Michael Winterbottom (A Cock and Bull Story, 24 Hour Party People) directs brilliant British comedians Steve Coogan (I'm Alan Partridge) and Rob Brydon (Gavin & Stacey) playing fictionalised versions of themselves on a road trip around the UK, ostensibly working as restaurant critics.
Coogan is asked by The Observer newspaper to tour England's finest restaurants. But when his girlfriend pulls out, his perfect holiday falls through and he asks his friend and source of eternal aggravation, Brydon, to join him. Dining their way around the English countryside, they drive each other up the wall with their incessant competitiveness, bad moods and personal crisis.
The film was put together using footage from their BAFTA winning TV series of the same name.
If you’ve already seen the 6-part BBC series version of The Trip, there’s probably no real need to go out of your way to watch this condensed theatrical cut. It isn’t a terrible hatchet job per se – in fact, it’s pieced together well enough that unless you’re an eagle-eyed super fan who’s able to detect the minutest of plot differences, you won’t notice what’s exactly missing narratively. But the series’ effectiveness was partly due to its meandering quality and the melancholy mood that settled in even as we’re watching Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon hilariously one-up each other with their impressions of fellow actors.
The underlying ruefulness, enhanced by Michael Nyman’s plaintive score, made it much more than a sitcom-y vanity project, and the episodic nature of television emphasised the element of time passing which was crucial to the characters’ growing distance from their loved ones. The film is slightly missing this, and the impersonations can also get a little trying when taken in such quick succession.
That said, if you haven’t got 180 minutes to sit through the series, then this 107-minute cut is more than an agreeable alternative. The relaxed, semi-improvised rapport between them, often open to gentle ribbing, bickering and competitiveness, remains sharp and drolly funny, while the array of mouth-watering culinary delights and stunning shots of the Northern English countryside will make you wish the film came with a travel package of the exact same trip they took.
By Aaron Yap, Flicks.co.nz
Michael Winterbottom is the British Steven Soderberg - every movie he does is different and he makes three different movies before breakfast... But this is really nothing more than an edited down version of a quaint British TV "documentary"-style comedy which followed comics Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon around various restaurants. The TV show is okay - nothing great, but fun for fans of Coogan and Brydon - and the film is okay too, if just a condensed version of the TV series' six half-hour episodes. Coogan and Brydon play themselves as if they dislike one another - but we've seen them do this before in Winterbottom's "A Cock And Bull Story." It's all very... middle of the road, middle class and middle-aged really. In fact "middling" sums it up. There's my title for this review and a description of the movie in a nutshell. One to buy on DVD for the inlaws - inoffensensive and unimpressive and worst of all - not that funny. At times it brings a smile but there's nothing here to dampen the feeling that Winterbottom's on cruise control here and Coogan and Brydon are simply earning money and free grub for old, old rope. The pleasant settings and British landscapes make this feel like a Michael Palin or Billy Connolly travelogue. Why do British comedians retire from comedy by making these kind of travel shows? Easy money and free travel? Either way, there's a growing audience of the over sixties who love this sort of thing. Perhaps "The Trip" is a post, post modern ironic take on that... but then again, perhaps not.
Certainly not demanding on any level, but helped pass the time enjoyably.
good, but not great i think i should get a copy of the original tv show this footage was all culled from in order to understand the movie fully. whilst it is entertaining and sometimes very funny indeed, the laughs are not sustained enough to overcome the undercurrent of melancholy in Coogan's caricature of himself - and he appears to be just mean-spirited and a bit of a git. Brydon gets all the sympathy. A bit a of a Barney Rubble to Coogan's Fred Flintsone.
Two middle aged man rambling around bla bla bla they're dead boring and that goes on for nearly two hours, the film feels endless.
If you're anything like me, and Steve Coogan's personal state in the film resonates with yours, it will be a somber feeling you'll walk out with. The film itself is not a 'comedy' so to speak, but seemingly more so a semi fictional biography. There are many moments throughout the film that simply feel like a documentary on the chalk and cheese lifestyles of two men who have made very different life choices. One who has settled down, is more than happy with what he has and has accepted his life for what it is, while the other still chases his own genius, sees himself as a tortured artist and in a real sense he is. It is not a film about impressions, it is a film with many subliminal messages and outward messages also. The humour in the film is fantastic, just watching the two compete and bounce off each other creatively is fantastic and creates a great rivalry between the two, eager to impress and out-do each other in front of who-ever they can. The scenery in the film is magic and England's north is incredibly picturesque and adds to the ambience of the film, as much as the poetry which is read throughout. If you want simply want a laugh, this film will provide that for you but if that's all you're looking for, then perhaps this film will not be for you. It is more so a story about different paths people can take in life and the present result of those paths. It's a film about choices we make. It's a great insight into what is quite likely the current mind-set of Steve Coogan, which is a lot more than 'Aha!' and Alan Partridge. Fantastic film, and may leave you looking in the mirror when you get home.
Make no mistake: The Trip is a fine, funny movie. But there's no reason why it couldn't have been even finer and funnier.
The combination of Brydon and Coogan’s snarky impersonation rivalry and Coogan’s morose, mid-life career reflections, will leave fans of Alan Partridge, Three Men In A Boat, and other top-notch British comedies, well fed by this picturesque, ‘over-priced food’ tour.
This is a great deal more entertaining than it sounds, in large part because the two actors are gifted mimics - Brydon the better one, although Coogan doesn't think so.
The project suffers badly from being largely improvised as the pair fall back on familiar impressions and old jokes. Lazy and indulgent, it smacks of being what the British call a "jolly," that is a freebie with no obligation to turn in work afterward.
Coogan and Brydon are either quite brilliant at this or just serving up slight variations of their very witty selves. Either way, their travels and squabbles are great fun to watch, the countryside is bucolic, the food mouthwatering. You just wouldn't want to go on a real road trip with them.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 20th Oct 2011.
Release date: October 20th 2011.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
