Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa - Dir. Declan Lowney (2013)

The name is Partridge, Alan Partridge.

The signature character of Steve Coogan may not be familiar to American audiences, but he's been a staple in British comedy for twenty years. He first appeared as an inept sports reporter on On the Hour, a spoof of the news broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Since then, Partridge has graduated from recurring character to lead on his own shows across radio and television along with his very own an autobiography I, Partridge. Coogan's portrayal of Partridge was certainly an influence in his brilliant turn as Tony Wilson in Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People, a comedic account of the burgeoning Manchester music scene. Now, Partridge has graduated to feature films with a self-titled comedy directed by TV vet Declan Lowney with a script by Coogan, Armando Ianucci (creator of The Thick of It and Veep), Peter Baynham (a co-writer of Borat), and Neil & Rob Gibbons.

Originally released last year in England as Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, the movie finds Alan Partridge as the host of Mid-Morning Matters, an innocuous radio program on North Norfolk Digital. The station has just been bought by the massive conglomerate of Gordale Media. Fellow DJ Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney), who works the late night shift, is worried about his job and asks Partridge to speak with the new head honchos. When Partridge discovers the pink slip is going to either he or Farrell, he immediately throws his pal under the bus. He even writes "Just Sack Pat" in bold, red letters. Unfortunately, a disgruntled Farrell returns later that night brandishing a shotgun and taking the radio staff hostage. Unaware of his friend's duplicity, Farrell insists Partridge serve as an intermediary for the police's negotiators. Partridge may be woefully unqualified for the job, but that doesn't stop him from turning the tense situation into an opportunity to elevate his star status.

The plot is a bit slight and the hostage situation was clearly the type of action and drama that was necessary to carry the story to a feature length run time. Also, they're late in the game when it comes to lampooning corporate-owned media and awful morning talk radio. The movie really shines when it unleashes Coogan and allows Alan Partridge to just be Alan Partridge. Here's a guy who is self-serving, narcissistic, and with an overinflated opinion of himself. He's a precursor to the oblivious obnoxiousness of Ricky Gervais's David Brent on The Office. Coogan is on top of his game rifling off one-liners and non sequiturs, such as when he fills airtime with inane chatter ("We're asking, what is the worst monger? Iron, fish, rumor, or war?") or offering advice to his flunky Sidekick Simon (Tim Key) ("Never, ever criticize Muslims. Christians only and…sometimes Jews."). Coogan doesn't shy away from slapstick either. In one scene, he accidentally wanders out of the station and attempts to get back in and winds up standing like Buffalo Bill without his trousers.

Colm Meaney gives a wonderfully understated performance as the unstable Pat Farrell. Plus, the supporting cast includes Monica Dolan as a kindly co-worker inexplicably sweet on Partridge and Sean Pertwee as a humorless SWAT team leader.

Alan Partridge doesn't require any previous knowledge of the character. Coogan hits the ground running and you immediately get a sense of who this guy is. Best of all, the screenwriters didn't feel the urge for Partridge to grow as a human being or learn a valuable lesson. He's every bit the buffoon before and after.

Rating: *** (*****)

Despicable Me 2

Despicable Me 2 - Dirs. Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud (2013)

Despicable Me was a delightful surprise from Universal's fledgling Illumination Entertainment. Although it ended on a satisfying conclusion, its box office take of over $543 million ensured that a sequel was forthcoming. Despicable Me 2 certainly didn't disappoint, at least in terms of ticket sales, it pulled in over $918 million and stands as the fifth highest grossing animated film of all time.

For those who missed it, Despicable Me followed eccentric super-villain Gru (Steve Carell) on his diabolical quest to steal the moon. As part of his scheme, Gru was forced to adopt three little girls: Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher). Gru was the proverbial Grinch whose heart grew two sizes bigger once those adorable moppets wormed their way into his life.

The sequel finds Gru more than comfortable in his new life as a single father. Things are going great though a little dull as Gru attempts to turn his elaborate laboratory into a factory for jams and jellies. Luckily, Gru is recruited by Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan), the erudite leader of the Anti-Villain League. A mysterious mastermind has stolen an experimental serum that could be used to create an army of monsters and only Gru has the experience needed to find him. Gru is reluctantly paired up with agent Lucy Wilder (Kristen Wiig, who previously voiced Miss Hattie) to go undercover at a glossy shopping mall where the bad guy might be hiding out. Gru has his eye on Eduardo Perez (Benjamin Bratt), a boisterous restaurateur who may secretly be the infamous El Macho, a villain who supposedly died while riding a shark strapped with explosives into a flaming volcano. However, Gru's most fearsome foe may be young love when Margo falls head over heels for Eduardo's suave son Antonio (Moises Arias).

The biggest criticism lobbied against Despicable Me 2 is that the lead protagonist has lost his edge. An opening sequence where Gru dresses as a fairy princess for Agnes's birthday party might attest to that. Screenwriters Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio may have dulled Gru's fangs a bit; they've still captured the madcap pace and unique sensibilities of the first film. We see Edith running around in a ninja outfit and a bizarre subplot in which Gru goes on a blind date. Despicable Me was like a candy colored Bond adventure and its successor continues those threads with the AVL's underwater base and other high-tech gadgets. There's a submarine car, lipstick taser, Gru's trademark freeze ray, fart guns, and an opening sequence in which a giant magnet snatches up an Arctic research station. The sequel builds to a thrilling conclusion with Gru going into full John Woo mode with guns that shoot his foul-tasting jelly.

Steve Carell gives it his all with a slick Slavic accent, but its Benjamin Bratt who gives the best vocal performance as Eduardo. His over-the-top energy perfectly matches the zany tone of the movie. Oddly enough, Al Pacino was originally cast in the role before Bratt stepped in at the last minute. It's hard to imagine anyone else playing that character.

The real scene stealers though happen to be the Minions, Gru's not-so-helpful helpers that look like a bred Oompa Loompas with Twinkies. They speak in their own unique language and their kooky antics are a constant source of Three Stooges-esque slapstick. The Minions might sidetrack the main plot from time to time, but the cute factor is undeniable. Unsurprisingly, their presence is beefed up here and they're set to star in their own picture in 2015.

With Pixar and Dreamworks having a virtual stranglehold on the animation genre, its nice seeing another player emerge in the field. Despicable Me 2 is a delightful sequel with plenty of heart that will please young and old alike.

Rating: *** (*****)

Our Idiot Brother

Our Idiot Brother - Dir. Jesse Peretz (2011)

Before becoming an independent filmmaker, Jesse Peretz was a founder of the alternative rock band The Lemonheads, whose biggest hit was a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's iconic "Mrs. Robinson." Peretz eventually directed two low-budget feature films along with numerous commercials and music videos. He landed his biggest gig in the critically reviled comedy The Ex with Zach Braff and Jason Bateman. Peretz has bounced back from that particular flop with the winning Our Idiot Brother, a frothy comedy that was co-written by his sister Evgenia Peretz and her husband David Schisgall. Our Idiot Brother premiered at Sundance where it was picked up by the Weinstein Company and released into theaters with little fanfare.

Paul Rudd stars as the titular idiot brother, a permanently baked fellow by the name of Ned who goes to prison for selling marijuana to a police officer at a farmer's market. Not an undercover cop, but one in full uniform, who claimed to just be having a rough time. However, Ned is only an idiot in the Dostoyevskian sense. He's not the brightest bulb, but he does possess an unwavering innocence, love, and trust for all those around him.

When Ned is released several months later, he finds his girlfriend, Janet (Kathryn Hahn), has already shacked up with a new man, Billy (TJ Miller), who is even more scatterbrained than Ned. She boots him off their biodynamic farm and refuses to relinquish his beloved golden retriever Willie Nelson. With nowhere else to go, Ned is shuffled between the homes of his three sisters. Liz (Emily Mortimer) is the oldest and married to a douchebag documentarian (Steve Coogan). Both are uptight yuppies who have rigidly planned their son's life in order to get him into a posh private school. Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) is a workaholic magazine writer desperately trying to score an elusive interview with an heiress turned tabloid fodder. The youngest sister is Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), a bohemian hipster in a lesbian relationship with Cindy (Rashida Jones), a lawyer. The Sapphic couple lives in an odd communal loft with other artsy fartsy types. Ned's freewheeling and unfiltered lifestyle winds up turning his sisters' lives upside down

Our Idiot Brother is a welcome change of pace from a summer filled with raunchy R-rated comedies. The film can't be considered a masterpiece and the plot is predictable with an unsurprising and schmaltzy ending. Of course, the sisters will eventually forgive their brother and realize the problem was with them, not him. Still, the journey is riddled with amusing moments and great performances from the all-star cast.

Paul Rudd ably carries the picture on his shoulders as a low-rent Lebowski. His Ned is charming enough to easily win the audience over. The actresses portraying his sisters all take to their roles even if they aren't required to do any heavy lifting. Mortimer, Banks, and (in particular) Deschanel are cast as characters similar to ones they've played in the past. Rashida Jones doesn't get nearly enough screen time. She looks stunning even when wardrobe is trying to butch her up with thick-rimmed glasses, a dress shirt and tie, and jean shorts. And for all you horndogs, yes, Rashida Jones and Zooey Deschanel do make out. Rudd has good chemistry with each actress, but his best scenes are the ones he shares with TJ Miller and Adam Scott, who co-stars as a neighbor and potential love interest to Miranda. Rudd and Miller seem to be in a stiff competition to see who can play the more brain-addled stoner. Meanwhile, Rudd and Scott bond over women troubles and a shared love of Dune ("Father…the sleeper has awakened.")

Our Idiot Brother is a lightweight film that's as breezy and easygoing as its lead protagonist. It isn't a memorable comedy, but it is a solid one with a terrific cast.

Rating: *** (*****)

The Other Guys

The Other Guys - Dir. Adam McKay (2010)


Riggs and Murtaugh. Tango and Cash. Add Hoitz and Gamble to the buddy cop pantheon.

The Other Guys opens in true action film fashion with a rousing car chase through the streets of New York City as top cops, Danson (Dwayne Johnson) and Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson), run down the perpetrators. A massive amount of property damage is done to bring in a few crooks possessing a miniscule amount of marijuana. Back at the station house, Danson and Highsmith are greeted with a hero’s welcome. None of the accolades are thrown the way of Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) and Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell). They don’t blow shit up, they don’t get the girls, nor do they make the big arrests.

Hoitz could be doing those things, if not for an embarrassing shooting mishap, which relegated him to desk duty. His partner, Gamble, is a forensic accountant who gleefully enjoys paperwork and has no desire to see any action in the field. While investigating a minor oversight in construction permits, Gamble and Hoitz uncover a Bernie Madoff-style plot by millionaire mogul David Ershon (Steve Coogan) to embezzle $32 billion.

The main cast also features Michael Keaton as the precinct captain who moonlights as the manager of a Bed Bath and Beyond, Eva Mendes as Gamble’s inexplicably hot wife, Ray Stevenson as an Australian mercenary, and an uncredited Anne Heche as a corrupt CEO employing Ershon.

The Other Guys is the fourth collaboration between director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell following Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers. Other Guys isn’t as hilarious as the first two films, but it’s several notches above the somewhat crass Step Brothers. As a spoof of buddy cop films, it works better than Kevin Smith’s Cop Out. However, the genre has become such a self-parody of itself that McKay is simply beating a dead horse. Seeing Wahlberg in a slow-mo John Woo shootout isn’t as funny as it should be because the gag has been done to death.

Where the film excels is in the interactions between the lead actors. Wahlberg has given some terribly wooden performances recently in The Happening and The Lovely Bones. He’s better suited for action and comedy and he’s excellent as the hotheaded straight man. Ferrell’s idiot man-child routine wears thin so he wisely tones it down for Other Guys. There’s a slow burn for his character as they slowly reveal the darker side he’s hidden.

McKay tops it off with his own brand of absurdist humor displayed in many hysterical gags sprinkled throughout the film. Some of the funniest bits include: Coogan bribing our heroes with tickets to Jersey Boys, a run-in with a group of horny hobos led by a fellow named Dirty Mike (played by McKay himself), an ending credits sequence utilizing Powerpoint-style animation to explain Ponzi schemes and government bailouts, and Ferrell constantly being hit on by gorgeous women like Brooke Shields (wife of co-writer Chris Henchy).

Rating: ***

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief - Dir. Chris Columbus (2010)


Percy Jackson is Clash of the Titans for the Harry Potter crowd. The latest teen-lit property to make its way to the big screen, The Lightning Thief is the first of a proposed franchise based on the best-selling series by Rick Riordan.

The title character, Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), is a high school student who lives with his mother (Catherine Keener) and abusive stepfather (Joe Pantoliano). He has dyslexia and finds some measure of calm hiding underwater. Turns out, Percy’s father is Poseidon (Kevin McKidd), the Greek god of the seas. His best friend, Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), is a satyr charged with his protection. Percy’s teacher (Pierce Brosnan) is really a centaur named Chiron who is the head instructor for a drill camp filled with other godlings.

Percy learns the truth about his life when he is accused of stealing Zeus’s (Sean Bean) lightning bolt. A civil war is brewing between the gods and Percy’s mother is kidnapped by Hades (Steve Coogan who looks like a burnt out rocker in his leather pants). Percy and Grover embark on a quest to rescue her accompanied by Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), the daughter of Athena (Melina Kankaredes). The trio must gather the pearls of Persephone (Rosario Dawson) and do battle mythological creatures such as the Hydra and Medusa (Uma Thurman).

To kick off their new film series, Fox made a smart choice in choosing Chris Columbus who directed the first two Harry Potter films. The problem is those opening installments were the most pedestrian movies of the series. It wasn’t until the brought in more accomplished directors like Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newell that the Potter films improved by leaps and bounds.

Is Percy Jackson a terrible movie? No, but it’s not an exceptional one either. It’s perfectly acceptable filmmaking. There’s nothing particularly stylish about the direction or production design and the characters are painted in very broad strokes.

Rating: **

In the Loop

In the Loop - Dir. Armando Iannucci (2009)


Filmmakers have found a wealth of story material in these politically charged times. Most of these films haven’t been shy about shoving their message (right or left-wing) down our throats. There isn’t much subtlety going on in In the Loop, but it’s one of the best political satires in recent memory. It’s sharply written and impeccably performed. Writer/director Armando Iannucci created the hit BBC series The Thick of It, think The West Wing by way of The Office. In the Loop is essentially a spin-off shot in a documentary-style that turns the audience into a fly on the wall for the Machiavellian machinations of politicos.

The film begins with Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), a Minister for International Development, though I have no idea what that entails. In fact, most of characters have similarly obtuse titles that don’t give us a single clue as to exactly what the Hell they do. Anyways, during a radio interview Foster calls the looming war in the Middle East “unforeseeable.” This opens a Pandora’s Box as Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), the British Prime Minister’s Director of Communication, storms into Foster’s office ready to bite everyone’s heads off. Tucker is a perpetually angry individual with a short fuse and no off switch, constantly launching into profanity-laced tirades. Tucker demands Foster keep his mouth shut and “tow the line.” But, Foster continues to put his foot in his mouth when he announces, we must “climb the mountain of conflict.” His inane rambling is quickly turned into a catchphrase for one of those ridiculous motivation posters.

In way over his head, Foster is invited to Washington, D.C., where members of both sides of the war debate hope to use him as a pawn in their game. Poor Simon is considered nothing more than "meat" in the room. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy) and Lt. General Miller (James Gandolfini) are the flag bearers for the anti-war movement. Clarke’s assistant Liza Weld (Anna Chlumsky) has written a detailed report on the cons on going to war. The pro side is led by Linton Barwick (David Rasche), a thinly-veiled Donald Rumsfeld, who hides his war committee behind the intentionally vague and bland title of the Future Planning Committee. Back home, Foster’s career takes a beating when a man (Steve Coogan) complains that the wall of Foster’s headquarters is crumbling into his mother’s rose garden. Ah, delicious irony.

While the debate on war is a primary aspect of the film, we never actually hear anyone debating the actual issues or logistics. The politicians are far more concerned with backstabbing and spin doctoring. The plot is rather thin, but it’s the dialogue that is the film’s centerpiece. The lines are hilarious and unapologetically vulgar. A running gag in the script is the exceptional youth of the staff assistants, the real foot soldiers in Capitol Hill. One character notes, ”…it’s like Bugsy Malone, but with real guns.” I couldn’t help but chuckle out loud when one of Foster’s staffers, the nerdy bespectacled Toby (Chris Addison) is constantly referred to by names like Ron Weasley and Frodo. In the Loop is easily one of the best films of the year.

Rating: *** 1/2