A TRIP TO SPAIN

TWO STARS Comedians Coogan and Brydon are on their third restaurant-reviewing, book-writing research trip.

Starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon

COMEDY #TRIPTOSPAIN

There’s a well founded doubt that this third outing for comedians Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, and director Michael Winterbottom, would be an outing too far. After THE TRIP and A TRIP TO ITALY, a third lap around the block was always going to seem like a trip for the boys. But what’s in it for us, the audience, watching the pair eat food in foreign restaurants while imitating Michael Caine, Tom Hardy and their new favourite, Roger Moore? Not much as it turns out.

The familiarity of their routine has a certain appeal and for those who haven’t taken the trip before, their schtick is funny: they’re certainly having a good time, and their bonhomie is infectious. Yet with no narrative purpose other than visiting restaurants in Spain (where there’s no introduction to the menu, the food, the locality or the locals) plus a weird coda in Morocco, the film is essentially two stand-up comics riffing over an old act. As trips go, it gets very tiring very quickly.