Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

This review may contain spoilers.

The British aren't funny, the British aren't funny I yell as I run from my viewing of Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. For me this film was a 4/10.

Well the music was okay I guess. Alan Partridge delivered some strong yet fleeting moments of genuine comedy. There were also some strong emotional scenes within this film that were unfortunately crippled by the nature of what this film was and what the script made it become by the end.

This film was carried on the back of Colm Meaney, who played the sort of antagonist of the film Pat Farrell. He was charismatic but delved into the dark psychotic aggression of a mentally disturbed man easily; he brought a lot of heart to the film and you wound up rooting for him over Alan Partridge.

This film felt like some big in-joke, one you would only get if you understoof the Alan Partridge mythos which I did not. The humour within this film was dark and satirical and crossed the line far too often. The jokes around death, suicide and excrement just became nothing short of outrageous. I think whoever wrote this garbage hasn't laughed in a very long time or maybe they were writing a eulogy at the same time and got confused somewhere in between. The ending was awful, not abrupt; it took audience expectation and threw them out the window which is a big gamble for a lot of comedies and this one fell short of the mark.

Steve Coogan was not designed to play a leading man, that's what I have learned from this film. He wasn't entertaining and he never owned the screen, he should have just kept trawling for side characters in other films. Felicity Montagu, who played Lynn, was just plain unnecessary and became some sort of Disney metaphor in which you have to change yourself to better yourself which was rubbish to watch play out. Simon Greenall, who played Michael, had his big moment of proudly confessing to "shitting in a lunchbox" which was really the lowlight of the film. Tim Key played Sidekick Simon and was Coogan's sidekick in acting talent as well it seems, in that he had no onscreen presence. Finally Monica Dolan, who played Angela, is one of the worst leading ladies and romantic interests I've seen in a film this year and should not have been cast at all.