I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

I've had no previous experiences with Alan Partridge persona and I didn't know what to expect from this series. It was brilliant. I especially liked the episodes "To Kill A Mocking Alan" and "Watership Alan", the former had me in tears from laughing and that does not happen often. The writing is without a mistake, the characters are interesting and amusing and Alan is one ignorant, vain and rude little man - but that makes this series so fun to watch. Here in Croatia, Alan Partridge is fairly unknown - it's such a shame. I'll try to get my hands on other series that feature Alan's adventures.10/10

What Martin Short's fake talk show host Jiminy Glick is to the states, Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge is to the U.K. (albeit funnier and more sophisticated). Coogan's fictional alter ego Partridge had his own "chat show" in 1995 called "Knowing Me, Knowing You- with Alan Partridge" (which many British viewers thought was the real thing!). The show was strategically made to only last one season in order to bring about the spin-off "I'm Alan Partridge", which dealt with the demise of Partridge's show and his not-so-brilliant career.Rubber-faced, snaggle-toothed Coogan creates one of the best unlikable characters since John Cleese's Basil Fawlty. Alan "A-Ha!" Partridge is an untalented, unprofessional, self-deluded, insensitive buffoon who's blissfully unaware of the fact that no one likes him and that no one misses his short-lived show. Forced to work as an early morning disc jockey and live in a fleabag hotel, Partridge struggles to rebuild his career, but always failing due to his own stupidity and tactlessness. He is a burden to the hotel staff (he's lived there a whopping six months), a tyrant to his loyal assistant Lynn, and thorn in the side of BBC executive Tony Hayers. It is a bit depressing, watching Partridge fail episode after episode, but he's such a pompous twit you quickly stop caring and just enjoy the darkly comic ride. One episode dealt with Partridge's insulting England's farmers (I don't dare spoil how they exact their revenge). Coogan hams it up as vile Alan Partridge, who's unsympathetic to the point of pure evil (in one episode, he uses a recently dead man's hand to finish signing the TV contract to relaunch his career). The supporting cast gamely keep straight faces amid Partridge's idiotic antics. Watching someone else's failure was never so much fun!

Victoria Wood has recently stated that traditional sitcom is dead. I don't believe this statement is true and I also believe that Miss Wood has also not seen I'm Alan Partridge, Black Books or Father Ted. These are just a few that use a live audience.I'm Alan Partridge follows the life of a T.V. Presenter turned regional disc jockey living in the town of Norwich. He is also every TV Complaints person nightmare. He has been refused a second series of his TV show and he must live out the rest of his career as a radio presenter. He lives in a hotel because his wife has left him. Alan is also aided by his ever suffering personal assistant Lynn who bows to his ever wish from providing him with his financial repost to reminding him to use his anti foot fungal powder. Also in the cast is probably his only friend (other than Lynn) Mike who provides much humour as the ex-army Geordie porter of the hotel.Each episode is skillfully written and it has no shortage of laughs. These range from fighting with the local farmers to brunching with Irish TV Producers. The episode with the Irish TV producers is my all time favourite. I am Irish myself and I nearly wet myself the first time I saw it.In my own opinion great comedy comes from making people laugh at things and situations that maybe they shouldn't. This is probably the finest example of great comedy for the late 90's. Alan Partridges says and does things without fully thinking them through. He mainly insults others but the great thing about it is that we don't laugh with him but we laugh at him.I must also praise the wonderful talent of Mr. Steve Coogan. When you watch his programmes you are never aware of Steve Coogan as Paul Calf or Alan Partridge, but you are watching the real thing. Like I said earlier on To hell with Ricky Gervais and the Office, Steve Coogan has beat you to it.

... and that seems to be the only reason. As I return to watching an episode from the original 'I'm Alan Partridge' series after having watched the second a number of times now, I am struck by the disparity. It seems the original series was somewhat experimental and very much with the objective of exploring many more facets of the fascinating character that is Alan Partridge, and it's study is a tremendous success.This second series seems far more 'commercial', based less upon astute observations of the character and his life and more by exaggerated caricatures and a host of outrageous and unrealistic situations created purely for comedic purposes. It seems to me, series 1 has humour more as a by-product of the journey we go on into Alan's private world, while series 2 has humour as it's sole objective. Vomiting while hosting a fire-place sales conference after piercing his foot on a spike, or re-enacting the opening sequence to The Spy Who Loved Me, are two typical examples. This series seems to have been created in response to the 'call of the punters' wanting to see more 'Alan' to make them laugh, and was the bone that was thrown them, but in doing so, compromising many of the sacred keystones that had been previously laid. While it certainly succeeds in providing a number of genuinely funny situations and lines (after all the 'Coogan crew' are very clever comedy writers), it no longer attempts to remain loyal to the accuracy of the archetype but instead indulges in humour that was once much more subtle and measured. Furthermore, it lazily shortcuts it's way through by self-abusively reusing many of the highly successful original ideas from series 1 and manipulating them to fit the new context, using the petrol station as centre stage while originally being merely incidental, springs to mind. Alan's mimicking of accents too, is just incessant here while far more restrained and calculated in the first series. Another typical example would be the joke where, in series 1, he mistakenly refers to the pop artist, Sinead O'Connor, as "the bald chap", serving to expose his ignorance and disregard for all things Irish in front of his Irish guests, whereas in series 2 this joke rehashed in his comment of "a beautiful blonde man, with a lovely voice" being Annie Lennox is... well I'm yet to understand the point of that joke. While this second series is certainly worth watching for many worthy laughs ("the worth of boast worlds", "cup o' beans", "I've got your kids Dan!", "I wonder who got the power pack", "Bono?!! No he's not here" and so on), those who love Steve Coogan's work for his incredible gift at capturing so poignantly yet hilariously the human condition will be disappointed. It seems a half-hearted effort more motivated by the need to meet public demand and an opportunity to indulge Steve Coogan's acting prowess than with anything further to say. The genius of the earlier Alan Partridge was that he was a man who we primarily find offensive and utterly repulsive, yet with a humanness and vulnerability that we could all identify with in some way and not help but feel incredible sympathy for. There are certainly moments in this series of its former glory and its ability to portray the agonizing realities of this man's life. Playing in a video game arcade alone on a Saturday night is effective and the scene of his trip to see his book being pulped, accompanied with The Windmills of My Mind, must be the series' finest moment; describing it looking like 'word porridge', plaintively crying out when he spots a copy, and then (as the closing scene of the series) in the distance breaking into a trot as he leaves, brings tears to the eyes.Years earlier in one of the original 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' radio shows on Radio 4, Alan Partridge had on, as a guest, a comedian who was trying to make the point that he wanted to make "observational comedy" dealing with "generic human truths", he said "I want to be funny but, with dignity" to which Alan whispers "Do your Frank Spencer". Coogan was here drawing attention to the form of comedy that he obviously was intending to emulate in the creation of Alan Partridge, and incidentally, very cleverly in the same script using him to portray the typical audience that won't grasp that and just wants cheap laughs. Well now sadly, it's Steve Coogan himself who is committing the crime that he once mocked by resorting to the painfully unsubtle techniques of silly accents, caricatures, and repeated jokes to provide cheap laughs at the expense of the comedy 'with dignity' that once hallmarked the humour of Alan Partridge. Ironically, being swayed to cash-in on public demand by producing makeshift follow-ups is in itself is a generic human truth, but I can forgive the makers of works like 'Police Academy', as they had far less to compromise. The hallowed ground that was the world of Alan Partridge should have been treated with more respect, but maybe that's just yet another example of the Alan Partridge in us all.In summary Episode 1: * ½ Episode 2: ** Episode 3: **** Episode 4: *** Episode 5: ** ½ Episode 6: ***