How’s your Michael Caine impersonation? It probably isn’t as hilarious as Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s take on the English actor’s infamously dry voice and Cockney accent.
Fans of Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip, which starred Coogan and Brydon as elaborated versions of themselves dining and doing impressions during a European road trip, are in store for more spot-on accents with The Trip to Italy, which premiered last night at the Sundance Film Festival. The first clip from the comedy is now online and features the funnymen putting new touches on their Caine impersonation (a specialty). Furthermore, they also try out Christian Bale’s Batman and Tom Hardy’s Bane.
Although the two comics do not skewer Bale’s throaty Batman growl and Hardy’s sometimes indecipherable purr, the clip is still very funny. The Trip to Italy will have Coogan and Brydon going back on a road trip through central Europe, retracing the paths of Romantic poets and dining at some of the country’s finest restaurants. The original film was a funny, casual couple of hours with a couple of cheeky Englishmen, and word-of-mouth from Park City on the follow-up is very positive.
Brydon and Coogan have an excellent rapport together and it is nice to see them improvising and impersonating again, especially after Coogan took a bit of a departure from comedy with his role and writing duties for the Oscar-nominated Philomena (which is superb, if you have not yet checked it out). With that in mind, I would love to hear the comics try out a Dame Judi Dench impression.
The Trip to Italy does not have a release date yet, but keep an eye out for the summer, aligning with the time The Trip came out. Check out the clip below and try not to laugh when Brydon puts his spin on Caine’s more emotional moments from The Dark Knight Rises.