Released as a movie in theaters in the States? will Americans get it?

I'm in Canada, and it seems to be more for an indie crowd. I just watched the BBC series and it is absolutely fantastic! In fact, now I want to check out Rob's other series, Marion and Geoff.

We're pretty familiar with Steve Coogan over here, he does a lot of bit parts in big budget movies here (playing the boss of a lead character or something similar). So if you watch the ads they're definitely trying to promote it more from his end, as Rob's a complete unknown here. In fact, it was the first time I had ever seen him, and I'm a fan of British comedy.



I'm a REAL hero. . . like a sexless John Glenn.

The trailer for the movie made me laugh quite a bit so I ended up checking out the TV series (i wanted to see the whole thing instead of the edited movie).

I had not heard of Brydon before, but Coogan is fairly well known over here among certain people.

So far I absolutely love the show, they do some impressions or references that I don't get but their interactions and jokes have me rolling. (Their James Bond riff in the 2nd episode and Brydon doing Liam Neeson as a school teacher as intense as his role in Taken particularly had me in tears). I think it will sell to independent film fans and fans of their style of comedy. Coogan has done a lot by this point so he will at least be well known.

I'm an American, but also a big Coogan/Brydon fan, so I'd already seen the series.

The screening of the film I went to was actually sold out with a line around the block, so obviously there are some people in the Seattle area who have at least heard of these guys (or Michael Winterbottom). The crowd did laugh a lot, but a lot of the more nuanced/moving moments from the TV series are cut out of the film (which leaves it feeling at times just like a string of Michael Cain impressions with some melancholy bits clumsily tacked on at the end), so I'm afraid The Trip the film likely won't make many new American fans for Coogan, and due to the editing he won't receive the stateside dramatic recognition that he seeks and rightfully deserves.

I "get" maybe 50% of their impressions, but I think it almost makes The Trip more impacting when you don't know who these people are - they become these empty, silly voices that the gents affect to avoid having to confront life as themselves.

The kinds of theaters this will play at in the US will be small, indie theaters. I go to three or four indie theaters weekly here in Chicago and they attract a much more artsy, film buff crowd that are definitely more knowledgable about films and actors than the average person. So yes, the kinds of Americans that will see this in theaters will get it.

I just saw it today in a little theater and it did get a moderate amount of laughs. Interesting that usually a few people would laugh at a certain joke, and not laugh at the next one. Then a different small group would find something else funny.

Anyway, my opinion: the dialogue came so fast that sometimes I felt I didn't have time to respond and process the joke. As an American, I've never heard so much continuous dialogue in a movie! It seemed these guys would never shut up.

My friend and I are both 20 and we found it reasonably funny, though we didn't get most of the impressions, haha. I didn't get the impression that anyone (a crowd of mostly people >50) did in the room. But all and all, I'm a lot more interested in Coogan and Brydon's work. I've heard of Coogan and have seen him in movies but he never made an impression on me (eg. looking at his page now...."he was in Night in the Museum??")

I reckon a lot of the groundwork for The Trip was in Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. I think it helps to have seen that film and also to be already familiar with Coogan and Brydon, to have seen things like Coogan's segment in Coffee and Cigarettes and even the Oscars telecast on Sky from that year where Brydon was one of the studio guests, where he desperately kept trying to get a chance to do his Ronnie Corbett impression but Jonathan Ross had to keep cutting him off to go back to the ceremony, this literally happened over and over again, must have been at least half a dozen times, he actually became quite irritating.

I reckon any Americans that aren't avid fans of British comedy (which probably means most of them) won't find it easy to slip into this. Let's face it, Brydon is basically a total unknown in the states.