Steve Coogan Archives - HavingSaidThat...

Review: The Other Guys

08/06/2010 by Zac 1 Comment

The Other Guys is the latest from Adam McKay and Will Ferrell and it serves as a great send up of the buddy cop genre with a consistently funny pacing and many flashes of brilliance along the way.

Allen Gamble and Terry Hoitz are not the guys, that title is held by Detectives Highsmith and Danson. Gamble and Hoitz are the other guys on the force who push the pencil and do the paper work for the NYPD heroes. Besides being the other guys of the office, Gamble and Hoitz are quite the odd couple of partners as well. Gamble has long been behind a desk, in police accounting, and has worked his way up to detective but has no ambition to leave the office during the day. Hoitz is the exact opposite. Itching at any chance to get out on the streets and to be the guy, he unfortunately is in some hot water after an unfortunate incident in the Yankee club house. But when Gamble uncovers a scaffolding permit violation the two begin to get wrapped up in a crime bigger than they could possibly imagine.

Review: Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

02/12/2010 by Zac Leave a Comment

The latest adaptation from Chris Columbus is a huge step forward from his dismal last effort but for every good scene in this film there is a bad line or plot hole that levels the film out to just being an alright, mildly entertaining experience.
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief is quite a long title but the film is the first adaptation from this fantasy series that has quite the following and is hoping to be the next big thing with kids. After watching the first film, I think it will connect quite well with younger audiences and even works for the older audience at times but anyone with a bit of common sense will have quite a lot to shake their head at as this film rushes through to the end.
Percy Jackson seems like just like any other high school kid, but what he doesn’t know is that he is actually the son of Poseidon and is in the middle of brewing war between the Greek gods that the blame firmly falls on young Percy’s shoulders. It is unfortunate that Percy doesn’t know this yet and before he knows it he is attacked by a number of evil beasts as he, his mother, and his recently revealed protector/ best friend comes out of hiding and leads them in flee to “the camp.” The party reaches the camp which houses and trains all of the half-man/half-gods to use their powers and Percy must train to head off on his quest to stop the impending war. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Movie Review Tagged With: Alexandra Daddario, Brandon T. Jackson, Catherine Keener, Chris Columbus, Joe Pantoliano, Kevin McKidd, Logan Lerman, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Pierce Brosnan, Rosario Dawson, Sean Bean, Steve Coogan, Uma Thurman

Review: In The Loop

08/03/2009 by Zac Leave a Comment

This political satire of the American and British government’s reaction to an impending war in Iraq is quite funny at times but ultimately feels like Christopher Guest lite.
Following a set of individuals in and around the governments of both the American and British states, with individuals both for and against the war, we get to see a little bit of everything. The stories closest thing to a main character is Simon Foster who is a Secretary of the British Government who makes a comment on the impending war in the middle east as unforeseeable which sends the press and governments into motion over the events we get to see in the film as everyone tries to spin things the way they want. The Prime Ministers watch dog, Malcolm Tucker, is all over Simon trying to get him to fall in line while in the meanwhile an Assistant Secretary of Diplomacy for the US, Karen Clarke decides to try reel in Foster as a British ally in her fight to avoid war in the Middle East. Karen is in cahoots with a U.S. General who is behind her call for peace and they begin to use Simon as a pawn in there play as Tucker tries to do the same while he spins. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Movie Review Tagged With: Armando Iannucci, David Rasche, In The Loop, James Gandolfini, Malcolm Tucker, Peter Capaldi, Rom Hollander, Simon Foster, Steve Coogan

Review: Hamlet 2

08/22/2008 by Zac Leave a Comment

This irreverent and silly comedy starting Steve Coogan is coming off being the hit film of Sundance and it does a very good job of being funny, even with the lunacy, absurdness, and predictability that fill the picture.
Dana Marschz is a high school drama teacher that has moved to Tucson, AZ after failing to be an actor. He turns out to not be a very good theater producer either and has a whole two students to star in his tri-annual stage shows that are remakes of random films such as Erin Brockovich. Dana is in awe at his productions, but is ravaged by the school critic and is the laughing stock of the administrative community at the school. Match this with his awkward living arrangement and self-loathing/drunk wife and it is amazing that he is able to keep his unmatched ability to remind blindly optimistic about everything. To his surprise, a large group of troublemakers and “ethnics” get enrolled in his drama class, as there is no where else to put them due to asbestos, and Dana takes on the task of having an effect on these children’s lives. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Movie Review Tagged With: Andrew Fleming, Catherine Keener, Elisabeth Shue, Hamlet 2, Raped in the Face, Rock Me Sexy Jesus, Steve Coogan

Review:Tropic Thunder

08/13/2008 by Zac Leave a Comment

Ben Stiller returns to the director’s chair to direct this satirical farce on and gets pretty great results out of it.
The film opens with a number of faux trailers and commercials for the stars in the film and they are pretty funny, but I won’t spoil those here; but they aren’t quite as good as Grindhouse. We then open on the filming of a major battle scene before focusing on a touching moment between a dying “Foley” and “Sgt. Osiris”. Unfortunately, Tugg Speedman, the actor portraying Foley can’t cry on cue and they miss a big “one time” shot where they napalm the tree line behind all of the drama happening on screen. Cut to Access Hollywood who gives us a background on the film, it is based on a memoir of a man, the real Foley (Nick Nolte), who returned from a top secret suicide mission during the Vietnam War, it stars action superstar Tugg Speedman, comedy mega star Jeff Portnoy, and method award winner Kurt Lazarus. The film is way over budget, is being sloppily handled by a first time director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan), and is being over produced by the studio’s mega psychotic producer. [Read more...]