GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

adi-59541 I'm always on the lookout for comedy series to entertain me during my short lunch break whilst sat in my little office on my own far from civilisation. So far.. Green Wing, Mitchell and Webb, the excellent Big Train, the surreal Garth Marenghis Darkplace, The Great Outdoors, and others have stood the test of my thirty minute sandwich break.This time, its 'The Trip' , and I don't expect to get through it, as its already becoming tedious after three episodes. This is clearly nothing more than a marketing gimmick for the restaurants involved.. its certainly not a comedy. Its basically Rob and Steve sat at a table, doing impressions, and that's as far as the plot goes. They're not comedy impressions though, just regular, everyday impressions. The type of impressions that impressionists with no comedy talent (such as Alistair McGowan) think are funny... ie, they're not funny at all.The best thing about this series is actually the scenery that the UK has to offer. They go to some stunning locations and some nice hotels and restaurants. But, the restaurants clearly have some kind of marketing involvement going on here, as we are treated to full menu breakdowns, shots of the kitchens and chefs, history of said restaurant or hotel, and as yet, not a bad word to be said about any of them by Steve or Rob.Odd program.. sometimes uncomfortable viewing.. certainly not funny.

morrison-dylan-fan Ever since me and the rest of my family spent a very rainy summer holiday being entertained for the whole time via some video tapes of a TV show called Knowing Me,Knowing You With Alan Partridge that we picked up from a near by car boot sale,I have always done my best to keep a bit of an eye on what projects Partridge actor Steve Coogan and lead writer Armando Iannucci (now an Oscar nom!) have each been up to,with even the low point in their works(Dr Terrible's House of Horrible,The Armando Iannucci Show)featuring some very good moments.Whilst waiting for this series to arrive in the post (which I had intentionally made sure not to watch on TV) I began to hear that the BBC were going to do a "Man From U.N.C.L.E." and bring out a slashed-down 90 minute version of the series as a film in the US,which made me decide that I would not take any short cuts,but instead go for the full 3 hour,wonderful trip.The plot: After being given a job by a newspaper called The Observer to be their guest food critic for the month,actor Steve Coogan rings up his American girlfriend to ask if she will come along with him on a week long tour of restaurant's in the north of England,Sadly for Coogan,he finds that his girlfriend is doing what he has been attempting to succeed at for the last 10 years:working in America.Desperate to not go alone on this tour of the north,Steve eventually rings up his best friend Rob Brydon, who he gives a nudge until he eventually accepts Coogan's offer.As the pair start to go on their travels,Steve begins to feel that he's lowed himself by accepting The Observer job,due to feeling that whilst Brydon is happy being a "populist" entertainer in the UK, he should instead be focusing on the opportunity that he has been searching after for years,which finally may transform him into an A-List Holloywood "autor" actor:a HBO series.Initially being thrilled to jump for the offer,Coogan begins to have doubts on his current path,when he begins to realise that his best friend has a much better personal life than he has ever had.View on the film/series: When checking up for details of Steve Coogan's third (and Rob Brydon's second) collaboration with director Michael Winterbottom,I began to get a strong suspicion that with the series/film's basic plot of: two men travel to posh café's,eat,drink and chat-the end!,there seemed to be a very strong chance that the latest collaboration between all three would choke on its own self indulgences.Lucky the largely improvised script balances itself on a tightrope between a post-modern,meta comedy and a touching melodrama about ambition and friends.Compared to the rough "acid" look that Winterbottom gave to his tremendous Coogan co-starring film based around the late 70's-late 90's music scene in Manchester (24 Hour Party People),the film/series has a extremely stark,crisp appearance that allows Winterbottom to show all of the natural "faults" with his cast,Along with making the beautiful filming location's look like places that you almost instantly want to get in a car and visit for yourself.If,like me you have experience sleepless nights due to wondering about question's such as:"How would Woody Allen sound if he was Welsh?","What is Richard Gere looking at off-screen?",and of course the main question: "How would it be to take part in a Michael Caine battle rap?" Well,I am pleased to announce that you can now sleep peacefully now, thanks to the stunning dinner conversations that Steve and Rob have over the six episodes being jam-packed with hilariously good impressions that will keep you laughing for the whole 90 mins/3 hours and also features moments that will stay in your head long after the viewing.At around the half-way mark of viewing the series,I began to realise that the main highlight for me was starting to become seeing how much the real and the fake Steve Coogan would blend into each other as Coogan gives what is impressively the strongest performance of his whole career,as Rob Brydon's charming performance of a family man allows Coogan to create a character of himself who seems to have come off the set of HBO's amazing The Larry Sanders Show,thanks to him ripping any protective mask into pieces as the character (and perhaps Coogan's real) flaws get placed on the table for the audience to see in the open,which gives this film/series the chance to end on a perfectly pitched,delicate melancholia note.One bit that I do have to say about the different cuts,is that whilst no big plot twist gets left on the cutting room floor,the 3 hour TV version stands proud as the definitive cut,due to the extra 90 minutes letting a whole lot more punchlines be included and also gives the Coogan Brydon friendship a lot more depth,thanks to the extended running time.

packoftwenty I thought I was a big Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon fan, until I saw this. I think the words 'self indulgent' spring to mind, and not just on the part of Coogan and Brydon, but the idiotic 'just out of university' camera man and director. My god - was it really necessary to show stupid, wavering close up shots, over the shoulder of Brydon, of his plate, as if to point out for the more intellectually challenged amongst us, what he was eating? The whole thing is just painful to watch, I haven't laughed once, nor even felt like laughing. Who actually enjoys this rubbish? When you compare this to Paul and Pauline Calf, or The Alan Partridge Show, you wonder if this is the same man. I kept waiting for things to improve. Maybe the strange bitterness that Coogan exudes throughout would drop off, but no. And yet more typical 'BBC' direction and camera work, it's simply unbearable. Stupid shots of the motorway, as if to point out "Yes, we know that you must know by now that they are driving on a motorway, but we're going to provide some more obscure shots of a random motorway just to drive that point home."And the sickening shots around 19" into the first episode, where Coogan speaks to his agent... how predictable - the shot from the side, from another office, from in front, cutting from Coogan to yet another random view of his agent. Is this supposed to be 'art' or 'clever'?I can't believe this pile of rubbish actually got made. I can't believe it was actually broadcast. Hang on. I CAN believe it got made, and that it got broadcast, because the BBC is run by a bunch of self congratulating left wing nutcases, who are so used to lying to the entire country, that lying to each other is second nature, so of course a load of old twaddle can get through with flying colours - after all, nobody wants to say that the emperor is naked.As far as I can tell, Coogan has lost it. His 'Alan Partridge Mid Morning Matters' are also completely unfunny - just him, 'being' Alan Partridge, but not being remotely amusing...

bob the moo One of the things I did enjoy about 2005's Cock & Bull Story was the relationship between Coogan and Brydon in terms of how funny their discussions were but also how informed by their own insecurities and jealousies they were. It wasn't the whole of the film of course but it was a small part of it that worked well and I was definitely interested to see that idea and that relationship explored a bit more in The Trip. Although a shorter film version exists somewhere, in the UK I saw it as the six-part sitcom on BBC2 that gained near universal praise from critics but at the same time seemed to be actively disliked by the majority of the people who casually checked it out on TV one evening. Likewise on the internet forums opinion appears to equally polarised with people thinking it brilliant or dismissing it as self-indulgent tosh. In a way I sort of see where both sides are coming from.On one hand the potential here is to really make a smart and clever post-modern study of "fame" and success using fictionalised versions of these two men, but then on the flip side much of each episode appears to be them having the same sort of conversations driven by impressions delivered mostly by Brydon while Coogan goes increasingly impatient with him. For me both of these things are equally true but they both end up working against each other and the material doesn't even seem to be strong enough or tight enough to be able to deliver on the idea and realise the potential. Of course it is mostly improvised around an idea and this does seem to help the comedy as their messy conversations produces some good laughs, but it means that the bitterness, the awkwardness, the slight air of failure and resentment doesn't even go deeper than specific scenes on which it is painted. What I was looking for was that these aspects would be "in" the characters and always part of them in more of a way that it was – irritation and impatience during a specific conversation is not quite the same as this and it isn't really countered by making sure we end each episode with Coogan silently considering his navel in one way or another.I didn't hate it like some did but I certainly didn't love it like others did either. The potential is there and the two actors certainly seem talented enough but it does feel like they could have done with a much tighter leash in terms of being allowed to improvise and needed clever scripted material and direction to make sure the potential in the idea came through. It is an interesting and sporadically very funny failure though – but it is ultimately a failure as the potential never comes through in real meaning or substance and the comedy is a bit too repetitive after a few episodes to be classic.