THE TRIP TO GREECE

Steve Coogan     Rob Brydon

     As striking and lovely as the land- and seascapes are in this buddy movie, if you’ve seen The Trip to Italy and The Trip to Spain, you’ve seen The Trip to Greece.  Despite it being a different country, there is little contrast between this and the earlier versions.  This film has the same format as the other two, in which Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon take trips to exotic places, tooling around in boats and cars, kibitzing with one another along the way, having brief interactions with others, and dining in restaurants with fine cuisine (e.g., mussels with expresso powder dust) and breathtaking views.  

     Conversations range from take-offs on beloved characters in movies, referencing historical characters and facts about the country they’re in, and competing on who is better at…anything.  They might take dips in the seas and join up with old acquaintances or current friends, and occasionally, we hear their conversations with loved ones at home.  

The films are primarily improvisational, but real events in the actors’ lives are woven in.  This one in particular shows significant events taking place at home, along with a reunion of husband and wife who are very much in love.

     I enjoyed this version of the Coogan-Brydon trips less than the others, partly because of its repetition, but also because it seems more rushed. Writer-director Michael Winterbottom really made a mistake in showing only glimpses of the kitchen staffs preparing elegant dishes without going into detail about what they consist of and something about the people preparing them.  They focus on one waitress who delights them, but that’s the extent of highlighting the people who serve them.  

     Just listening to Coogan and Brydon for such long stretches becomes tedious at best. We tire of them by the end of the film.  Another issue is that many of the references they make in their impersonations of Hollywood figures and Greek historical figures are likely to go over the heads of most viewers.  Most will be saying, “I don’t get it…”

     With the rich history of the worlds explored and the movies discussed in these films, it is puzzling to see the lack of creativity and potential for humor that is missed. 

Looking at a travelogue about Greece will be more exciting and informative than this film.

Grade:  D                                    By Donna R. Copeland

THE TRIP TO SPAIN

Steve Coogan     Rob Brydon     Marta Barrio     Claire Keelon     Tim Leach

      Much like The Trip (2010) and The Trip to Italy (2014), Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon do their guy touring thing, this time in Spain, with (mostly) witty repartee, petty bickering, and comedic miming of celebrities while dining in exquisite restaurants and motoring through spectacular scenery.  Thanks to cinematographer James Clarke, we get a “you are there” experience, depending on the power of our imagination.  

   This is more than a travelogue, though, in that the actors and director Michael Winterbottom have seen to it that both emotionally substantive and truly funny scenes are a part of it.  No “writer” is listed, implying that much of the dialog is improvisational. The story touches on professional rivalry and the need for self-advocacy (or sometimes, simply luck), ruminations and banter about aging, the ever-present real-life situations that impact the trip, and genuine heartbreaks and disappointments.

     The audience I was with in the screening was ideally responsive, and applauded at the end.  I enjoyed it almost as much, but tired a bit of the impersonation sequences.  There were a lot:  Mick Jagger, Michael Caine, John Hirt, Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Woody Allen, Errol Flynn, Sean Connery, and more…and a Bach-Swingle-Singers-like rendition of Herb Alpert’s Band.  Coogan and Brydon compete and argue about who does a better job of imitating. 

    Although I did like the Herb Alpert tune, I found more entertaining than the impersonations the sequences where one or the other would assume the role of the expert scientist-historian, showing off their knowledge of the disciplines.  It was surprising to me that a line I found laugh-out-loud funny (“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana”), is actually an illustration used by linguists “as an example of a garden path sentence or syntactic ambiguity, and in word play as an example of punning, double entendre, and antanaclasis” (Wikipedia).  Kudos to whoever knew that term and inserted it.  Another funny sequence is when the producers of Steve’s and Rob’s show dress them up and have them pose as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.  Their irritation and discomfort made the scene. 

     The ending sequences are rather tender and surprising in their quality of “life goes on…”

A travelogue to Spain with humor, exquisite meals, spectacular road trips, and the preoccupations of 50+ year-old men.

Grade:  B-                        By Donna R. Copeland

THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR

Chris Hemsworth     Emily Blunt     Jessica Chastain     Charlize Theron

            The film, loosely based on the Snow White fairy tale, is a prequel/sequel to the 2012 Snow White and the Huntsman.  It opens with a brief flashback showing Ravenna (Theron) killing her husband, the king (Robert Portal), who is also Snow White’s father.   And it gives a picture of the relationship between the two sisters Ravenna, older and dominant, and Freya (Blunt) submissive and emotionally positive.  After Ravenna destroys Freya’s chance for happiness, Freya, feeling betrayed and cynical, takes off to the north to set up her own kingdom.  Her new ability to magically create ice gives her the reputation of the “Ice Queen” and serves as a special power (Yup; think Frozen, 2013).  Her castle containing an enormous ice tower juts up into the high mountains covered with ice and snow.

            To build her army, Freya kidnaps hundreds of children and brings them to her castle to be trained for warfare by her huntsmen.  Two children are standouts for their superior combat skills:  Eric (Hemsworth) and Sara (Chastain).  Unfortunately, these two eventually fall in love, which is against Freya’s law prohibiting it.  Love is a sin, the Ice Queen has decided.  What happens to them is the major action of the ensuing story.

            With such a talented cast, excellent cinematography (Phedon Papamichael), production design (Dominic Watkins), and costumes (Colleen Atwood), it’s a shame that the story lacks substance.  It’s as if the writers (Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin) put the few elements of the Grimm brothers’ Snow White into a bottle with whatever came to mind, shook it up and threw the contents out on the table, putting them back together in such a way the plot comes out rather jumbled and marked by unfortunate stereotypes of women.  Give them power and they become controlling and mean (Ravenna).  If they start out being loving, they become controlling and icy and/or they get duped (Freya).  They’re unmerciful if they’ve felt betrayed or were misled into believing it to be so (Sara).  Out of all this mishmash, the gist of the tale is “Love conquers all”, which is stated sarcastically in the beginning, but expressed genuinely by the end, as if that is the conclusion the audience is supposed to draw.  However, what transpires in between is not convincing. 

            Light moments in the film that are intended as jokes seem out of place and out of context.  When one character gets proof that her betrayer actually loves her—a tender moment she shows with tears in her eyes—the mood is broken by the question, “Are you crying?”  And we’re supposed to chuckle at this misplaced joke.  There are numerous jolts like this which are intended to be funny, but that take the focus away from a fairy tale atmosphere to present day culture.

           

A story more a jumble than a fairy tale.

Grade:  C-                        By Donna R. Copeland