87% The Trip

All Critics (62) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (54) | Rotten (8)

The joy of this small, unimportant contest is weirdly addictive; you come out of the film as if from a concert, playing the music of false voices in your head.

The film is a wickedly funny joy ride that offers keen, unflatteringly honest insights on fame, midlife crises and the rivalrous nature of male friendship.

It's rife with observations about men of a certain age, actors of a certain career -- and for a bonus, restaurants of a certain moment.

Have you ever been trapped in the back seat of a car while the old married couple up front bickers and banters for hours? It's either sheer torture or, if the couple happens to be Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, wildly entertaining.

It's two guys traveling, eating and talking. Doesn't sound like much. But it's terrific.

Suggests a reality TV fusion of "Sideways'' and a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby "Road'' movie, or maybe "My Dinner With Andre'' repurposed into a movable feast.

Starting on Monday, Coogan and Bryden share meals . . . and what passes for conversation. When they're not insufferable, they're boring

If you're up for a chatty riff, this is an entertaining one.

Leisurely, yet competitive, culinary tour de farce

The pacing is entirely different from the television version, much tighter and with a sometimes too-hurried drive to get to the next destination. But taken on its own, it's still absolutely hilarious.

What makes this so enjoyable is the bickering, the camaraderie, the competition and the friendship between Steve and Rob.

It's already a busy summer, rife with 3-D comic book action. If that isn't your taste, or even if it is, "The Trip" offers a vastly different alternative.

"The Trip" is brilliantly conceived and performed. It's one film experience you wish could go on a bit longer.

A comic diversion that aspires to the old Seinfeld gag of being 'about nothing.'

Frequent Coogan handler Michael Winterbottom directs with a light, commercial touch of absurdity.

A simple conflict ... that is almost redeemed by the subtly fearless performances of its leads.

Reunites the delectable pair of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, real-life actor-comic friends who play versions of themselves to highly amusing and oddly wistful effect.

Far less than the sum of its parts. The framework upon which it hangs creaks under the weight of injudicious oversight by Michael Winterbottom and editor Mags Arnold, who overindulge their stars.

"The Trip" doesn't really go anywhere you didn't see it heading, but it's worth the journey.

Coogan and Brydon, as they proved earlier in Winterbottom's brilliant "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story," are a pair of pretty funny guys to spend time with; their riff on "We leave at daybreak!" is almost worth the ticket price.

It's pee-your-pants funny.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_trip_2011/

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