Review of Special Correspondents (2016) by Erik D — 15 May 2016

Ricky Gervais is a pretty reliable name in comedy. You generally know what you're going to get with any of his movies which made me even more disappointed when I watched Special Correspondence. It was a lame attempt at humor with none of the Ricky Gervais charm included. For whatever reason Eric Bana was in it as well and did he ever seem out of place. I think that was my main problem with this film. The characters were just awful.

I'll start off with Eric Bana just to get him out of the way. Nothing he did in this movie stood out as humorous or really just memorable at all. His character seemed so out of place alongside whatever Ricky Gervais was going for. If Ricky can almost make a phone commercial entertaining, then surely a full length movie with a big premiere on Netflix would be amazing. Sadly that was not to be, as Special Correspondence has a few minor decent jokes but nothing that will make you audibly laugh.

The biggest shame is that the setup is so cool. Sure the story of fake sneaking into a dangerous area has been done before but their version was a bit different. It's still not wholly original but their modern take which included computer sound effects made it a tad more fresh and enjoyable. You'll see how they pulled it off when you watch the film, but I wouldn't give it a full recommendation. It's the kind of movie you watch just to complete your favorite actor's filmography. Sure it wasn't terrible but it could have been so.. so much better.