Let me start out by saying if we were to have an episode of The Good, The Bad and The Podcast about the genre of “buddy films”, Coogan and Brydon’s “The Trip” would be my “good pick”. Hands down. The comedy, the pacing and most importantly the camaraderie of two men who by the end of the film grow sick of each other comes together masterfully.
With that said, I was not as impressed with “The Trip to Italy” (which was recently released to Netflix). Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was a great film. The first “Trip” was so perfect though that in this one, the comedy, the pacing, the camaraderie seemed a little re-hashed. Would I get a groan if I even said it was like eating leftovers?
There was of course a multitude of great one liners and impressions (I mean we can not get enough Michael Caine impressions), but the freshness of the story was not there. I also couldn’t help but feel disappointed in the lazy writing move to just switch Coogan and Brydon’s character arches from the last film. My only two complaints.
I appreciate a movie such as “The Trip” and “The Trip to Italy” for not pandering to a more idiotic audience but taking a “high brow” approach to their location, character’s traits/aspirations and even the timing of the comedy – not waiting for the big laugh but moving quickly through smaller ones. I also vey much appreciate the food! As a lover of food myself and the eating of said food, I can happily say this film is FOOD PORN!
The IMDb user reviews are littered with bad posts and low ratings for this film. Many of those comments saying, “I couldn’t understand what they were saying” or “this is just British humor” or “I had to watch ‘The Other Guys’ afterward – now that’s a funny movie.” To those people I would say (trying my best to not sound pompous), “I guess ‘The Trip to Italy’ is for those that have refined tastes.”