As our travelling pair of pompously verbose sparring partners wind down a curvy road, Steve Coogan tries repeatedly to dislodge Rob Bryden's insistent refrain of "Grease Is The Word" to no avail. Bryden defiantly carries on, bludgeoning the show tune with lip-smacking enunciations, to a bitter death. That the insufferable Coogan is at the receiving end makes the sour, sweet. Ah those Brits.
With the fourth (is it the fourth? who knows) instalment of the pair's chit-chatty travelogue series, you'd think the premise would get old. But precisely during these travel averse, barren restaurant, pandemic times, it not only feels fresh and novel, but also romantically nostalgic.
Of course the supposed premise of ingesting lavish scenery, serenading each other with historic tales, and devouring local cuisine is all fine and good, it is the witty back and forth bellicose banter between the two surly thespians one upping each other, that is the heart of these films. The digs are deep, the jabs are pointed. Forget the pen, the tongue is mightier than the sword.
Their self-skewering of the classless upper class is priceless in a faux reality that questions the faux. In true stiff upper lip, chip chip cheerio British bravado, there is a lurking charm and sentimentality beneath the sheen that only a true friendship could foster.
A nice farewell, sardonic as it may be, and a fitting end to the series.
With the fourth (is it the fourth? who knows) instalment of the pair's chit-chatty travelogue series, you'd think the premise would get old. But precisely during these travel averse, barren restaurant, pandemic times, it not only feels fresh and novel, but also romantically nostalgic.
Of course the supposed premise of ingesting lavish scenery, serenading each other with historic tales, and devouring local cuisine is all fine and good, it is the witty back and forth bellicose banter between the two surly thespians one upping each other, that is the heart of these films. The digs are deep, the jabs are pointed. Forget the pen, the tongue is mightier than the sword.
Their self-skewering of the classless upper class is priceless in a faux reality that questions the faux. In true stiff upper lip, chip chip cheerio British bravado, there is a lurking charm and sentimentality beneath the sheen that only a true friendship could foster.
A nice farewell, sardonic as it may be, and a fitting end to the series.
- hipCRANK