Review of A Cock and Bull Story (2005) by Jonathan S — 08 Apr 2008

Speaking as someone who hasn't read the original novel, I found A Cock and Bull Story to be a very funny movie, albeit slightly lacking in consistency at times. The film has a top notch cast, strong direction, writing, and wonderfully dry execution of its humor.

The parts focusing on Shandy's story itself are probably the strongest, though the parts centered on the making of the movie - complete with Coogan, Brydon, and all playing parodies of themselves - are quite entertaining to, albeit somewhat hit and miss at times.

Not quite as strong a parody of filmmaking in that regard as Extras, and with Ashley Jenson in a small role, you'd practically expect Ricky Gervais to show up somewhere. Nonetheless, a well written, well acted, and all around well-made film.

Michael Winterbottom did a good job with this extremely meta approach to a rather meta story in and of itself. While certainly not flawless, it works, and it'll make you laugh.