Plot
Steve Coogan has been asked by The Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, but after his girlfriend backs out on him he must take his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon.

Release Year: 2010

Rating: 7.0/10 (4,594 voted)

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Stars: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Paul Popplewell

Storyline
When Steve Coogan is asked by The Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, he envisions it as the perfect getaway with his beautiful girlfriend. But, when she backs out on him, he has no one to accompany him but his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon.

Cast:
Steve Coogan - Steve
Rob Brydon - Rob
Paul Popplewell - Paul
Margo Stilley - Mischa
Claire Keelan - Emma
Rebecca Johnson - Sally
Dolya Gavanski - Magda
Kerry Shale - Steve's US Agent
Mercè Ribot - York Arms Receptionist

Taglines: Eat, drink and try not to kill each other.

Official Website: Official site | Official site [France] |

Release Date: 24 April 2011

Opening Weekend: $77,904 (USA) (12 June 2011) (6 Screens)

Gross: $2,014,922 (USA) (25 September 2011)

Trivia:
The two Michael Caine lines that Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon repeat again and again - "you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" and "she was only 15" - are from The Italian Job and Get Carter respectively... and actually she was "only 16".

Quotes:
Steve/ Rob: Come, come, Mr. Bond, you derive as much pleasure from killing as I do.

Watch the TV Series Instead

Rating: 9/10

The Trip, the television program, is a poignant, rambling, beautiful little series, starring comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as fictionalized versions of themselves.

The Trip, the film, which I was able to catch at a packed SIFF screening, is an edited version of the television show. The six episode series clocks in at about 180 minutes, and the film, at 107 minutes, feels truncated and rushed comparatively. Both follow these hilarious gents as they review restaurants in the English countryside, but with those seventy-so minutes edited out, much of the nuance and poignancy is lost—the tone shifts from somber (but funny), to seemingly desperate for laughs. The film does often get those laughs (Coogan and Brydon, in their largely improvised conversations, are very humorous), but it fails to really make much impact beyond providing entertainment. The more melancholy scenes retained from the television series often feel tacked-on, and the transition between jokes and sentiment clunky, with quiet moments and breathing time largely cut out.

Audiences looking for droll popcorn fare will not be disappointed, but those wanting to be genuinely moved should skip the flick and instead seek out the superlative television series, using whatever means they can.

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