Note: I was going to do another long review exploring this film in relation to RED 2, which I reviewed earlier today. Alpha Papa is a spoof of action films but it also mocks British parochialism (much of the humor comes from meeting the diminished expectations of a police stand-off taking place at a Norfolk radio station). Instead, I've decided to do one of those when I try and confine myself to a word count. Sorry to those of you looking for something a little more substantial - most people, who just want to found out about the bloody film, will probably be relieved. So:
A REVIEW IN 500 WORDS OR LESS (HOPEFULLY)
The thing about lowering expectations
is that after a certain point they cease to be worth meeting.
After almost two
decades on and off the TV, Alan Partridge, Steve Coogan's most popular
creation, has made his way to the big screen. Less outrageous than any of Sacha
Baron Cohen alter-egos, Partridge is the perfect encapsulation of British
small-mindedness: a smug, middle-class Daily Mail reader with a stagnant
career as a radio DJ, the character's inherent humor comes from his utter
mundanity. As such, when a disgruntled former employee Pat Farrell (Colm
Meaney) takes hostages at the newly rebranded station and Alan finds
himself in the role of unlikely mediator, the race is on to inconspicuously
subvert as many American actioner cliches as possible.
Explosions? None (well, a few, small
ones, if you count the firing of a shotgun). Sex? Just about, if you count
copping off with the bird who played Rose West in Appropriate Adults
in a disabled toilet. Car chases? Yes! Albeit in a yellow broadcasting van with
a squadron of police cars keeping leisurely pace behind it. What you get out of
Alpha Papa (even the title mocks the ostentatiousness of our
Yankee brethren) will obviously very much depend on how funny you find Alan.
With his habit of making unguarded and unsolicited confessions on such topics
as his aggressive athletes foot, Alan is endearing in much the way that Ricky
Gervais' David Brent is in that, for all his ego and posturing, he's just a
bit of a pillock, and, as with most modern British comedies,
character-propelled awkwardness is the order of the day.
Armando Iannui, the man behind both radio programme On the Hour,
which introduced Partridge to the airwaves, and The Thick of It was involved in writing the film.
Unfortunately, Alpha Papa is no In The Loop:
without the imaginative invective to leaven it - my personal favorite involved
referring to an unfortunate MP as a "Nazi Julie Andrews" - it all feels a
bit, well... flat. Scenes of Alan vamping in the car to Roachford or panickedly
yelling, "It's a shooter!" are entertaining, but the whole things
feel like a TV special rather than an out-and-out cinematic adventure. Sorry to
count pennies, but on a budget of around £4 million, it just feels there should
have been more.
Knowingness is not a substitute for
genuine drama, and, though the film does achieve the occasional moment of
genuine tension based around exactly how nuts Farrell is/might, but overall Alpha
Papa lacks in ambition. The lack of something is not a substitute for
the thing itself - not blowing a bus up only matters if it feels like there was
ever a threat of you doing it in the first place. Brought down by its own
self-depreciation, the film ends on a bit of a cop out: Alan can't change, so
there's no sense of closure, and the film can't compete with the likes of RED
2 and ever become a full-on satire of anything. It's okay to dream
small, but when it’s this low-key it becomes a bit depressing.
More A Field in England than Dog Day Afternoon, for some wry
social examination and a few good gags, Alpha Papa gets a 6.5/10.
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