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Lasting Impressions

By David Denby

It’s been said of great mimics that they capture not just the voice and the manner of their subjects but their very souls. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, master impersonators and stars of the new comedy “The Trip to Italy,” are after something less grand and, in many ways, funnier. The movie is a sequel to “The Trip” (2011)—both were directed by Michael Winterbottom—and it repeats the earlier film’s mixed tone of hilarity and melancholia, as well as its absurd premise: the two men (they play themselves) are on an all-expenses-paid trip for the Observer . Their tough assignment is to drive through beautiful country, eat lavishly, and stay in exquisite small hotels, all so that one or the other can write high-toned culinary drivel for the paper. (They don’t actually know anything about food.) “The Trip” was set in the bleakly magnificent scenery of the hills and moors of the North of England; this film is set mainly along the incomparable coast (Liguria, Amalfi) of Italy. As the men amble through paradise, savoring such dishes as polpo alla griglia and coniglio arrosto , they take turns topping each other with riotous impressions of movie stars. They aren’t interested in anyone’s soul; they see themselves simply as professionals in an exacting trade that requires getting Christian Bale’s guttural whisper and Roger Moore’s English-butter croon exactly right. They also try to one-up each other as men, vying for professional success and for the attention of the invariably lovely women they meet. Sharks have duller teeth than Coogan and Brydon. Both movies, in fact, are about the impossibility—and the necessity—of male friendship.

Each film began as a six-part series on the BBC, and what we see, presumably, are the highlights. Yet if I hadn’t known that the footage had been cut way down I wouldn’t have guessed it. Winterbottom laid out the gist of a given scene, and the men improvised the rest, often taking off on bizarrely intricate riffs. Driving, eating, checking into hotels, lying alone (and sometimes not alone) at night—the recurring scenes, like the refrain of a song, give the movie formal clarity and simplicity, while, within the scenes, the editors (Mags Arnold, Paul Monaghan, and Marc Richardson) smooth what must have been ragged exchanges into unbroken streams of conversation.

The pace almost equals that of Robin Williams doing standup, but Coogan and Brydon reprise their best sallies for rhythm and for emphasis, so you won’t miss anything that matters. Ogling the scenery in “The Trip to Italy,” you wonder if the men’s small car—a Mini Cooper—will drive off the edge of a cliff, or if, when they board a yacht in the Golfo dei Poeti, someone will fall overboard and drown. But the “plot” is no more than the men’s thorny emotional connection and their mutual fixation on death. The only conventional suspense is whether Brydon and Coogan will return to their families or remain among the young women of Sorrento and Positano, catching octopus and squid.

Brydon, who is largely unknown in this country, has a long pale face, a Bugs Bunny smile, and pitted skin like that of his fellow-Welshman Richard Burton. Brydon’s voice is like Burton’s, too—baritonal, musical, and expansive. When Brydon reads Shelley in his imitation-Burton voice, he sounds nearly as authoritative as the Master. (He also does a mean Ian McKellen.) Brydon’s voice can go up or down an octave, or shrink, through some glottal mystery, to the tiny sound of a man in a box, a favorite routine that he does on British TV. Perhaps the most extraordinary of his impressions is a long series in “The Trip” devoted to Michael Caine at different stages of his life, from a snarling young Cockney to the elderly, hyper-polite butler in the “Batman” movies. Even as Brydon delivers his rendition, however, Coogan disputes his technique. You have to talk through your nose, he says; you have to get the nasality right, and he honks through his Michael Caine. For both men, craft is a passion, and the voice is supreme. When Brydon does Hugh Grant, the meaning of the words gets lost in a thicket of Grantian hesitations, jokes, and daft circumlocutions, only to emerge victoriously in a proposal that few women could resist. An actor’s distinctive voice is not just an element of leading-man stardom (which the two know they will never achieve) but the main equipment of sexual prowess. Coogan and Brydon’s Hollywood envy keeps the comedy free of sycophancy and appropriately hostile. Imitating well is the best revenge.

Coogan is best known here for his work in the Stephen Frears movie “Philomena” (2013), in which he played the real-life journalist Martin Sixsmith, an argumentative skeptic who helps Judi Dench’s Philomena Lee, a forgiving Catholic Irish woman, search for her long-lost son. Working in a softened version of screwball comedy, Coogan and Dench bantered with spirit but without sentiment. Yet, even in that relatively gentle role, Coogan, frowning, his pursed lips bordering on a sneer, came off as an articulate grouch. In the “Trip” films, playing a version of himself, he’s intelligent and dyspeptic, a man too clever to live by illusions but too ambitious to give them up. He’s dissatisfied with everything—his career, his relationship with his children, his waning sexual attractiveness—and he takes it out on his friend. In return, Brydon, in “The Trip to Italy,” concocts no fewer than three fantasies of murdering him, including a precise reënactment of the famous retaliation scene from “The Godfather: Part II.” As a portrait of male friendship, the “Trip” films are a triumph of the lean British comic style over the maunder and the mush of American bromance—Jason Segel and Seth Rogen pinching each other’s blubber.

Both films pursue the high and the low: a complicated deep-running sadness courses through the cynical, sybaritic adventures. In “The Trip,” Coogan and Brydon visit the villages where Wordsworth and Coleridge lived; they invade the poets’ tiny rooms, and recite, under gray skies, stretches of their early work, most of it devoted to loss and grief. The readings are done straight, with love and skill. Yet we’re meant to notice the diminution: from nature as spiritual necessity to tourist site; from poetry to show business; from inspiration to career worries. Coogan and Brydon abhor self-aggrandizement and self-promoting bluster—they know that what they do isn’t poetry.

The implicit comparisons recur in Italy, where the men visit the towns in which the sexual outlaws Byron and Shelley lived, shortly before their deaths. The comics perform funerary obsequies for the poets and again recite in their own and others’ voices. “The Trip to Italy,” for all its japes, is haunted by mortality, as was its namesake, “Viaggio in Italia” (1954), the Rossellini masterpiece starring George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman as a warring couple dismally on tour. Like them, Coogan and Brydon visit the museum at Pompeii, with its plaster casts of the bodies of the dead. Rossellini showed us a couple who died locked in embrace when Vesuvius exploded, a harsh reflection on the modern couple’s marital anguish. Here, in a blasphemous reduction, Brydon summons his man-in-a-box voice to play a Pompeian lying in a glass case; the two carry on a discreet gay flirtation. It’s not that the end is nigh for these men, but death, for them and for Winterbottom, is always present in life. Over and over on the soundtrack, Winterbottom plays the beginning of “Im Abendrot,” the last of Richard Strauss’s “Four Last Songs,” composed in 1948, a year before he died, at the age of eighty-five. The use of classical music in movies normally makes me wince, but in this film the glorious Strauss farewell fits every time.

James Agee, writing in The Nation , in 1946, noted that Groucho Marx, working with “extremely sophisticated wit . . . has always been slowed and burdened by his audience, even on the stage. He needs an audience that could catch the weirdest curves he could throw, and he needs to have no anxiety or responsibility toward even a blunter minority, let alone majority.” That audience now exists; it has been created during the past forty years by British and American television, particularly by cable television. Whether such people go to the movies anymore is a vexed question. On the opening day of “The Trip to Italy,” I sat in a New York art house among a gathering of decidedly mature viewers, who were apparently expecting a beach-and-mountain travelogue. For a hundred and ten minutes, watching some of the funniest comedy in years, they maintained a puzzled silence. The British, in their curious game of cricket, don’t throw weird curves; they deliver fast bowls. The two Winterbottom-Coogan-Brydon movies deserve an American audience, ready for wit, that can play along. ♦

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By Michael Schulman

By Anthony Lane

By Roz Chast

By Bruce Headlam

Michael Caine Saw Something Special In His Dark Knight Trilogy Role

There are many things to admire about the " Dark Knight " trilogy. Director Christopher Nolan helped to redefine the cape crusader, introducing the character of Bruce Wayne to a whole new generation of audiences. Recreating critical aspects of the Batman mythos also meant reintroducing iconic side characters, like Bruce Wayne's butler and father figure, Alfred Pennyworth.

Nolan's trilogy of films characterized Batman and his gadgets in a much more grounded way than previous fantastical adaptations and set a precedent for the realism of comic book movies going forward. Michael Caine (who would go on to become a longtime collaborator of the director) played an instrumental part in that realism, acting like Q to Batman's James Bond .

 Alfred had always played a supporting role in the live-action "Batman" endeavors that Warner Brothers had released at that point, but none had carried the emotional weight Caine brought to the role. According to the actor, Alfred's role in the "Dark Knight" trilogy is special, helping to ground the larger-than-life world of Batman.

'The human representative'

In an interview with Female , Michael Caine discussed his portrayal of Alfred Pennyworth and how he represents the more humanistic side of Bruce Wayne:

"I thought it was great because the butler is the human representative of all of us in the middle of the movie with all these extraordinary characters, which is sort of a specialty of mine. I've always played very human sort of characters. So for me, that was great. And I'd never been in one of those great big blockbusters."

Besides being one of the most humanizing characters in the films, he's also Bruce's partner-in-crimefighting. "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" both feature sequences that show Alfred helping Bruce with logistics for some of his biggest feats in the films.

Look no further than the sequence in "The Dark Knight" where Alfred helps Bruce get a pilot and an alibi for his trip to Hong Kong to kidnap mob accountant Lau, all while providing a history lesson on the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system. Alfred is a supporting player for most of these movies, but he is instrumental in advising Bruce and helping him in his outings as Batman .

Alfred's critical insight

More than just helping Bruce with the logistical aspects of being Batman, Caine's Alfred also helps Bruce deal with the psychological part of being the caped crusader. Several instances in the trilogy see Bruce coming to Alfred for guidance. Moreover, Alfred always had an anecdote to help both Bruce and the audience gain a better understanding of whatever villain Batman was facing at the time.

Perhaps one of the most famous instances of Alfred's wisdom comes in " The Dark Knight ," which sees Alfred have a better understanding of the Joker than Bruce does early on in the film. "Some men just want to watch the world burn" has become one of the staple quotes of the "Dark Knight" and the trilogy, with Michael Caine responsible for the incredible delivery. In this instance and many others throughout the trilogy, Caine brings an air of humility and wisdom while trying to keep Bruce Wayne level-headed.

Caine's Alfred almost always gave audiences critical insight into Batman or the villains when we needed it most. The actor's belief that his character is the human representative isn't far off, especially given that one of the last shots of the trilogy is him sharing one last glance with Bruce. It's a reminder for viewers of how big a part Alfred played in the films and Bruce's life.

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Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon – taking the Michael

S ir Michael Caine was on American television the other week, on the Charlie Rose Show, promoting his new book, The Elephant to Hollywood. It was very nice, if you like that sort of thing. He ran through the big films in his life. You can guess what they were, even if 10 is a stretch: Zulu, The Ipcress File, Alfie, The Italian Job, Sleuth, Get Carter, The Man Who Would Be King, Educating Rita, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Cider House Rules, The Quiet American … How many is that?

I'm sorry, but I'm a bit upset. You see, it's not the same any more. Just a few weeks earlier, on YouTube, I'd seen a clip from The Trip on BBC 2 in which Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon do competing Michael Caine impersonations . It's not that they're unkind about it. But, honestly, it's all over. You have to hope Sir Michael has got enough put by. All of a sudden you get it: he's been doing Michael Caine all along.

There he was on Charlie Rose blathering on about his "acting", the way he's been doing for years – about how if people watching him say, "Look at that Michael Caine," then he's a failure. But if they say, "How about that character?" then he's all right. And for a few years, maybe, you thought well perhaps there's something to it.

But apart from Carter and Alfie (who are easy), just name me a character Caine has played. You can't do it, can you? Because it's him all the time. Which I'm not against, because he's a decent chap. And if he wants to think that in The Quiet American, he sounded like a writer for the Times in Saigon in 1954, well bless his heart. He sounded like Michael Caine to me – and why not? He's been doing it for 50 years in so many bloody films and it's nice to see an old geezer keeping in work. But, please, can we do ourselves a favour? He's always Michael. And now I've seen these guys doing him, I really can't watch Caine pictures with a straight face. He's like the Queen: she does the Queen and he does Michael.

What upsets me is that it's acting that takes the hit. Now, I've had this creeping feeling for years that we're all actually worn out with acting – particularly the sincere thing.

When's the last time you saw an actor doing a strenuous bit of sincerity and you didn't start laughing? I know, it worked once upon a time – Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. Marvellous – right? Try looking at them again – it's close to ridiculous. Sincerity is vanishing, and I'm not sure that narrative can survive without it.

Of course, this isn't Caine's fault. It could happen to anyone that performance starts to look like a vehicle for imitation. Taking the Mickey, if you like, or a Caine mutiny where the public (especially the kids) see any piece of acting as a lark, a singalong, a kind of karaoke.

It's amazing how a clip on YouTube can open your eyes. I just saw the trailer for The Tourist. It looks as if it's trying to be rotten serious and it's directed by the man who made The Lives of Others – now, there was a heartbreaker, and not so long ago. But Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in the trailer, they look like impersonators. The broken heart has become a Rubik's Cube. The movies are slipping away as we look, and you have to give Sir Michael his due. In his own casual way, he's a big part of the vanishing. Honest. He's not there. He never was, but now you know it.

• Michael Caine
• Steve Coogan

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Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon Mock THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in New Clip from THE TRIP TO ITALY

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon resume their Michael Caine impressions in The Trip to Italy, and also make fun of The Dark Knight Rises.

2010's The Trip didn't do much for me, although I love the scene where Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon try to find out who can do the better Michael Caine impression.  The sequel, The Trip to Italy , premiered at Sundance this past week, and IFC Films have released a clip where Coogan and Brydon have resumed impersonating the venerable Mr. Caine.  They also use this as an opportunity to poke fun at The Dark Knight Rises and expand their repertoire to impressions of Christian Bale and Tom Hardy .  It's quite amusing.

Hit the jump to check out the clip.

Via IFC Films.

Also, here's the scene their mocking if you want to compare Michael Caine's performance to their impressions:

Here's the Sundance synopsis for The Trip to Italy :

Michael Winterbottom’s largely improvised 2010 film, The Trip, took comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon—or semifictionalized versions thereof—on a restaurant tour around northern England. In this witty and incisive follow-up, Winterbottom reunites the pair for a new culinary road trip, retracing the steps of the Romantic poets’ grand tour of Italy and indulging in some sparkling banter and impersonation-offs. Rewhetting our palates from the earlier film, the characters enjoy mouthwatering meals in gorgeous settings from Liguria to Capri while riffing on subjects as varied as Batman’s vocal register, the artistic merits of “Jagged Little Pill,” and, of course, the virtue of sequels.

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Tracing the Evolution of Batman’s Alfred, From Clueless Sidekick to Special Forces Stud

Whenever Batman comes home from a night of bloody derring-do, he’s there, ready to sew up a few wounds, offer a pep talk, troubleshoot some weaponry, and fetch a hot cup of cocoa: Alfred Pennyworth, loyal valet (or, if we’re going to use expired British military terminology, Batman’s batman). He was written into the Wayne Manor household staff early on, in 1943, as an essentially comic character: the bumbling Brit. Over time, and through the various reboots detailed here, he was given more gravitas and a skill set that differs in many ways from, say, Carson’s on Downton Abbey but that comes in handy when your boss is a billionaire vigilante. Now he’s getting his own show on Epix, Pennyworth, which elaborates on his backstory. Showrunners Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon will offer up sexy tales of Alfred’s pre-buttling days as a member of the elite British Special Air Service.

Fat Alfred …

( Batman,  Vol. 1, No. 16)

In his debut, Alfred is a portly music-hall actor and aspiring detective who arrives in Gotham City intending to investigate the Batman phenomenon. His father, Jarvis, had been the Wayne-family butler. Alfred takes over the job and only by accident realizes whom he is actually working for.

… Goes on a Hollywood Diet

( Detective Comics,  Vol. 1, No. 83)

Batman  was a hit, and it turned into a movie serial. But William Austin, the actor cast as Alfred, was thin, which meant that comic-book Alfred was abruptly packed off to a health resort to reemerge as the trim gentleman he has remained to this day.

Fan-Fiction Author

( Batman,  Vol. 1, No. 135)

A wild adventure for the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder is followed by the revelation that the whole thing was, bizarrely enough, just an imaginary tale written by none other than Alfred. What’s more, when Bruce Wayne catches him at the typewriter, he implies the guy has done this more than once. Trippy.

A Butler’s Death

( Detective Comics,  Vol. 1, No. 328)

While trying to save Batman and Robin, Alfred is crushed by a boulder.

Alfred: Resurrection

( Detective Comics,  Vol. 1, No. 356)

A long story line involving a shadowy mastermind named the Outsider reaches its climax when it’s revealed that he’s none other than a deranged Alfred, raised from the dead and granted superpowers by a mad scientist.

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, Butler!

(The first  Batman  TV show)

For the campy Adam West series, Alfred is played by the classically trained English actor Alan Napier, who initially found the role “the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard of.” Then he learned the contract could be worth more than $100,000. “So, I said I was Batman’s butler.”

His Secret-Agent Secret

( Detective Comics,  Vol. 1, No. 501)

So wait, why is Alfred always so good at sewing up wounds and defending himself? In this issue, his British-spy backstory is finally declassified for fans.

( Batman: Year One )

When the entire DC line got rebooted in the mid-1980s, Alfred was given a new and more psychologically complicated history with Bruce: He’d been working for the family since before Bruce’s parents were murdered, and then he guided the Batlad along his vigilante path.

Alfred Forever

( Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin )

Michael Gough’s restrained and dignified blockbuster butler outlasted three Batmen: first Michael Keaton, then Val Kilmer, and finally George Clooney. He also starred in a Diet Coke  Batman  tie-in commercial.

The Millennial Icon

( Batman: The Animated Series )

This show began as a spinoff from  Batman Returns,  but the sardonic depiction of Alfred at the hands of character designer Bruce Timm and actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. became a pop-culture touchstone. An even more chilled-out version of Austin’s rendition, but with 1940s serials nearly impossible to find in the ’90s, no kid was the wiser.

Alt A: Igor

( Batman: Castle of the Bat )

An alternate-universe story in which Bruce is a Victor Frankenstein–esque tinkerer who learns the hard way that man should not play God. His sniveling, hunchbacked assistant? Alfredo.

Alt B: Zombie

( League of Justice,  Vol. 1, No. 2)

This alternate-universe superhero riff on  Lord of the Rings  features a sequence in which a deceased Alfred returns as an undead wraith.

Alt C: Tycoon

(Tangent Comics,  Green Lantern , Vol. 1, No. 1)

In yet another alternate universe, Alfred isn’t a butler at all but rather a publishing mogul.

Doting Uncle

( Batman & Robin )

In this much-derided conclusion to the four-film  Batman  blockbuster cycle, Alfred is the uncle of Alicia Silverstone’s Batgirl. An electronic version of him makes a sexy costume for his niece and grins a little too hungrily when she puts it on.

Employee of the Year

( Batman: Crimson Mist )

In still another universe, Bruce is turned into a vampire and Alfred sacrifices himself and his blood to satisfy Batman’s urges.

Keeper of the Flame

(Birds of Prey)

The daughter of Batman and Catwoman picks up the Bat-mantle in Batsy’s absence with the assistance of an Alfred played by Ian Abercrombie. If he looks familiar, it may be because of his run as one of Elaine’s bosses on  Seinfeld.

Caine Is Able

(Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises )

Michael Caine gets fitted for the butler’s tux in Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, with iconic results: Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon famously lampooned him in  The Trip , and the scene in which he monologues about working for the British military in Burma became the subject of countless bizarre remixes on YouTube.

( Batman,  Vol. 1, No. 679)

As part of a story line called “Batman R.I.P.,” a baddie named Simon Hurt attempts to smear Alfred by telling the world that he had an affair with Martha Wayne and is Bruce’s true father. It doesn’t stick.

Kick-Ass Therapist

( Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? )

This out-of-continuity homage to all the eras of the Dark Knight, written by  American Gods  author Neil Gaiman, includes a story in which it’s revealed that Alfred orchestrated every fight Batman ever got into, out of a desire to help cheer up a depressed Bruce. Alfred himself even played the Joker!

Alt D: Superbutler

( Injustice: Gods Among Us,  Vol. 1, No. 36)

In one more alternate universe — where Superman goes rogue after the Joker kills Lois Lane — Alfred gains temporary superpowers and beats the crap out of Supes.

Biological Daddy

( Batman,  Vol. 2, No. 28)

This time, Alfred has a biracial daughter, Julia Pennyworth, who turns out to be a great addition to Batman’s team.

Cupcake Defender

One of the latest TV versions of the Bat-mythos takes place while Bruce is still a child. Sean Pertwee plays Alfred as a dude who can take on any threat, including a supervillain named Cupcake. (Look, it’s a weird show.)

Bitchy Butler

( Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League )

Zack Snyder’s superguy-on-superguy outing was poorly received, but one of its highlights is Jeremy Irons as the bitchiest Alfred to date, rolling his eyes and sarcastically lambasting Bruce for his failings. Irons returned for an even bigger bomb,  Justice League.

Try on the Cape

( Batman,  Vol. 3, No. 5)

After the latest Universal Comics reboot, a newly determined Batman assembles a wide array of allies to help him out. Alfred gets to dress up as Batman and drive the Batmobile. The mustache looks a smidge out of place under the cowl.

Pennyworth, Alfred Pennyworth

(Pennyworth)

But is becoming a high-end domestic a common career path for those who were formerly in the special forces?

*This article appears in the July 22, 2019, issue of  New York  Magazine  Subscribe Now!

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• Sky One / BBC Two / Sky Atlantic
• 2010 - 2020
• 24 episodes (4 series)

Improvised comedy with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon on a series of road trips. Also features Rebecca Johnson , Claire Keelan , Margo Stilley , Marta Barrio and Timothy Leach

This Is How Michael Caine Speaks

During a wine-fuelled first lunch on their trip, Steve and Rob try to outdo each other with their impressions of Sir Michael Caine, both spanning decades and emotional ranges.

View this clip on the BBC website

From The Trip, Episode 1 . Featuring: Rob Brydon (Rob) & Steve Coogan (Steve).

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Michael Caine

• View history

Sir Michael Caine , CBE , (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite ) is an English actor and author. He portrayed Alfred J. Pennyworth in Christopher Nolan 's Batman Begins , The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises . He is one of only five actors to appear in all three films.

Characters portrayed by Michael Caine in the Batman Universe [ ]

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‘The Trip to Greece’ Is the Last ‘Trip’ Film. But It Shouldn’t Be (Column)

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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I’m an unabashed fan of “The Trip” and its three sequels. They’re the British talk-verité road comedies in which Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon , playing heightened versions of their quicksilver acid-tongued middle-aged selves, drive around some lovely European country (England, Italy, Spain, Greece), stopping for lavish lunches at Michelin-star restaurants as they slice and dice each other’s egos with the quippiest of thoughts — a one-upmanship game between frenemies that periodically bursts out into their dueling impersonations of some legendary movie star. (The most hilarious was Michael Caine. They’ve also done indelible takeoffs on Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Sean Connery, Woody Allen and Hugh Grant.)

It’s hard to pinpoint what it is that gives the “Trip” movies their special tang, but the whole rapid-fire competitive banter of Coogan and Brydon, most of which they make up on the spot, reminds me of the razzing prankishness of “A Hard Day’s Night” with a touch of the conversational enchantment of “My Dinner with Andre.” These are comedies to take seriously (though not too seriously). They’re also dramas to take lightly.

And now, it seems, they’re going to be missed.

Popular on Variety

With the release, on May 22, of “The Trip to Greece,” Coogan, Brydon and their director, Michael Winterbottom , have announced that they’re packing it in. There will be no more “Trip” movies — at least, for a good long time. Each of the four films, going back to “The Trip” in 2010, was carved out of a six-episode BBC series (each series, in total, is about one-and-a-half times longer than the film it was whittled down to). To do another movie, they would need, theoretically, to do another series, and that’s not in the cards.

Yet I think that letting go of the films now is a mistake. Sure, you could make a case (as I have) that the “Trip” films are kind of running out of tricks, that we’ve seen Coogan and Brydon do even their mightiest impersonations once too often, and that the wistful grace notes of all-the-world’s-a-stage melancholy that give the series its soul were there from the beginning, so there’s no real point in trying to “deepen” the material. It’s already about as deep as it’s going to get.

“The Trip to Greece,” however, falls way too short of being the grand finale this series deserves. You could say that they’re going out humbly, without fanfare (and without any risk of jumping the shark), and that that’s a good thing. It’s also trés British. But here’s why Coogan and Brydon should consider one more go-round, and here’s a suggestion of what, exactly, I think it should be.

“The Trip to Greece” wasn’t an ending, it was just a stop.

The new movie takes pains to have a dark undercurrent or two, especially after Coogan learns that his father has been taken ill. Yet even this sets up what is less a closing note than a kind of spiritual cliffhanger: What’s Coogan going to do when his vanity comes up against mortality? A great question, but it’s never answered.

For a series that is this fixated on American movie stardom, it needs to get out of its Euro comfort zone.

The “Trip” films are epicurean buddy-movie travelogues that might have been bankrolled by the European tourism industry. Each one, among other things, is a tossed-off advertisement for the glories of landscape, cuisine, history. The documentary shots of food being prepared in restaurant kitchens — we tend to see a dish tossed in a smoking pan just before it’s served to our heroes — are like privileged glimpses of ancient trade secrets. It’s all very luscious and Continental. So where would they go next — to France? Sweden? Germany? Ireland? No way. That formula really is spent. As a result, I think it’s finally time that Coogan and Brydon journeyed to the belly of the beast. The fifth and final “Trip” film should be….

“The Trip to California.” The two would start in the Pacific Northwest, drive down through San Francisco along the Pacific Coast Highway, and end up — of course — in Los Angeles, where they can finally confront the place that’s been the source of so many of their dreams.

They need to try out some radical new impressions.

In every “Trip” sequel, there are golden oldies — a touch of Pacino, a mumbled snippet of Tom Hardy — and at least one great new one, like the Dustin Hoffman-and-Laurence-Olivier-in-“Marathon-Man” set piece that’s the funniest sequence in “The Trip to Greece.” Yet as much as I adore these flashbacks to the ’70s, there’s a whole new world out there waiting to be mimicked into oblivion, and these are the guys to do it, even if Coogan now claims he couldn’t care less about being an impressionist. (Maybe so, but he’s so great at it that that’s just his version of every comedian wanting to play Hamlet.) The two could do Brad Pitt, John Travolta, Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, Quentin Tarantino…the sky of empathetic ridicule is the limit. “The Trip to California” should be the Coogan-and-Brydon celebrity roast to end all celebrity roasts.

They need face-to-face encounters with one or two of their prime targets.

This may sound like it edges into shark-jumping terrain, but how perfect would it be if, in the final “Trip” film, they actually ran into Michael Caine — and wound up conducting a three-way Caine dialogue with him? Or if they did the same thing with Pacino? The last “Trip” film should arrive at a delirious funhouse-mirror satirical high, leaving us with a sensation of deliverance. A scene like that would do that trick.

The film should be a light-handed meditation on comedy and acting.

We’ve heard enough, in bits and pieces, about Coogan and Brydon’s personal lives to kind of know who they are. But what is it that drives them, in their hidden hearts, as actor-comedians who emerged from a culture — England’s — where acting is part of the spiritual-behavioral lifeblood? In “The Trip to California,” their six-day trip should culminate in a joint appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that’s as rivetingly funny and drop-dead revealing, in its way, as the talk-show climax of “Joker.” (They could meet Michael Caine there!) All of which is to say…

“The Trip to California” should be a heady celebration of showbiz.

Where, in Hollywood, does fantasy end and reality begin? And where is that line in these two men’s souls, as they play themselves in a series of movies where every moment is “real” and every moment is a performance? “The Trip to California” should end the series by going out with a big bang of meta hilarity. We, along with Coogan and Brydon, deserve nothing less.

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Two Guys On A Road Trip, Racking Up Comic Mileage

Bob Mondello

Friendly Fire: Steve Coogan (right) takes his friend Rob Brydon along on a newspaper assignment to sample fine food at Britain's country inns — though in the end the two spend more time acting the fool than they do appreciating the culinary arts. Phil Fisk/IFC Films hide caption

• Director: Michael Winterbottom
• Genre: Comedy
• Running Time: 107 minutes

With: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon

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'Best Actor'

Credit: IFC Films

'Altar Boy'

'Michael Caine'

How's this for meta? British funnymen Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are friends in real life. In their new movie, they play friends — named Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. And because the movie is called The Trip, they go on a trip. Happily, they turn out to be amusing company — albeit more for us than for each other. As the opening credits roll, the dyspeptic Coogan is telling his considerably more easygoing colleague that he has landed a magazine assignment as a celebrity food critic. He's to spend a week visiting Britain's country inns, then report back to The Observer. Coogan thought his girlfriend, a real foodie, would go with him, but she bailed; not wanting to go alone, he's asking Brydon, letting it drop that he has already asked several others who've declined. Who could resist so gracious an invitation? Brydon gets permission from his wife, and in short order they're off, driving and dining and making wisecracks, mostly while doing spot-on impressions of bigger celebs. Spot-on dueling impressions, too, of Sean Connery, Woody Allen, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Winston Churchill, Stephen Hawking and most impressively Michael Caine. In the space of perhaps 45 seconds, Brydon traverses Caine's whole vocal career from Alfie to Alfred, seductive high to Batman-butler low, nasal to breathy. It's quite the tour-de-force . The food they're mostly ignoring during their duels is downright architectural, and looks delicious, though that doesn't keep Coogan from complaining that his selections don't seem as interesting as his tablemate's. The screen Coogan is a bit of a diva, actually, prickly about everything from his cellphone signal to the one hotel where it looks like they'll have to share a room. The filmic Rob Brydon, by contrast, is comparatively cheery — ordering scallops everywhere they go (though no one ever comments on that fact), suggesting edifying little poetic side trips, and at night trying to talk his wife into a bit of phone sex, initially in Hugh Grant's voice. Director Michael Winterbottom, best known in the U.S. for such weightier fare as Welcome to Sarajevo and The Road to Guantanamo, lets a little seriousness seep in at times, but he's mostly just having a lark in The Trip , which he's excerpted from a six-episode British TV series he made with Coogan and Brydon last year.

Coogan and Brydon turn out to have a knack for dueling celebrity impersonations — and, in particular, to know their way around a solid Michael Caine impersonation . Phil Fisk/IFC Films hide caption

Coogan and Brydon turn out to have a knack for dueling celebrity impersonations — and, in particular, to know their way around a solid Michael Caine impersonation .

The two actors also played themselves as actors in Winterbottom's Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story a few years back, and the improvisational rapport they exhibited there has blossomed into a pretty seamless partnership, whether they're blanching at the made-up eulogies they'd deliver at each other's funerals or letting their imaginations run riot, dreaming up dialogue for the costume epics they'd love to film in the rolling hills they're driving through. Not sure when I lost it and started laughing at absolutely everything they said, but by the time they were singing ABBA songs at the top of their lungs, I was gone. These guys are a hoot, and The Trip is a trip and a half.

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The “Trip” films constitute the only movie franchise that matters. This is in large part because the movies themselves have absolutely no concern with being the kinds of pictures that “matter.” There are three such movies so far, all directed by Michael Winterbottom and all chopped down from mini-series of about double the feature’s length, and all starring comedic actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon . The movies, which started in 2010 with the just-plain “ The Trip ” depict Coogan and Brydon, playing themselves, tooling around a country sampling sites and restaurants, ostensibly for novelty newspaper pieces. The two play versions of themselves, and the attached storylines, which never really amount to anything crucial, center around the personal and professional anxieties of the two men. Coogan is more of an international hot property than Brydon, and has the inflated ego to prove it, but he’s also way more neurotic and insecure about the state of affairs than Brydon. But this sort of back-and-forth is of course merely narrative glue to hold together scenes in which the two masters try to outdo each other with competing celebrity impressions that are noteworthy and hilarious not just for their levels of accuracy but for the absurdist semi-satirical wit they yield.

What they do best is of course exemplified in the second film in the series, 2014’s “The Trip To Italy,” in which Coogan and Brydon riff on the “Dark Knight” films by analyzing the two types of delivery Christian Bale uses in them—as Batman and Bruce Wayne—and moving on to the unintelligibility-at-any-speed of Tom Hardy ’s Bane, and winding up of course with their dueling Michael Caine impressions. Your mileage may vary, but for me, that scene is a measuring stick of hilarity. Pretty much every time I watch it, I almost hyperventilate with laughter by the time they get to the “I don’t want to bury another Batman” stuff.

If you feel similarly, you don’t need me to recommend “The Trip To Spain.” You’ll be on board, and you should be, because it has the goods. It begins with Coogan flying in from New York, with a crisp short haircut and an ego boosted by an Academy Award nomination for screenwriting “ Philomena ,” while Brydon is enjoying domesticity and child-rearing about as much as one is able when one of the children is two. (While Coogan and Brydon play their ostensible selves, the people in their lives, including Coogan’s “son” Joe, are fictional characters played by actors.) The newspaper offer is now a joint one, from the British Observer and the New York Times , and the publications will ask the duo to pose as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza at a photo shoot during the trip. You can guess who’s who. Except that when Coogan calls Los Angeles to talk to his agent about capitalizing on his screenwriting success, he’s found that said agent has left the firm, and he’s now being handled by his old agent’s former assistant. Later on, Brydon is surprised to get a call from Los Angeles … from, you’ll never guess, Coogan’s former agent, who promises Brydon the moon, including a shot at hosting the Golden Globes.

It is fitting and proper that none of these plot machinations ever pop during the film’s running time. Insofar as they’re pertinent it’s only relative to the fact that the actors, and their characters, are turning fifty, and that’s a stock-taking time. “We’re ripe fruit,” Coogan says to Brydon with unusual enthusiasm. “You want to be plucked.” Both men are trim even as they engorge themselves on a variety of Spanish delicacy, including barbecue and what one of them calls “life-affirming butter.” The dimension of humanity only buttresses the humor. There are more “bits” here than in the prior films, and with one exception, they don’t go on as long. As the men ferry from England to Spain early in the film, we see Brydon in his cabin working on his Roger Moore impersonation. This pays off late in the movie when Coogan tries to show off his knowledge of Spanish history and the rule of the, you know, Moors. It’s only here that the movie pulls the trick of extending a joke until it’s not funny and then extending it further so it becomes not just funny again but funnier. Along the way, the movie has fun with buskers, Mick Jagger , and even the late David Bowie , who Brydon says very nearly name-checked him as a favorite funnyman on a radio interview except that he forgot Brydon’s actual name. All this and the ‘60s pop hit “The Windmills of your Mind.” I can hardly wait for the next one. 

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Trip to Spain (2017)

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'The Trip Spain' Sees Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon Give Mick Jagger The Michael Caine Treatment

Entertainment Editor, HuffPost UK

One of the lasting delights of the first series of ‘The Trip’ was seeing two masters - Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan - sharing, okay, outrageously competing, in their chosen craft of impersonation, specifically that of Sir Michael Caine.

If you remember, Messrs Brydon and Coogan were sitting down to a delightful dinner in the Lake District - one of their many such meals during a trip built around a schedule of high end restaurant reviews - when the conversation turned to the veteran star of ‘Batman Begins’.

And this ensued…

Such forensic detail should surely be expected, after all neither man is a novice in the field. Rob Brydon built his name on such impersonations - fellow Welshmen Tom Jones and Anthony Hopkins being his defaults, with Ronnie Corbett always making an appearance - while Steve Coogan made his breakthrough as a voice on ‘Spitting Image’ all those years ago.

Who was the victor in the Caine voice-off? We asked the great man himself... see what he said below.

Now, in the third series of the show, they’ve done it again. Conversation over an outdoors Spanish meal turns to another superstar, this time… Mick Jagger.

While Rob delights in an anecdotal version, about meeting Sir Mick at a party and which inevitably also involves Michael Caine, Steve Coogan prefers to delve into the ‘public school’ version of Sir Mick, accompanied by much jutting of the neck. “Sort of peacock thing.” Both great, but perhaps this time, Steve’s just wins, by a whisker.

The new series sees Steve and Rob’s semi-fictionalised characters back on their culinary quest as they head off on a road trip from the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean coast for a fresh helping of gastronomic adventures.

While the first series saw Steve embark on a midlife crisis of sorts, chasing ladies while the happily married Rob phoned his wife of a night, the second series saw Rob instead having a wobble. This time around, what can we expect? Director Michael Winterbottom told HuffPostUK recently, “It’s Steve again - naturally.”

Rob recently told the Guardian that he relishes the prospect of dipping into the series every few years.

“What I like about doing it every few years is that we do really look older. We’ve aged far more than I would have expected, though we both take more care of ourselves now.”

Steve called it, “Last of the Summer Wine for Guardian readers.”

As for that Michael Caine competition, who was better? This is what Sir Michael told HuffPostUK:

“They both won, because one did me young and one did me old, so there was no loser.”

‘The Trip’ returns to Sky Atlantic in April.

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Batman Now Speaks With a British Accent

By David Gritten

• Dec. 19, 2004

LONDON - SHORT of Davy Crockett and some of the other characters in John Wayne's oeuvre, it's hard to think of a more obviously all-American hero than Batman, Bruce Wayne's caped alter ego. As for Batman's fictional hometown, Gotham City: has anyone ever doubted that it claimed far closer kinship with the darker corners of New York City, which sometimes shares that nickname, than with the Nottinghamshire village of Gotham?

Even so, "Batman Begins," which opens in American theaters on June 17, will arrive as the product of a startlingly British alignment of talent and location, though the intended setting of the myth hasn't changed. The film, from Warner Brothers, was shot largely in Britain by a young London-born director, Christopher Nolan. And the cast includes Christian Bale, a Welshman, as Bruce Wayne/Batman, along with British mainstays like Michael Caine, Liam Neeson (born in Northern Ireland), Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson and Linus Roache in supporting roles.

Some exterior scenes for "Batman Begins," now in post-production, were shot in downtown Chicago (at least on the right continent); but Gotham City was recreated in an unlikely spot in the heart of the English countryside, at R.A.F. Cardington, a former British air base some 35 miles north of London. Cardington is best known for two gigantic hangars that once housed the pre-World War II-era airships R100 and R101. The larger hangar was transformed into Gotham for "Batman Begins."

Whether audiences will actually sense Britishness in the finished movie remains far from clear. Mr. Nolan, after all, successfully cast Guy Pearce, who was born in Britain and grew up in Australia, as a memory-challenged American insurance investigator in his trademark film, "Memento," which was shot in Southern California.

Among the new movie's many British actors (and Cillian Murphy, an Irish-born London resident, playing the villainous drug peddler, Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka "The Scarecrow"), at least one should seem a natural presence: Mr. Caine, who plays Bruce Wayne's British butler, Alfred Pennyworth, succeeding the British actor Michael Gough, who took the part in the previous four Batman films. But Mr. Neeson plays Henri Ducard, Bruce's distinctly non-British-sounding mentor and trainer; Mr. Oldman is Lt. James Gordon, a friendly Gotham City cop who helps Batman fight crime; Mr. Wilkinson plays a Mafia don, Carmine Falcone; and Mr. Roache is Bruce's father, Dr. Thomas Wayne. Indeed, Morgan Freeman, as Lucius Fox, a Wayne family friend, and Katie Holmes, as Rachel Dawes, Bruce's childhood friend and adult love interest, are the only Americans in the 10 leading roles.

Mr. Bale, for his part, handily mastered an American accent for his portrayal of Patrick Bateman, the sociopathic Manhattanite in "American Psycho," and the rest of the cast appear to have learned the same trick at one time or another. (Mr. Neeson most recently did so in his well-received performance as the sex researcher Alfred C. Kinsey in "Kinsey.")

But these fine actors are clearly in for some extra work, which perhaps speaks to the importance of Mr. Nolan. Although he has never directed an action film, he was given wide latitude by Warner Brothers in its push to revive a faltering franchise that hit the wall in 1997 when its fourth iteration, "Batman & Robin," directed by Joel Schumacher, took in just $107 million at the American box office.

"I think it's about Chris Nolan's power as a director, and his vision of what he wants to do," said Ian Thomson of the U.K. Film Council. In re-envisioning the franchise, Mr. Nolan decided to return to the story's genesis, as outlined in "Batman: Year One" comics: as a child, Bruce Wayne saw his parents murdered and vowed to avenge all evil.

Warner Brothers, which declined to discuss the new film's casting or make Mr. Nolan available to do so, need not feel uneasy about associating "Batman Begins" with more typically British products -- the romantic comedies of Hugh Grant or the endless string of period costume dramas with bewhiskered men in frock coats and maidservants, eyes cast downward, bobbing and curtsying obediently.

In fact, the studio need only look at its own output lately. Of the major American film companies, Warner Brothers has been the most aggressive in working on British turf, Mr. Thomson noted. Much of the "Harry Potter" franchise is being shot at Leavesden, another abandoned British air base. Recently, acres of soundstage space at another studio were given over to shooting "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," starring Johnny Depp and set for release by Warners next year. Within the last year, moreover, interiors for two other ambitious productions, "Phantom of the Opera" and "Alexander," both distributed in the United States by Warners, were shot on stages here. (Not to mention the first "Batman" in the current series, which was shot in Britain.)

All of this comes in a year when, even allowing for tax breaks, the weak dollar has made Britain forbiddingly expensive. So why not go to, say, Eastern Europe, which is cheaper? Much of the Civil War film "Cold Mountain," for example, was shot in Romania. Technical expertise is one reason; Britain justifiably boasts of outstanding behind-the-scenes filmmaking talent, including a cluster of world-class special effects houses in the Soho district of London. "Studios know they get value for money here," Mr. Thomson said.

And there are other attractions. If American film executives are faced with a long shoot abroad, and the choice is London or maybe Bucharest, they're apt to choose London, where the language is familiar and a dizzying range of entertainment and culture compensates for absence from home. Few countries, moreover, have soundstages as big as those in Britain. Visitors to Cardington have said that the Gotham City set is vast enough to encompass a freeway and an elevated rail track like the El in Chicago. (This Gotham is in a state of decay, ravaged by corruption and organized crime, its look influenced by the now-demolished slums in Kowloon, Hong Kong.)

Finally, one wonders whether it even matters that British actors will dominate a classic piece of Americana. It's certainly been done before: In "Gone With the Wind," the main Southern belles were played by Vivien Leigh, born in British India, and Olivia de Havilland, daughter of a British patent attorney in Tokyo, while Leslie Howard's Ashley Wilkes never quite shook off Howard's native London.

More recently, there was much harrumphing in the British news media when an American actress (a Texan, even) was chosen to play that essentially English heroine, Bridget Jones. But the iciness of the British thawed when they finally saw Renée Zellweger's portrayal.

Certainly, the two enthusiastically received "Batman Begins" trailers being shown in theaters betray no sign of the film's British provenance. So Americans now face some choices. They can be gravely insulted that the British have appropriated an all-American icon. They can be amused by the whole farrago. Or they can view it as subtle revenge by the British on Hollywood for foisting Austin Powers upon them.

How Christopher Nolan Convinced Michael Caine To Play Alfred In Batman

After his portrayal of Alfred in the Dark Knight films, Michael Caine shares how Christopher Nolan convinced him to play the Batman role.

Michael Caine's Alfred brought a lot of emotional weight to The Dark Knight trilogy . Now, the veteran Oscar-winning actor has explained how he was convinced by Christopher Nolan to take on the iconic Batman role.

The Dark Knight trilogy became a critical and box office success (collectively grossing over $2.4 billion), and those Batman films are now regarded as one of the greatest trilogies in film history that also redefined the superhero genre. A large portion of the Dark Knight praise goes towards the performances and the talented actors who filled the roles. Out of all of the characters, there was one who became almost the heart and soul of the whole trilogy: Alfred.

RELATED: The Batman Can Improve On The Dark Knight Trilogy In One Big Way

In a Q&A with Variety, Caine opened up about the first time he met Nolan, and how the acclaimed director convinced him the role of Alfred would not be a forgettable one. After a simple knock on the door from Nolan, Cain recalled "standing there with a script in his hand and he said he was a director of movies. He said, 'Can I come in?' And he said to me, 'I want you to play the butler in 'Batman.' So, I said, 'The butler? What do I say, 'Dinner is served?' He said no, he was the godfather of Batman and it's a much bigger part." Caine said that was the first thing he remembered about Nolan.

And Nolan was right. Caine's Alfred became almost like a central character in the trilogy, having far more character depth than any past Alfred depictions. The father-figure role he had on Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne/Batman and the loyalty and mentorship he brought created some of the most emotional scenes in the trilogy that immediately became loved by fans. The character first made his leap from comic books to the big screen in Adam West's 1966 Batman , in which he was portrayed by Alan Napier. Alfred continued through Tim Burton's 1989 Batman and 1992 Batman Returns , this time with Michael Gough offering his take on the role. Following The Dark Knight trilogy, Jeremy Irons took over the role in DCEU universe, first appearing in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , and now Andy Serkis will play the character in Matt Reeves' highly anticipated The Batman (separate from other DCEU films), which will make its way to theatres in 2022.

Caine added that playing Alfred was "absolutely fantastic" and that Nolan's expertise in filmmaking helped build and shape the role. "The thing about Nolan is you don't always know what's going on in the scene," Caine told Variety. "And you ask him, and he says, 'I'll tell you after you've done it.'" Batman Begins marked the start of a new film duo, as Caine has now been a part of every one of Nolan's unique, complex movies since.

Fans can catch Caine in Nolan's most recent film Tenet , a mind-bending espionage thriller that also stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Nolan, in the meantime, has stepped away from Batman and DC films altogether.

The Dark Knight trilogy is now available on HBO Max.

MORE: Is Denis Villeneuve Surpassing Christopher Nolan?

Source: Variety