Special Correspondents (2016)

Simply Perfect

Sadly Over-hyped

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

It's a Netflix-produced project written and directed by legendary comedy mastermind Ricky Gervais, who also stars alongside Eric Bana. A radio journalist (Bana) and his technician (Gervais) fake their own kidnapping during a rebel uprising in Ecuador and try to hide out in New York instead. Also appearing: Vera Farmiga, Kelly Macdonald, Kevin Pollak, America Ferrera, Raúl Castillo, Benjamin Bratt et al. Like most of Gervais's movies, it's not as sharp and funny as his famous for based on his other works (TV series, standup, podcasts etc). Sadly, it's also nearly not as mainstream friendly as most of his movies which have at least some memorable LOL moments. It's based on a decent idea and the screenplay is competent, but the humor is rather dry and intellectual, making one go „I see what they did here" rather than really enjoying the show. The satirical pokes about the authenticity of modern media business and the worthiness of the stars it creates gives the story at least some extra depth, even if you won't remember it the next morning. Dialogue and acting are competent, too, but we spend most of the time in the company of two men with no palpable chemistry – just doing their work and being professional about it. Always solid Vera Farmiga gives a more juicier performance as a technician's villainous wife but she can't conquer the overall dryness of it all, either. The movie also looks cheap, which is not a problem in itself because the small budget sets its limits. But I have to say it's overall one of the less exciting Gervais projects I've seen. Sorry. At least it doesn't go on for too long, although at 101 minutes it's not exactly short either. And yes, disappointing Gervais is still better than no Gervais at all. IMDb says it's a remake of 2009's French comedy "Envoyés très spéciaux". Both have mediocre user rating but the newer version has a bit higher score (5.8 vs 5.3 out of 10).

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.

It looks like some filmmakers are making deals with Netflix to dust down those rejected scripts or ideas from yesteryear and reheat them. The result as in Special Correspondents is that it turns out half baked.Eric Bana (Frank Bonneville) plays a cool dude radio news journalist who does whatever it takes to get a story. His boss assigns Bonneville to cover a rebel uprising in Ecuador. We might have to gloss over the fact how a local radio station has the resources to send journalists abroad.Ricky Gervais (Ian Finch) is the sound technician that Bonneville will take with him. Finch has just found out that his wife (Vera Farmiga) wants a divorce as he is leaving town and mistakenly throws their passports and airline tickets away. We also see previously that Bonneville has a one night stand with Farmiga as he does not know who she is married to.The two decide that they will hideout in New York and file news reports using sound effects to make out they are abroad. The trouble is not only do they then make up stories they end up faking their own kidnapping and Finch's wife makes public appearances to raise funds to have them both released even though the kidnappers have made no ransom demands.Gervais wrote and directed this banal film. The trouble is his lo-fi, fly in the wall documentary style of comedy which works on television is not suited for the medium of film. On film you rely on the quality of the story and the script has to be funny. Well the story has more plot holes than Swiss cheese. There is no record of these two leaving the country; they phone the radio station to file the stories which means their mobile phone records would have them located in New York. No journalists in Ecuador have seen them which would raise questions when they are kidnapped.Some of the plot is excruciatingly bad such as when the duo decide to go to Ecuador and end up being abducted in a rough bar somewhere in the jungle as they decide to take drugs and talk to a pretty woman rather than quickly get the hell out of there.The film wants to make cheap points on the shallowness of the American media and how Farmiga raises money and increases her celebrity which is self serving as she plans to keep the money for herself. However given how underwhelming the film is those points get lost.