Masterful Movie

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Despite there not being many episodes of it the character of Alan Partridge has become an iconic comedy character in the UK, so it was no surprise that eventually some bright spark would try to make a full length film.It's not a bad film to be honest. It ticks all the right boxes in terms of laughs per scene but really it's all on Steve Coogan's head to make a silly set up work.I can see the fascination with the character and the film, but for me I didn't find it that funny or indeed that engaging. I think the character works in small doses but to sit through a full length film of someone doing clearly irrational things did not make a good time for me.

Anyone who has seen the Alan Partridge character before on the telly will be familiar with the shameless scrooge like narcissist he portrays. So the movie inevitably attempts to capture Partridge in his extremes against the backdrop of the changing media world which in this case seems to be gravitating towards corporate takeovers and shallow media content that allegedly placates the tastes of a younger target audience. The switch of late to the 'Mid Morning Matters' format has suited the Partridge style well and the irreverent style of banter it espouses certainly lends itself aptly to the picture, giving the film a more deliberate type of spontaneity that few other comic films of late can boast.So Partridge on such a stage as this gets to demonstrate the evolution from what one is familiar with to a greater awareness as to how his actions effect other's. Depending on ones tastes or mood this film will be viewed with varying amounts of aha.

Sorry but I didn't laugh once.I like Alan Partridge the TV series but I cannot see why so many seem to find this film funny. Someone said laugh a minute, well I didn't. It was puerile and silly with a storyline that could have been funny but wasn't. There were opportunities to make this funny but these were missed big time. I couldn't help thinking that it was a short sketch stretched out to fill the time needed to make it into a movie. I fortunately watched this on DVD and towards the end fast forwarded some as I was losing the will to live. Sadly I have to use more lines (imdb stop this silly restriction) and I cannot think of anything else to say about this tripe.

A familiar face in Britain but a virtual unknown in the States, comedian Steve Coogan has made his name in his home country portraying a fictional radio talk show host by the name of Alan Partridge. Since 1991, Coogan has performed his act on both radio and TV, and now he's branched out to his first feature-length movie entitled "Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa" (just "Alan Partridge" in the United States).In the film, the station where Partridge works is facing serious cutbacks due to a corporate takeover, changing audience tastes, a drop in listenership and bailing advertisers. Though Partridge himself survives the ax, the same cannot be said for his fellow broadcaster, Pat Farrell ("Hell on Wheels' Colm Meaney), who, upon learning of his dismissal, completely flips out, holding his co-workers hostage at gunpoint while the goofy and inept Partridge is sent in by the authorities to help negotiate a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Maybe with our history of gun violence, we're a trifle more sensitive to this sort of thing here in America than they are in Britain, which may explain why some of the laughs tend to catch in our throats at times, particularly when Farrell is threatening to take out a bunch of his own innocent and understandably distraught colleagues as retaliation for the wrong that's been done to him. That being said, the stylish mix of satire, slapstick, black humor and social commentary that Coogan and his various co-writers have come up keeps us chortling through most of the movie. Coogan makes Partridge a likable everyman character, bemused and skeptical without being hard-edged and cynical. The supporting cast is engaging as well. Offbeat and funny.