Review: 'The Trip To Italy' by Michael Winterbottom and Starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon

How would do you describe The Trip To Italy to someone who, maybe like some of you, have never seen The Trip? Well let me give it a shot. The Trip To Italy is the sophisticated and worldly man’s bromantic comedy. Much like the earlier film a lot of Judd Apatow comedies, it's about looking at male friendships through a comedic lens, only less subdued and crass overall. It’s not really sappy either because, hey people, this is British so it’s full of guarded vulnerability wrapped in quips and great impersonations. The Trip To Italy brings back together stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon with Director Michael Winterbottom as fictionalized versions of themselves again on restaurant tour, this time through Italy from Liguria to Capri following the path of the great romantic poets.

Now much like the last film there really isn’t much of a hardcore linear plot being told here. It’s mostly a film made up of improvised conversations and constant back and forth between Coogan and Brydon as they try to one-up each other. The one difference in this film than the last is a greater emphasis on them getting older and trying to come to grips with it. This time the two are lot less adversarial and open in terms of what the “characters” are feeling in terms of their lives. There is a lot of scenes here that are just them riffing on different impersonations of famous actors. They of course go back to doing the greatest Michael Caine impersonations ever done but this time instead of doing the OG Bond in Connery they decide to keep doing Roger Moore to hilarious effect as one does Caine and the other Moore in imagined interactions.

Being that The Trip To Italy is like its predecessor a BBC comedic series that was edited down from six 30-minute episodes into a roughly 2-hour film the quality of the direction feels like a BBC show. That’s not a bad thing at all there is always a very cinematic level of filmmaking in a lot of British television and you'd never know this was a TV series first unless made aware of it. The film also does a fantastic job of keeping you interested even though it's just two actors on screen either talking, eating or driving. They also have some great shots of Italy’s landscape and landmarks along with great quick shot of the different restaurants preparing the dishes they are eating.

Finally I’ll be honest I really like British humor a lot. I grew up on it but while watching this I chuckled knowing this might not be for everyone.  It might be a bit too quiet and slow for some, and it has no real "point". For what it’s worth it’s pretty dope to see a film that has two men as friends, having conversations and enjoying one another's company with bubbling, gross events, and silly action/slapstick set pieces. For what it’s worth my score is going to be a high one but hey maybe I’m biased to English accents or I’m just sappy these days.

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Teaser for Michael Winterbottom's Amanda Knox Drama 'The Face of an Angel'

Michael Winterbottom has been saying for awhile that his film The Face of an Angel isn't directly based on the Amanda Knox murder trial, but judging by this first look footage it will certainly use it to draw attention. Inspired by Barbie Latza Nadeau's book Angel Face: Sex, Murder and the Inside Story of Amanda Knox, the film stars Kate Beckinsale, Daniel Bruhl, and Cara Delavingne in a renamed account of the media circus that accompanied the trial.

The project is due to be sold on the European Film Market, and it's bound to be one of the hottest properties there with all of the buzz surrounding Knox's recent conviction by an Italian court. The Seattle-born Knox had been accused of murdering her roommate in Italy, and was held in prison four years before the original conviction was overturned and a retrial ordered. Last month she was convicted of murder again, with Knox absent from the proceedings, and an appeal filed that should send the case to Italy's Supreme Court.

Winterbottom's film will deal with much more than that, centering on a struggling filmmaker, who has recently been separated from his family, who has been assigned to write a movie based on the case. While researching it with an author, he falls in love with a girl who helps him put his priorities in order. Does he keep trying to solve the case? Or return to his family?

No release date yet, but expect The Face of an Angel to be a big seller in the coming weeks, although to me it looks like something that should be airing on Oxygen.

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Kate Beckinsale Has 'The Face of an Angel'; Hugh Jackman Eyes 'Section 6'; Chris Pine is a Horrible Boss

*Kate Beckinsale has joined Daniel Bruhl (Rush) and Cara Delevingne (Anna Karenina) in The Face of an Angel, Michael Winterbottom's film based on the true story of Amanda Knox. Adapted from Barbie Latza Nadeau's book, the story offers a fictionalized account of the events that led to Knox, an American student living in Italy, who was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering her roommate. After serving four years in prison, the conviction was overturned and a retrial ordered, but Knox remains a controversial figure. Beckinsale will play a reporter investigating the case, with Bruhl as a documentary filmmaker, and Delevingne as the Knox character. [Deadline]

* Hugh Jackman probably should have played a secret agent long ago, but he may finally have the opportunity. He's circling Section 6, based on a script by first-time writer Aaron Berg that "follows the World War I-era formation of British intelligence agency MI6 and its first director, Sir George Mansfield Cummings, who served as the inspiration for M in the 'James Bond' series." Sounds amazing, which is why Jackman Seems to be so interested. Apparently so are Justin Lin and Brett Ratner (noooooooo), who are both angling the director's chair. This is still pretty early on and nobody is officially attached but already it's obvious that this is going to be a major project. [TheWrap]

* Yeah, Horrible Bosses 2 is still happening, and now it has an actual boss. Last week we learned that Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine were being sought to play a father/son duo of douche bag bosses, and now Pine is officially on board. Waltz never really seemed to be in the picture because of scheduling, which is good because this movie might be terrible. And he's played enough villains. Horrible Bosses 2 arrives November 26, 2014 directed by Sean Anders and bringing back stars Charlie Day, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Jamie Foxx. [Variety]

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Punch Drunk DVDS

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 1
By the time Harry Potter wraps up in a few short months, it will have been the most watched, highest earning franchise of all-time. It will also be one of the most consistent, no small feat considering it's audience has grown up right along with the film's three main stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint. Deathly Hallows is slow by comparison to the other movies, perhaps a bit too slow, but one thing it promises is that the final chapter is going to be a dark, action packed affair.







The Incredibles
Of all the many great films Pixar has given us, The Incredibles is my absolute favorite and I've been waiting for it to hit Blu-Ray forever. The premise is something that we saw Fox try to emulate with their Fantastic Four films with much less success: a close-knit, superpowered family battling against a foe with a very specific grudge.









Country Strong
It feels like only yesterday that I was in a crowded movie theater covering my eyes at the disaster that was Country Strong, a film a lot of folks had high hopes for after the success of Crazy Heart. But maybe that was the problem, as director Shana Feste seemed intent on making a film that embodied every single country music cliche possible, whereas Crazy Heart used the music as a backdrop to a familiar tale of redemption. As far as Gwyneth Paltrow goes, she makes for an impressive package as both actress and singer, and Leighton Meester is very good as well. Too bad neither gets a heck of a lot to work with.





Summer in Genoa
I don't recall Summer in Genoa(called Genova when it released in 2008) ever dropping anchor on our shores, a thought that should come as a surprise considering the film's pedigree. Michael Winterbottom directs, with Colin Firth, Catherine Keener, and Hope David starring in the story of a father who moves to Italy with his daughters after the death of his wife. The script was written by Laurence Coriat, who worked with Winterbottom on the riveting 1999 film, Wonderland.







Le Cercle rouge
Let me just put it all out there on front street: every heist movie you've probably ever seen owes a little something to this Jean-Pierre Melville classic. Unfortunately too many people will never understand that, and probably won't bat an eye when the Orlando Bloom remake finally makes it's appearance. No, I'm not kidding. It's in the works, folks.









White Material
One of my great shames of last year was not having a chance to catch up with Claire Denis's White Material, which stars the great(and still incredibly sexy) Isabelle Huppert as a defiant coffee plantation owner in Africa who stubbornly won't give up her business even as rebels descend on them all. 

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The Killer Inside Me

Adapting Jim Thompson's 1952 nihistic crime novel has proven to be as slippery and evasive as the subject of the story itself. The project has been in the works for years with some of the biggest names in Hollywood history chomping at the bit to be a part of it. At one time, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe were set to star in a 1956 version, but that fell apart when the Monroe died. It's hard not to imagine how those three heavyweights would've fared with material this extreme, so violent and misogyenistic that it caused some people to walk out at the Sundance Film Festival. While graphic, The Killer Inside Me isn't violent for the sake of being violent. This is a character study at it's core, a brutal film about a man who's rage knows no bounds and takes precedent over everything else.

The Killer Inside Me did manage to make it to the screen once, with Stacey Keach in the role of Lou Ford. For this version, we get the younger and more talented Affleck brother Casey as the demented town sheriff with a horrible secret. Lou Ford seems like a nice guy. A small town cop in a Texas town where pleasantry is the norm. You aren't a man if you don't call a lady "maam", and use your "please" and "thank yous". Lou is a pretty average guy. Some would call him dull, or plain. That boring quality he exudes is all just a cover. A mask to hide the wolf that lies underneath. He's a serial killer, a fact he's been keeping secret ever since he made his first kill as a boy.

Boring though he may be, Lou has a way with women. That way just happens to be pretty rough. Sent to a house on the edge of town to kick out Joyce(Jessica Alba), a prostitute who's gotten mixed up with the son of a wealthy town magnate(Ned Beatty), Lou discovers she's a lot more like him than he could've ever dreamed. After he slaps her around a little bit just to scare her off, they both seem shocked to realize that they sorta like it that way. They quickly form a sick, sadomasochistic relationship. Lou might not be able to love, but if there's anyone he could love, it'd be Joyce.  That could turn out to be a problem, since he's already involved with Amy(Kate Hudson), a sexy schoolteacher who thinks she's found the perfect man.

His violent urges reawakened, Lou must find a way to kill at will without arousing suspicion. In a horric act of violence, he bashes Joyce's face to the point where her eye is literally hanging out of her skull. The camera never pulls away once, nor should it. The story takes place solely from Lou's perspective, and to him the massacre is as beautiful as a rainbow. I can understand why some people wanted to leave. It was enough to nearly turn my iron stomach. Yet it makes me wonder how those who gave up on the movie after the ferocious attack would react to the much more agonizing demise of another female later on. While Joyce's death was so much about rage, this one was equally disturbing on a completely different level, more about power and humiliation. That's the one that gives me nightmares.

No director over the last decade has a more diverse resume than Michael Winterbottom(A Mighty Heart, Code 46). From Iraq War domentary to sci-fi romances, the man has done it all. He leaps into film noir with an obvious enthuasiasm you can sense from the pulpy title sequence. It's obvious he knows the history of the genre. The women are devilishly sexy, and the camera can't seem to get enough of them. Unlike your typical noir, where women use their seductive powers over men liberally, they are the posessions and tools here. Alba and Hudson are pitch perfect for what their roles require, and their relatively innocent reputations serve to make their falls from grace all the more terrible. Hudson has been on a roll lately, now that he's gotten away from those horrid McConaughey rom-coms.

It's not fair to compare Casey Affleck to Brando, Dicaprio, Cruise, or any of the other stars who's names have been attached to the film before. Affleck's low key cool is just right, yet he also posesses a menacing glare that I had never noticed before. When he flips the switch from charming to terrifying, it's a subtle transition that makes it more alarming. I consider myself to be one of his biggest fans, and I would put this as his best performance yet.

Unfortunately, The Killer Inside Me completely goes off the rails as Lou's life falls apart around him. In a rush to tie up the story's many loose ends, it heaps murder upon murder in rapid fire succession, making death ultimately pretty pointless. Those people who thought the sheer brutality of the first attack was gratuitous were right. They were just right at the wrong time. The conclusion is stupidly over-the-top, and it does the rest of the perfectly constructed film a disservice.

The Killer Inside Me isn't going to be for everybody. If you have a weak stomach, it's probably not for you, but you'll be missing out on one of the best performances of the year, and a solid crime flick that will be hard for anyone to forget.

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