Early on in The Trip to Italy, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon—a pair of British actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves—note that a sequel is never as good as the original. It’s one of those meta-moments filmmakers sometimes use to inoculate themselves against a rather standard critique; we saw a great deal of this in 22 Jump Street, for instance. But it doesn’t really do much to dampen the criticism. The Trip to Italy is more or less a rehash of The Trip, recycling some of the same jokes and scenarios for laughs.
The best moment in the original film, which saw our two leads traveling the British countryside reviewing restaurants for the Guardian, revolved around Coogan and Brydon’s competing Michael Caine impressions. (You may have seen it; the clip went viral a couple of years back.)
So how does The Trip to Italy—a film about Coogan and Brydon traveling the Italian countryside reviewing food for the Guardian—begin? With a Michael Caine impression. Now, granted, Brydon and Coogan use Caine as a springboard into a series of impressions from The Dark Knight Rises (their Bane is quite funny). But it all feels a bit cheap.
Repetitious or no, The Trip to Italy, like its predecessor, is at its best when Coogan and Brydon are semi-bitterly competing with one another. The casual disdain Coogan (who has had some success in the United States) has for Brydon (who hasn’t) is made all the more amusing given his own insecurities. I would happily pay to watch a one-hour-long special in which these two simply had it out in front of a live audience.
Unfortunately, such moments are few and far between. Too much of The Trip to Italy is occupied with the duo’s various midlife crises, struggles with work, and empty home life. Part of the problem is that the movie, like its predecessor, is actually a compressed version of a television series. So we get snippets of plots and ideas that were more fully fleshed out on the small screen. It’s unsatisfying.
Watching Coogan and Brydon bicker as they travel the Italian countryside in a rented Mini is, generally speaking, entertaining. They have a solid rapport, and one can’t help but wonder how much of the dialogue is improvised, how many of the conversations reflect arguments they’ve had in person. Given the excellence of this back and forth, the generally lame nature of The Trip to Italy is all the more disappointing.