and queens of pop music; the other is expressed by the makers of the film, co-writer/director Nicholas Stoller, writer Jason Segal, and all the professional cynics at Judd Apatow, Inc.

Brand, Coombs and Byrne’s performances are rooted in the subversive kind of cynicism that is wise and understands what a fucked up world we modern humans inhabit, pitilessly slices through the bullshit that makes this tired old world wobble round and lays it all out for us with crystal clarity. Brand and Coombs’ performances, in particular, are informed, it seems, by their utter familiarity with the world-weary types they’re satirizing. (I don’t know what special knowledge enabled Byrne to match them, but she does.)

Unfortunately, the film is mostly the product of dull, deeply conservative and unself-aware Apatovian cynicism, the kind that flatters the audience with the aura of hipness but is ultimately content (complacent, really) with status quo..