Special Correspondents (2016)

Frank Bonneville (Eric Bana) is a NYC radio correspondent for Q365 News. He normally works with Ian Finch (Ricky Gervais) a sound engineer with an unhappy wife (Vera Farmiga). They get assigned to cover a rebel up rising in Ecuador, however a depressed Ian accidentally tosses their money, tickets, and passports instead of the letter he wrote to his wife. With Frank being on his last leg with the station, they opt to fake their presence in Ecuador while staying in the upstairs room of a Latino restaurant located directly across from the station. Frank manages to give convincing reports with Ian supplying background noise and the restaurant owners yelling out in Spanish.Their celebrity builds. Things get carried away....This is a light comedy that was fun to watch.Guide: F-word (two languages). No sex or nudity.

Don't go in expecting this to be the next Citizen Kane, but don't believe the negative reviews either.This film starts off as being a typical mismatched buddy comedy, but its plot has lots of depth and is quite multi layered. The characters are all very interesting as well and the first half of the film is a total knockout.The story goes to a point where the two protagonists end up in a tight corner and you really want to know how they will possibly get out of it. Its a very intriguing situation to say the least. Its outlandish but still within the realms of being believable.Then there is the comedy. I don't think I ever laughed out loud but the film definitely had me smiling for the bulk of its length.The final part of the film was not how I would have chosen to close the chapter, but even so it is the only little gripe I have about the film.As I said, don't expect a cinematic masterpiece when you go to watch the film, BUT, this is definitely one of the most solid films in the mismatched buddy comedy (mis)adventure genre to have ever been made (at least in recent years for sure).Its not the perfect film for sure, but well worth a watch.

I must admit, as a huge fan of The Office, Extras and Ricky's stand up, I've become used to deep belly laughs aplenty whenever I watch the work of this great comic, and so before I sat down to watch Special Correspondents I was fully expecting a similar comedic experience. I was wrong.To anyone who plans to watch this movie who has a similar expectation - you may be disappointed. Do not, however, deprive yourself of what is a smart, entertaining movie. Once I accepted that there would only be a few chuckles here and there, I was able to genuinely enjoy Gervais' latest outing. This felt very much like a drama/comedy as opposed to a comedy/drama. There is a great chemistry between Gervais and Bana throughout, and for anyone who enjoys light satire this is definitely well worth a watch. I can't stress enough that if you are expecting tonnes of laugh out loud moments, you simply won't enjoy this movie for what it is, all though for fans of The Office, look out for a moment in the movie where Ian Finch (Gervais) attempts to record a heartfelt plea on video camera to the people of America, where he initially gets his tone and demeanor wrong - for around ten seconds he fully channels Brent. Priceless.

What annoyed me the most in Ricky Gervais' new film is the total lack of subtlety. It really feels like one of these run-of-the mill US-comedies where every joke has to be understandable to any kind of audience, albeit losing its edge, specially when half of the time, it goes along with the most cringe-worthy feature of intellectually undemanding comedies known to mankind: plucked violin strings.The misadventure of a radio journalist and his technician who miss a flight and are compelled to fake the news reports from a war zone could have been so much more in any possible way, specially given the talent of Ricky Gervais when it comes to awkward situations and weird characters. Instead, we are presented the bare minimum of what family-friendly entertainment can be. A certainly watchable, albeit totally forgettable show with cliché characters and situations that seems to be targeted at the more easily amused part of the audience and that omits any quality that has built up the reputation of Mr Gervais in the last 15 or so years.