Steve Coogan

News, Reviews & Features

Despicable Me 3

Movie Review | Ali Gray | 3rd July 2017

Let's just re-establish The Boss Baby Clause from earlier this year: Despicable Me 3 is a kids movie, and it was watched in the company of a kid, and it was enjoyed by said kid, thus to me, it was a successful movie. Writing criticism of movies patently not made for you is a fool's errand, but we're all professionals here, so let's try and engage the critical faculties and fire up a review for old time's sake. Despicable Me 3 is... fine? I guess? Let's say yes.

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Minions

Movie Review | Ali Gray, Arthur Gray | 5th July 2015

I hold a special kind of contempt for people who indulge themselves in reviewing things that are blatantly not meant for them to enjoy; people who take pleasure in sticking the boot into something that is clearly aimed at a different demographic. I'm thinking the petulant one-star reviews of Kanye West's Glastonbury set, or Mark Kermode secretly enjoying giving the Entourage movie a kicking - everyone knows Kermode would rather stay at home watching The Exorcist with one hand in a pot of pomade and the other down his pants. You wouldn't send a Danny Dyer fan to review a Michael Haneke film, so why is the opposite true?

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The Trip to Italy

TV Review | Ed Williamson | 10th May 2014

Impersonations are the work of the unfunny, slightly creepy guy you don't want to get stuck next to at the works do, as anyone who has heard my Nelson Mandela will confirm. Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan do them constantly throughout both seasons of The Trip not, I think, because that's what they revert to when improvising with each other, but because it suggests that they are slightly tedious company in real life, while simultaneously being funny to watch. Which seems to me pretty much the whole point.

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Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

Movie Review | Ali | 5th August 2013

Steve Coogan has been Being Alan Partridge for over 20 years. Over two decades, Norwich's finest broadcaster has read the sport on Radio 2, manned the sports desk on The Day Today, transferred his skill-set to chat in his very own talk show, traded his fame for a sitcom in a travel tavern and broadcast his unique stylings ("equidistant between chit-chat and analysis" - Ross Kemp) on the world wide web. Now, Alan Partridge is welcomed to big school: his very own feature film. Alpha Papa is clearly not the best fit for a character for whom even the small screen is too big, but it is as funny as the format allows. For a character who has survived 20 years on every broadcasting medium under the sun, it's a remarkable feat that Partridge has never outstayed his welcome.

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Poor old Ben Stiller didn't get invited to the Alpha Papa screening

Movie Feature | Matt | 3rd August 2013

And he is DESPERATE to see it too. That's totally unfair, you guys.

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The Look Of Love

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 22nd April 2013

Any mainstream film purporting to be about porn should have actual porn in it, for my money. And if there's one thing my 14-year-old self learned the hard way by staying up to watch inevitably tepid erotic thrillers on Channel 5, it's that they never really do. But I think the idealist in him would be disappointed to see me greet The Look Of Love with the shrug it induced. Here, let's ask him. So, 14-year-old me, what do youâ€” Hey! Stop doing that! This is a public place!

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The posters for the Alan Partridge movie titles that could have been

Movie Feature | Matt, Ali | 18th March 2013

A-ha! The long-awaited film featuring North Norfolk Digital's finest chatistician finally has a teaser trailer, and already we have reason to dust off our Photoshop and Google Alan Partridge's best poses. Hoorah for funny stuff!

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Ruby Sparks

Movie Review | Matt | 9th October 2012

A film in which the central character is a writer whose latest creation - a beautiful young woman - suddenly appears as an actual person in front of him, and everything he writes about her becomes true in real life. Hmmm... interesting. Worth a shot, right?

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Partridge prophecy comes true

TV News | Ed Williamson | 9th June 2012

I'm assuming hundreds of other places have reported this and made exactly the same connection I have, probably months ago. Can pretty much guarantee they've used the same final line as I have, too. But if I don't Google-search it, I won't know this for sure and the idea is therefore mine. They call that plausible deniability.

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EXCLUSIVE: we serialise the Alan Partridge autobiography

TV News | Ed Williamson | 16th September 2011

If by 'serialise' we mean 'paste a load of Armando Iannucci's tweets in one article, not even in serial format'. And by 'exclusive' we mean 'not in the least bit exclusive'.

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