Having conquered the TV comedy world with the likes of Tony Ferrino, Paul and Pauline Calf, and the God that is Alan Partridge (I�m not biased, oh no!), Steve Coogan has launched an unstoppable debut assault on the big screen with The Parole Officer. Steve plays Simon Garden, a parole officer who has managed to set only 3 of his hundreds upon hundreds of offenders on the straight and narrow.
Because of his below par performance, Simon is moved to Manchester (surprise, surprise, Coogan�s stomping grounds), where he gets tangled up with a crooked cop and is framed for murder, the only evidence that can clear his name is a CCTV tape showing the dodgy DI murdering the victim, which is locked up in a very hi-tech bank vault. So Garden has to recruit his 3 ex-cons to do one last job in the name of justice. And to have a laugh along the way.
People going to see the movie expecting a lot won�t get a lot and vice versa. While this is a sterling effort from Coogan (as always, bless �im!), some of the gags fall flat and the pace can be rather slow at times, and its nowhere near an Ealing Comedy (before your time kiddies) which is what Steve set out to do. Nevertheless, this is a good all round comedy movie, with plenty of slapstick, gorgeous gals providing some tasteful innuendo, and a lot of Partridge creeping into the character of Simon Garden, this is quality entertainment. |
