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.
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.