So how does The Trip to Italy --a film about Coogan and Brydon traveling the Italian countryside revi

Early on in The Trip to Italy , Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon—a pair of British actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves—note that a sequel is never as good as the original. It’s one of those meta-moments filmmakers sometimes use to inoculate themselves against a rather standard critique; expedia corporate travel program global we saw a great deal of this in 22 Jump Street , for instance . But it doesn’t really do much to dampen the criticism. The Trip to Italy is more or less a rehash of The Trip , recycling some of the same jokes and scenarios for laughs.
The best moment in the original film, which saw our two leads traveling the British countryside reviewing restaurants for the Guardian , revolved around Coogan expedia corporate travel program global and Brydon’s competing Michael Caine impressions. (You may have seen it; the clip went viral a couple of years back.)
So how does The Trip to Italy —a film about Coogan and Brydon traveling the Italian countryside reviewing food for the Guardian —begin? With a Michael expedia corporate travel program global Caine impression. Now, granted, Brydon and Coogan expedia corporate travel program global use Caine as a springboard into a series of impressions from The Dark Knight expedia corporate travel program global Rises (their Bane is quite funny). But it all feels a bit cheap.
Repetitious or no, The Trip to Italy , like its predecessor, is at its best when Coogan and Brydon are semi-bitterly competing with one another. The casual expedia corporate travel program global disdain Coogan (who has had some success in the United States) has for Brydon (who hasn’t) is made all the more amusing given his own insecurities. I would happily expedia corporate travel program global pay to watch a one-hour-long special in which these two simply had it out in front of a live audience.
Unfortunately, such moments are few and far between. Too much of The Trip to Italy is occupied with the duo’s various midlife crises, struggles with work, and empty home life. Part of the problem is that the movie, like its predecessor, is actually a compressed version of a television series. expedia corporate travel program global So we get snippets of plots and ideas that were more fully fleshed out on the small screen. It’s unsatisfying.
Watching Coogan and Brydon bicker as they travel the Italian countryside in a rented Mini is, generally speaking, entertaining. They have a solid rapport, and one can’t help but wonder how much of the dialogue is improvised, how many of the conversations reflect arguments they’ve had in person. Given the excellence of this back and forth, the generally lame nature of The Trip to Italy is all the more disappointing.
Sonny Bunch Email Sonny | Full Bio | RSS Sonny Bunch is executive editor of the Washington Free Beacon . Prior to joining the Beacon , he served as a staff writer at the Washington Times , an assistant editor at The Weekly Standard , and an editorial expedia corporate travel program global assistant at Roll Call . He has also worked at the public relations and nonprofit management firm Berman and Company. expedia corporate travel program global Sonny’s work has appeared expedia corporate travel program global in the above outlets, the Wall Street Journal , Commentary , National Review , the New Atlantis , Policy Review , and elsewhere. A 2004 graduate of the University of Virginia, Sonny lives in Washington, D.C. His Twitter handle is @SonnyBunch .
Mark Udall’s Painful Interview The Lost Art of Reading Peak America: Man Plays Star Spangled Banner With Gun Majority of Russians Say Western Sanctions Will Benefit Their Economy Sexy Smuggler expedia corporate travel program global Snagged for Sneaking Ecstasy into L.A.