Thighs Wide Shut

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 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…

Our Idiot Brother
Oh Brother, Why Aren’t Thou?
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 90 min

Our Idiot Brother feels like the work of a first time director, with a screenplay that plays out like a mediocre sitcom pilot.  Well, OIB is director Jesse Peretz‘s third entry (never have seen The Ex or The Château, and we’re guessing we probably don’t need to), and it is indeed David Schisgall and Evgenia Peretz‘s first stab at a motion picture script.  Does this explain why their stellar assembled esmble and R rating are basically laid to waste?  Maybe.  OIB is a harmless lil flick, and it’s hactually purty darn hard to even come up with anything negative to say about it (we did smile a bunch, dangit), but there’s nothing really here to see or hear, outside of folks who are Shirley Knight completists.  If that’s you, then go ahead, bother with Brother

But if yer like we, you expect a little something more than nothing (it’s basically the story of a guy who wants his dog back, but it’s not as boring as Wendy & Snoozy) when you got Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer (oh gawd, do we love this woman) playing patient sisters to ‘idiot’ brother/minor Lebowski Paul Rudd, no??  And what if you surround these fine folk with the likes of Steve Coogan, Rashida Jones, Hugh Dancy and Adam Scott???  Shouldn’t that be enuff to miss misfiring?  Apparently not.  Everyone here is game, especially a chillaxed Rudd, but everything here is also tame, and kinda lame

A better approach would have been to toss the family aside and partner Rudd up with fellow mellow head T.J. Miller, and have them do crazy stuff, like open a candle store, with zero cares in the world or bidness sense.  That idea actually pops up at the end of the movie (and no, we didn’t ruin a single thing by telling you this), but by then, any buzz you might have had, will surely have subsided.  Pass the peace pipe, and pass on this

Chin Up: Paul Rudd’s first film role was in 1992’s A Question of Ethics, a film he was so appalled by (for religious reasons – he’s Jewish, the flick was Jesus preachy), that he asked to be credited as Kenny Chin.  can’t find any video of it online, but found this still

Verdictgo: Sum Merit But No Stinking Badges 

Brother is familiar stuff at a theater near jews tomorrow

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

WE STILL LOVE YOU RUDD STUDD!!!!

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…

we and the folks took last year off, but came back with a mengeance (whatever that means) this year.  saw 5 flicks over 3 days, all were Jeepers Mos Def Worth A Peepers, and all will be blathered about below in blurb form (in order of seeing them)

A Quiet Life (Una Vita Tranquilla)
Official Site | 100 Minutes

Rosario (our man Toni Servillo of Il Divo amazingness) escaped Mafia death in Italy, leaving his wife and son behind, and now has a new wife, son and QUIET LIFE as a restaurateur in Germany.  Everything’s fine and dandy… until his long lost son juss so happens to show up with his lunkheaded partner for a murder for hire gig in the area.  Director Claudio Cupellini keeps the tension tight and kitchen knives sharp, in this, only his second feature.  Impressive enuff stuff that deserves an American release, and yer eyeballs

The Swell Season
Official Site| 90 Minutes

What happened to those crazy kids after Once?  No, not the quasi-movie versions of themselves, but the real McCoys, Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová (collectively known as The Swell Season), who went on to much fame, acclaim and Oscar glory.  Great question!!!!  And that is EGGGZACTLY what the doc Twice The Swell Season answers!  He was a seasoned musician with not much world-wide traction and she was a little girl just about to begin life, AND then all their wildest dreams came true AND THEN SOME!!  It wasn’t easy on either of them, especially her, and especially since they were lovers!!!!  DRAMMMMMMMMMA!!!  AND GREAT TUNES!!!!   AND MORE!!!  It’s often painful stuff, but it’s always interesting, but truly only for those who saw Once and Once to know more!

The Trip
Official Site| 107 Minutes

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon go on an English countryside romp, filled with rustic lodgings, questionable fine dinning 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

Mama Africa
Tribecal Site| 90 Minutes

Miriam Makeba is… someone both you and thigh know NOTHING about.  Correct this, like we did, and see this doc (titled with her nickname) about the exiled South African singer and civil rights activist, who won the ears and love of people the globe over, with her click-clacking killah voice.  while you wait for release, get yer ‘Pata Pata‘ on [emp3 d-lode]

God Bless Ozzy Osbourne
Official Site | 91 Minutes

Dude, it’s an unflinching documentary about Ozzy’s life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  There are both Black AND White Sabbath moments, and there’s plenty of red all over!!!!!!!!!!  The only bad thing about it is that it’s not longer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

for all past years Thighbeca-ness, click here