Special Correspondents’ - Not that ‘special,’ but not that bad either

I’m basically a really big fan of Ricky Gervais (and if you haven’t seen anything he’s done before you should know that he’s one of those people who you either love or hate – look him and his work up before continuing!).  I pretty much watch whatever he’s in, so I was quite happy to find this film on Netflix.  At first, I was disappointed, but – I’m pleased to say – that it got better.

It’s about a couple of radio news reporters who miss their flight to a war-torn country and have to fake their reports from the comfort of a friend’s apartment in New York.  However, things don’t go too well and begin to spiral out of control.  As I watched it I wasn’t that impressed with the way it began.  Basically, there weren’t that many jokes in the opening half hour.  I guess that they were trying to set up the characters and general plot, but the ratio of laughter to screen time suffered.  However, I’m glad I stuck with it – it gets better.

After the half hour mark it does get funnier.  If you’ve seen the promotional material you’ll probably see that Ricky Gervais is starring with Eric Bana.  Despite the former Incredible Hulk being the more obvious choice for leading man, I never really felt that it was ‘his’ film.  It’s like he’s a token leading man to Ricky Gervais.  I only noticed in the end credits that the film is both written and directed by Gervais.  It’s almost like he knows he’s not leading man material and did his best to give a more ‘traditional’ star the chance to ‘front’ the film.  However, Eric Bana never really seemed that comfortable in the role and, despite being the front man, is also the straight man.  Gervais (or others) get all the best (and by ‘best’ I mean funniest) lines and by the time the film ends you sort of realise that it’s Gervais’ character who, despite being set up as ‘Robin’ to Bana’s ‘Batman’ was the one who had gone on the journey and been through the character arc.

But, like I said, at the end of the day I was glad I watched it.  But then I’m a fan of Gervais and, despite what you may think when you sit down to watch it, it’s his film and Bana is actually the supporting cast member.  I’ve seen some reviews on the net saying that ‘Special Correspondents’ is boring.  I wouldn’t say that, but I also wouldn’t say that many people would feel like they got their money’s worth if they’d paid full price to see it at the cinema.  Netflix is doing wonders making and broadcasting their own stuff.  And this is a prime example.  It’s sort of a made-for-TV movie which you’ll probably enjoy because it’s part of your package and haven’t really had to pay through the nose to watch.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that