Review of Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013) by Dawdlingpoet — 27 Nov 2021

This is a very funny movie, although it definitely helps if your already familiar with the character of Alan Partridge from Coogan's TV shows. This features the usual macho, sarcastic quips and dialogue that you'd expect from said character. The story is pretty over the top but of course thats whats great because it leads to some crazy scenarios which is where alot of the comedy comes from - he'd never admit to being in over his head but obviously he is. Its funny watching the war of the personalities as it were, with others from the station, particularly the angry Pat Farrell - its like a battle of ego's, of sorts.

To me this seemed more like a almost feature length length episode of one of his TV shows rather than a specific motion picture as such, I suppose. One of my favourite characters in his shows is Lynne, Alan's naive, anxious and rather shy assistant. One criticism I'd have of this, being aware of the characters, is the lack of scenes involving her. From a film point of view, its alright but there isn't too much in the way of visual effects or drama as such, its certainly more of a dry comedy than anything else, although that's to be expected really but it may seem perhaps a little bit dull to others who aren't familiar with Partridge.

As far as the content is concerned, there's toilet humour (of sorts), the comedy is pretty childish (as is to be expected if you know the character) but amusing, with some fairly clever wordplay puns and other funny dialogue. There are the almost inevitable (given the character) sex references and mild to moderate violence shown, with some bloody impact shown but its nothing especially extreme. As well as this, there is also some strong language present and the movie carries a 15 rating, which, as ever, seems fair.

Pace wise, the story moves at a decent pace, although I would say that sometimes there was a bit too much in the way of straight dialogue and it was starting to get a little bit dull. Its a bit daft but thats part of the fun of course! the main theme I suppose, if any, is to do with worrying about getting old and being 'past it', so the situation Partridge finds himself in is ideal for him as he'd been doing his usual job of looking out for number one, finding out he might be in the firing line and (unbeknownst to most anyone else) starting to feel the heat of younger people digging in to him on the airwaves.

Coogan is on his usual form, this movie is certainly no challenge for him - if anything, its a bit of a walk through the park really, portraying the macho, cocky DJ who is trying to stay as no. 1, to be loved by the media again. The rest of the cast im not very familiar with but the acting is decent enough, I'd say.

This movie is pretty short as modern movies go, at just under or about an hour and a half long - any longer and it could have become a bit too tedious I suppose.

Ultimately this is just a bit of fun, it certainly isn't likely to attract much interest from award ceremonies or the like but its entertaining and has its funny moments, so its decent enough and its certainly what I'd call distinctively British, which might come as a relief to some, if they were concerned he'd somehow be Americanised for the big screen (thinking back, I wasn't entirely impressed with the first Mr Bean movie - that was a slight disaster(!)).

Yes I'd recommend this movie to fans of Alan Partridge but for anyone not so familiar with him, you may quite enjoy this or find it a bit daft or a bit dull as a movie, so otherwise perhaps not? its certainly worth a watch when it comes on TV if your not sure though. There are some funny situations and comedy, though it is rather childish but thats to be expected - its quite entertaining and a bit of a laugh is the bottom line, though not much more than that, so I'd say overall its a good movie but it won't be to everyones tastes.