The Trip To Spain
Spanish, Fly
Official Site | Trailer
Not Rated | 111 min

I never really thought about it, but Michael Winterbottom and Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon‘s Trip series of films is a bona fide franchise – and in fact the best one going.  The first Trip landed at #17 on our best of 2011 list (woah, what a GREAT year of film that was).  The second Trip, which took the boys To Italy, netted #2.5 on our best of 2014 list!  Where will there latest adventure land in 2017?  Too early to make such lists, but The Trip To Spain will reign in my heart and mind and soul not only this year, but for every year that I breathe  

I LOVE these guys.  I LOVE these movies.  They may not be breaking new ground on each trek (although this one had quite an ending), but they certainly can dish it out, and I will continuously scarf down whatever they’re serving!  

I really don’t have much more to say other then PLEASE keep making more(Roger Moore) Trip movies, forever and fivealways.  I’d love to see the boys set loose in North America, and if so, can we make it a table for 3???

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

embark on The Trip To Spain, currently in limited release 

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

The Flowqueens of ‘14.5

1) Jodorowsky’s Dune

The greatest doc ever made about the greatest film never made, EVER!!  So many ‘what if?‘s AND ‘what the f#$k??!!!‘s to shake your head at

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2) Whiplash

Dude, WHIPLASHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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2.5) The Trip to Italy

Lightening strikes twice as Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon take their thick shtick to Italy.  Hilarity ensues at every blip on the map.  AMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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3) The Babadook

Are the things going bump in the night all in their heads?  Too late, they are now in our heads too!  BABA-DOOK DOOOK DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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4) Mr Turner

Literally watching paint dry – and it’s amazing!!!

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5) Foxcatcher

Carell’s nose, Ruffalo’s beard and hairline + Tatum’s sad face = Pinned-trest-ed!!!

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6) Nightcrawler

Jake Gynenhehahehallllll is watching you.   Watch him back

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7) The LEGO® Movie

Toys with our emotions in the best way possible.  It also happens to be funniest Will Ferrell flick in half a decade

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8) Inherent Vice

Katherine Waterston continues her ‘brave’ (read – ‘nude’) work in cinema

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9) Dawn of The Planet of The Apes

Going ape-sh!t, again

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10) Citizenfour

The year’s best thriller is not only based on a true story – it is THE truest true story!

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11) The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Unibrowser Yowzers!!

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12) Boyhood

Seamless production and process like none other make up for a somewhat lacking narrative.  Bring on Manhood!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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13) The Double

Every movie needs Jesse Eisenberg.  So why not have two Jesse Eisenbergs???

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14) Step Up All In

If you’re not in, you are OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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and now for the…

Honor Blackmanable Mentions

The Fault In Our Stars / Get On Up / Interstellar / Jersey Boys / Lucy / Palo Alto / X-Men: Days of Future Past

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our annual anal movie awards – The Thighsmans – drops the week of the Oscars 

until then, here’s the bestest films of yesterhere

2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
& 2002

The Trip to Italy
Buono Voyage
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
Unrated | 108 min

Two British guys walk into a restaurant and hilarity ensues. Have you heard this one before? Yep – it was called The Trip, a British TV series, directed by boy wonderful Michael Winterbottom, and starring comedy stalwarts Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon – that was a travelogue of sorts, as the pair made their way thru the English countryside for fine dinning, and fine banter, and endless laughter for anyone who watched it. The TV series was edited down for America into a marvelous little movie, and it was surely a Trip well worth taking

Well, the trio of blokes are back, but this time they’re indulging in pasta in The Trip to Italy. Sequels rarely equal or top the original, a topic Coogan and Brydon tackle right off the bat (everyone uses Godfather II as an example, but what other examples are there?), and any thought of this follow-up being a sub-par affair are gone in 60 seconds. The imitations are back, and even if they sound familiar, they sound better than ever!!!! But what really works about round 2, besides the Italian scenery and the chewing of it, is that Coogan (or Coogan’s character of himself) seems more relaxed in this venture, leaving little room for un-needed drama, and more room for always needed stupidity/comedy

The only thing wrong with this movie is that the trip comes to an end, but for those who want more – there is more – the Italian job was slimmed down from a TV series too, and so I will be seeking out the full episodes, and I’m sure you will too!

Where to next boys? Count us in, times a bajillions

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

Embark on The Trip To Italy – in limited release today

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

2011 didn’t bring us any swans, social networkers, toothy dogs or voids that needed exiting ASAP, but that didn’t stop movies from being released.  we saw a bunch of them, and in our humboldt opinion, here’s the top of the plops…

No Hate’een
On These Eighteen

1) Project Nim

Apes re-rose this year, but it was the real life tale of one displaced pot-smoking chimpanzee who had to battle nature vs nurture vs short-minded humans that truly made a monkey out of us.  After this and Man On Wire, we’re foaming at the mouth and between the thighs to see what’s next in James Marsh‘s beyond goodie bag

2) Certified Copy

What is real, and was is not?  And are they, or are they not???????  Whatever it is and they are, this shiz is Certified blam-mazzin!!!

3) The Adventures of Tintin

Señor Spielbergo shows us what a 4th Indiana Jones could have been (without Georgie Lucas) MAD F$%KING FUN, YO!!!  Also, probably one of the best animated movies of this century.  YES, THIS CENTURY!!!

4) Tabloid

Mormon sex in chains case, the docuMENTALary.  Joyce McKinney would win an Oscar if she wasn’t a real person, so instead she won our ears and hearts 9ever

5) Melancholia

for once, a happy von Trier movie!!!!  and it’s got nude moon-bathing!!!  and Kiefer Sutherland!!!!!

6) The Skin I Live In (La Piel que Habito)

THIS IS NO SKIN THAT ANYONE WOULD WANTS TO LIVE INS!!!! YIKESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7) The Tree of Life

Forget all that beach sense-non at the end, and remember everything else – the dinosaurs, the mother’s pure love, the father’s tough love, and all that running thru the house.  Thanks for the days hours of heaven T-Mal

8) We Need To Talk About Kevin

Parents, don’t let your kids grow up to be archers, but that’s probably inevitable if yer mom is half-amphibian and yer dad is the king of all schlubs

9) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Another Fincher clincher, but seriously, the Anita Vanger plot hole keeps it from being the greatest movie ever.  not really, but kinda?

10) Shame

Barely a movie, and more like a feeling, a really dirty one, filled with Mulligan showers and Fassbendy shlong dangles.  Gets under yer skin, and makes you want to eyeball screw every woman on the subway

11) Into The Abyss

Werner Herzog goes mos death, penalty, and it’s up to you if the play is fair or foul

12) Meek’s Cutoff

Kelly Reichardt makes really slow and boring modern movies, so when she turned her movie clock back to the dusty & musty ye olde Oregon trail thymes, she struck dysentery gold!!!

13) J Edgar

Anyone who thought The Aviator was good is a giant moron.  Anyone who doesn’t think J Edgar is good, probably thinks The Aviator was good.  This is Leo’s best work since he ate Gilbert’s grapes

14) The People vs George Lucas

This doc sums up everything about our lives, cept for the masturbation, fried chicken, and masturbating with fried chicken parts

15) Drive

Some substance, all style, and that’s just fine, cause of that jacket, and those nightcallings, and them crazy Jews, and that elevator action, and that jacket, again

16) Tyrannosaur

Punch, drunk, hate.  Make a date to watch it, but not with someone you love.

17) The Trip

If Rob & Steve made a movie where all they did was sleep, WE WOULDN’T SLEEP ON IT!!!!!

18) Anonymous

ROLAND EMMERICH MADE A MOVIE THAT WASN’T HORRIBLE!!!!!  IN FACT, IT WAS KINDA F%^KING AWESOMES!!!  IT MAKES SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE LOOK LIKE SHAKESPEARE IS SUCKS!!!!

and now for the…

Honor Blackmanable Mentions

Abduction (it’s all about the ABS!), Bill Cunningham New York (take a bite out of this little apple!), Bombay Beach (life ISN’T a beach!), The Conspirator (Wilkes Booth truth!), A Dangerous Method (dangerously sexy!!!), The Devil’s Double (doubled our pleasure), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (ext cloying, but kinda incred moving), Final Destination 5 (3-D done/dumb well), The Help (still makes we want to eat fried chicken), Housemaid (clean up on aisle yikes!!!), (the last 1/4) of Hugo, Jane Eyre (the eyre up there!), Limitless (for once, a watchable DeNiro movie), Midnight In Paris (the clock strikes movie magic!) Moneyball (so money… ball!), Prom (let’s party!), Rise of The Planet of The Apes (bananas!!), Scream 4 (all hale Lucy!!), A Separation (anxiety!), Sleeping Beauty (no penetration!),  Source Code (groundhog’s slays) Submarine (stays afloat and then some!), Super 8 (even if the ending wasn’t so super), Terri (the ultimate pajama jammy jam), Vidal Sassoon: The Movie (what about bobbed???), Warrior (brooding & the beasts)

next up (at some point) is our anal-ual movie awards, but feel free to feel up years past gas in the meanthyme

2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
& 2002

The Trip
Competitive Eating
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
NR | 107 min

we saw The Trip at this year’s Thighibeca FF.  this is what we said then…

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon go on an English countryside romp, filled with rustic lodgings, questionable fine dining and a lot of awfully awesome impersonations.  The title to Michael Winterbottom‘s funtastic semi-improvised flick (a summarized version of a the 6 episodic TV show of the same name) sez it all, and it’s a lot more dandy than the trio’s earlier effort, 2005’s Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story.  Book yer ticket when this rock & rule story lands on our shores this June

what we say now…

That description still holds up, and it’s June, so use that ticket you booked!  It’ll probably be the funniest film you’ll see in a theater this summer, cause it has nothing to do with Judd Apatow or a SNL cast member, and there you go

So, where are Steve & Rob headed next?  CAUSE WE WANT MORE AND MORE AND MORE OF IT!!!

Verdictgo: Jeepers Mos Def Worth A Peepers

Trip and see you next fall, today in limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…