Review of The Trip to Spain (2017) by Matt C — 18 Aug 2017

I don't know that six years ago I would expect for one of the most reliable franchises to be one centering on a pair of British comedians playing slightly altered versions of themselves and sparring verbally to almost no end, but I'm glad that this is the reality that I live in.

The Trip to Spain may be subject to diminishing returns following its two predecessors, but it still offers more laughs than most comedies from 2017 combined. Although there isn't as much depth to the material as seen before in the forms of these men's domestic lives and how it informs their personalities and relationship with each other, but said relationship remains firmly intact.

That's the bread and butter of this series, and with Coogan and Brydon's chemistry still as radiant as ever and a crackling energy in the jokes, the movie manages to preemptively redeem itself of an ending that's too long and carries a "that's it?" quality about it.

After they took on rural England and then conquered Italy, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, playing worse versions of themselves in terms of arrogance and eagerness to please, venture on another trip to visit and review restaurants, this time across Spain.

Sightseeing, banter, and impressions ensue-the formula that's been established largely stays in place. That's largely for better than for worse, thanks to the distance that these actors can get out of bare bones material.

While the content here is written, it's heavily improvised, and the results stay true to both the naturalism of their personas and the (admittedly slight) arcs that their characters are placed into.

But then again, this is the type of movie that is about jabs that they throw at one another and the spontaneity of emotions that underlie it all. They each have their needs to assert their dominance over one another in terms of how cultured, successful, and in a few ways, how virile they can come across.

There isn't a whole lot to say about The Trip to Spain because it says a lot for itself-there's a lot of dialogue here. What matters is that I laughed, and I laughed out loud and I laughed a lot.

It truly is funny and endearing in its unabashed silliness. Where The Trip to Spain falls short of The Trip and The Trip to Italy is in its relative lack of substance. What lent most of the emotional heft to the first two movies were the glimpses of Coogan's personal life and how empty it can be, especially when compared to Brydon and his seemingly idealistic domestic life.

Those moments were sprinkled in more consistently before, but here they're mostly plopped into the last 20 minutes and make the movie feel a little lopsided. What it ultimately leads up to also feels like a weak, rather questionable punchline and disconnected from what came before, even if it was slightly telegraphed in retrospect.

Nonetheless, it's the camaraderie between these two men that can't be denied, and their mutual affection proves to be infectious once the movie finds its groove about ten minutes in. More-ahem, Roger Moore-please.

7.8/10, good, B, above average, etc.