ComingSoon.net is counting down our five favorite movies starring Russell Brand, a stand-up comedian who has managed to carve out a space for himself in the world of feature films. Check out our choices in the gallery below!
Really more of a stand-up than an actor, British comedian Russell Brand has plenty of notoriety across both North America and Europe. An author and an activist on the side, Brand has proved himself to be a man of many different talents. He’s a big supporter of Transcendental Meditation, the technique founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and popularized by filmmaker David Lynch, but stands for many different causes on top of that. With all this going on, Brand is far from uninteresting.
His characters almost always embody this truth. Eccentric rockers, mad scientists, weird dolls, clueless sidekicks—no matter what kind of role he’s playing, Brand is never boring. Since 1994, Brand has done his best to establish a filmography as eclectic as his personality. For the most part, he’s been hugely successful.
Russell Brand movies
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Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Written by and starring How I Met Your Mother’s Jason Segel, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is one of the best romantic comedies of all time. It’s deeply personal, incredibly heartfelt, and never cheesy. Maybe he picked up more than a few tricks from his former employer Judd Apatow, but Segel knocks it out of the park here with this film. Brand plays Aldous Snow, the new boyfriend of Segel’s longtime girlfriend—the two serve as tormentors for Segel’s character Peter as he tries to get over his breakup at the same vacation spot that his ex and her new man are at.
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Despicable Me (2010)
Brand’s character Dr. Nefario is integral to both Despicable Me and its 2013 sequel. As Gru, former criminal mastermind-turned-new dad, tries his best to build a family, Dr. Nefario frequently encourages him to get back to his life of crime. It’s a funny part—especially considering Brand is much younger than the ancient scooter-riding bad guy he plays—and one of Brand’s best so far.
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Trolls (2016)
Like Despicable Me, Trolls sees Brand playing a somewhat strange bad guy. His character’s name is Creek, an all-knowing giver of advice to the fellow Trolls. It’s undoubtedly a film for children, but these are the kinds of movies Brand seems to gravitate to more often than not.
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Get Him to the Greek (2010)
A spinoff from Forgetting Sarah Marshall but practically a standalone film because of how much is changed between the two, Get Him to the Greek stars Brand as Snow and Jonah Hill as a music executive tasked with getting Brand’s character to a big reunion concert on time (a much different character than the one he played in the first film). Brand could go on playing Aldous Snow for life and everyone would probably be fine with it.
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Bedtime Stories (2008)
One of the better Adam Sandler movies of the 21st century, Bedtime Stories is a pleasant and family-friendly adventure about an uncle’s bedtime stories to his sister’s children unexpectedly coming true. The stories he tells burst into the real world and leave Sandler’s character searching for a happily ever after of his own. Brand is Sandler’s character’s oddball best friend, effectively stealing any scene he happens to be in.
