Granted, Steve Coogan is a household name in the UK. He’s a comic genius that has given the world, perhaps, the greatest of all talk-show hosts in Alan Partridge. In America, however, Coogan remains a virtual unknown to everyone with the exception of those that have seen Night at the Museum. A role that Coogan actually relishes enough to make fun of in his most recent large screen effort, The Trip.

In The Trip, Coogan stars as, well, Steve Coogan. Alongside co-star and fellow British comedian, Rob Brydon, Coogan does his best Larry David and/or Rick Spleen imitation in a multitude of never-ending phone conversations with his agent turning down roles in second-rate movies while giving serious consideration to an HBO drama series. In, perhaps, the most ironic line ever uttered in a movie that I can remember, Coogan emphatically tells his agent, “I don’t want to do British TV“.

Lest you think this is just an extended length Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld, the actual storyline of The Trip has Coogan and Brydon, playing themselves, sort of, traveling across the north of England on a food and wine, fine-dining, tour of country inns. The film, already in wide release in the UK will have its American premiere in June. A definite must-see for British comedy fans.

Throughout ‘the trip’, Coogan and Brydon provide some brilliant interchanges, many of them surrounding who does the better MIchael Caine, Woody Allen or Al Pacino imitation.  You decide…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxEWm_w7qlY