In the Loop

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2009
Country of origin:	UK
Director:	Armando Iannucci
Genre:	International political satirical sweary comedy!
Starring:	Peter Capaldi, Chris Addison, Tom Hollander, David Rasche, Gandalfini
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226774/
Tagline:	The fate of the world is on the line
Favourite line:	"Within your 'purview'? Where do you think you are, some fucking regency costume drama? This is a government department, not some fucking Jane fucking Austen novel! Allow me to pop a jaunty little bonnet on your purview and ram it up your shitter with a lubricated horse cock."

The success of The Thick of It on the small screen led to a reasonably unlikely transition to the cinema, a path few TV comedies have trodden with any degree of success but, with an Oscar nomination in the bag, seems this one may prove the exception.

The plot:
Incompetent Minister for International Development Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) gaffes on national radio, by claiming that a war in The Middle East is ‘unforeseeable,’ a term that means nothing, but which implies much. Trying to make amends, he is interviewed again, and this time claims that the Western nations must ‘climb the mountain of conflict.’
With the US now involved, Foster’s bungling, along with interference from both sides of the political divide, sees the world teeter on the brink of a new, and potentially globally affecting, Desert Storm III.

Simply this, really.
You like the show, you’ll like this, you don’t, you won’t.
American interests are served up by some decent stunt casting – James ‘Tony Soprano’ Gandalfini, David ‘Sledgehammer’ Rasche – and by escalating the political chicanery to an international, rather than domestic level.
Several actors from the TV show return, but only Peter Capaldi as spin doctor Malcolm Tucker and Paul Higgins as PM’s Press Officer attack dog Jamie MacDonald reprise their original roles. The others, including Chris’ so smarmy you could lube Ron Jeremy’s for a month’ Addison appear as different characters, though ones that bear remarkable similarity to their TV incarnations. Strange to begin with – and presumably done so that the TV show can resume as if the movie had never happened, thus not alienating the core audience – you soon get used to it.
As with the TV version, this is all about the script, the Oscar nomination itself coming for Best Screenplay, which is fair enough as it is sharp as a skinhead’s hatred.
Not one for the mass market, this certainly won’t convert any doubters out there, but for the already initiated, this is ninety minutes well spent.
Very good.