3.5 stars out of 5
You could call this Comedians in Cars Eating Pasta, except Coogan and Brydon hit the road first. Their original Trip movie arrived in 2011, cobbled together from a U.K. TV series. The concept is the same for the sequel: The two competitive pals drive around, ostensibly reviewing restaurants, but really more interested in verbal jousting. Would a change of scenery—Italy instead of northern England—be enough to recapture the casual charm of the previous film?
Well, thankfully, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon don’t simply rehash The Trip. In fact, they make a effort to subtly turn it on its head. Brydon invites Coogan on the journey this time, instead of vice-versa. And now family-man Brydon is getting the urge to wander while immature Coogan is trying to be more responsible. The leads are much less antagonistic with each other this time. And if the first movie was Coogan’s story, this round focuses more on Brydon.
While I would’ve preferred to see Coogan cutting up a bit more—his sharp wit is what drew me to these films in the first place—it still works. Brydon is “always on”—always doing an impression, cracking a joke—and I was reminded of Robin Williams. Was Brydon’s character putting on a comedic front as a distraction from uncertainties at home?
Not that the movie gets too deep. The mood is generally light, the plotting pretty loose. The pair reprise their Michael Caine impressions, but also have a blast doing Tom Hardy, Christian Bale, Al Pacino (the Italian setting inspires much Pacino-izing), and many more. An extended sequence where Brydon provides the voice of a petrified Pompeii man in a glass box is a real highlight here.
So, there are lots of laughs—though they do get a bit high-brow with Byron and Shelley, and there are some U.K. specific references that sailed over my head. And as it was great to travel to the south of France with Woody Allen in Magic in the Moonlight (Brydon does Woody too), an end-of-summer gentle tour of Italy with two funny fellows is not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. The surprisingly elegantly-handled ending was a nice bonus, ending this trip a very high note.
Jack Silbert, curator