The Trip to Italy

If anybody is familiar with either of this pair, The Trip To Italy is really a must see series/film. The first instalment from these two, The Trip, which was set in the Lake District was initially a series & then released widely as a film. This new version is much of the same, and as the title suggests, yes you've guessed it, sees this clever duo wining & dining in some great Italian locations. The series is very easy to watch, clever, witty, and with superb impressions, but most of all the on screen chemistry this pair have is what makes the show. They bounce off each other perfectly, & in terms of great on screen pairings, they are right up there with some of the best. I honestly can't recommend this enough, i have scored it a nine, simply because i have only watched the opening two episodes, but if it carries on in the same form, it will be getting a big fat Ten !!

Top Class Telly.

This movies falls into those genres that are dialogue heavy. For such movies to be successful the characters and dialogue needs to be very compelling. Based in Italy, the backdrop was beautiful at times but hardly enough to carry such a boring and pretentious movie. It's like the Italian version of 'before midnight' except with no romance or plot line. Just two middle aged British men rambling on, going from restaurant to restaurant and making daft impressions This is like the Italian version of before midnight with no romance or plot line.I am not sure what the director was trying to get at. I think this could be a good movie if you are trying to get to sleep out of sheer boredom on a long haul flight but hardly for entertainment pleasure.

I'm a huge fan of Michael Winterbottom's work which is fully on display in this modest travel journal of two friends discovering the joys of Italy. Steve Coogan & Rob Brydon, the friends in question, I'll admit are an acquired taste; one that I've not yet...acquired. I kept resisting the urge to just mute the sound so I didn't have to listen to their inane, extremely irritating, babblings was only because Strauss and Mahler were used expertly on the soundtrack. And who would want to miss that? The food, the scenery and an undefined longing are all very appealing. But the self-centered mugging by the two, which we're clued to think is adorable by women, I just think needs a warning to any viewer. Try to shut them out. 'Cause they never shut up.

Not very familiar with the actors, I enjoyed some of the conversations although the imitations do start to get annoying halfway the movie. You can see they are great actors but you do feel the script pouring through lots of the time... It has to look like 2 friends getting together having funny conversations but it just doesn't work. Plus I got very annoyed with the maffia/Al Pacino/Marlon Brando imitations, it was just too easy. Overall it felt more like Michael Winterbottom has started his midlife crisis and uses the actors, the script and Italy to get to the (michaelwinter)bottom of it. A pointless one night stand, 2 older English guys "trying" to be funny, beautiful scenery, it just breathed midlife crisis everywhere. I just found it too easy, he could have made something better honestly, maybe put in a weird end with someone dying or something a bit more shocking.. now its just a small river of sometimes funny conversations between two 40something English guys who still want to shag all young, beautiful girls, and who do feel more male when they succeed in this, while they get drunk on gin and tonics... It looks like Michael Winterbottom went to Italy himself, red some Lord Byron and Don Juan, felt himself a bit like Woody Allen and combined this with his upcoming midlife crisis and this was what came out.....The scenery is beautiful though and you will crave for a fab pasta just because of the food shots.

I was hesitant taking another trip w/ Steve and Rob in that I so much loved the first film and thought this film might be a letdown and was never going to expectations set by the first film. No need for worries, this film was just as good, just as funny and better still, both Steve and Rob have remained (aside from Coogan's haircut) them old selves, changing little from when we left them in Northern England, a perfect mixture of affability and arrogance, quick witted, sometimes to the point of absurdity, sprinkled with a tinge of melancholy.

If you love British humour, travel & beautiful scenery, fine food, movies, literature and poetry, and beautiful women......(pretty much all things worth living for)... than this is the movie to watch.

Steve: (looking at a beautiful hotel receptionist walking past) She's has a lovely gait.

Rob: Yes, probably padlocked.

Hilarious!