Booze Revooze: A Drinker’s Skewed Review of IN THE LOOP

[Click here for a guide to Booze Revooze and the rating system used]

Here’s the rock, from a club scene in the movie and the juiced-box, Cannibal Corpse – Sentenced To Burn:

[Press 'Play' and don't sit too close to the speakers...]

Ramblings: All Tied Up

Final Proof: 3 Shots

You know how it is when you drink with a Brit? It’s a blast at the beginning because they have different words for everything and their accent is so cool so you keep feeding them words to say so you can hear it from their mouths. “Say my name….Cool! Now say, uhm, ‘hangover’…Cool!  ’Hahngovah!’ You said it like ‘hahngovah’, is that right? Is that how you say it? Now say ‘bloody sticky wicket blimey cheeky wanker’…Yeah! Wait, how do you guys say ‘elevator’? Lift! Hahahaha! How do you say, uhm, ‘truck’? Lorry! Hahahaha! How do you say restaurant? Oh, it’s the same?” Their sense of humor is different and sarky and it cracks you up and you have a blast all the way up until you realize the Brit is basically like everybody else in the bar and the novelty wears off. That’s kinda how it is with In The Loop.

i did some research on this bad boy—yeah i’m so freaking professional you could slap a tie on me and patch me into a ‘webinar’—and found out that In The Loop is a spinoff of a British TV series called The Thick Of It which is the genetic hybrid offspring of West Wing and The Office (the UK one). The only reason i mention it is that the movie feels like a long TV sitcom episode. Sure, it’s funny as hell and there are no commercials, but still…

The idea wears thin as the movie unravels. The jokes are funny but, like the Limey in the loo, you get used to them after a while and you still laugh but with a little less gusto each time. The actors are good (a special drink to Anna Chlumsky and Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker for shining in their roles) but there’s not enough idea for them to carry the whole movie. But, again like the Pommy in the pub, the wit (gin & sardonic, whiskey and wry) is strong enough to keep the buzz goin’ long enough.

Buzz Kills (Watch Out for Spoilers)

Sex: 1 Shot

The only sex scene is like my circumcision: it gets cut early and happens in the dark. The sexiest thing in the whole movie are a couple girls banging head in a mosh pit and some shots of Liza (Anna Chlumsky) with a beer. And there i go blowing my wad early instead of saving it for the next section; it’s my circumcision all over again, swear to god.

Here’s Anna younger, when she was in My Girl with Caulking McCullen or whatever his name was who missed the airplane. (Yeah, i’m really getting the hang of this movie reviewer gig.)

Here she is older:

Olivia Poulet (who plays Suzy) was very cute but there isn’t a lot online to prove it. Olivia, if you’re out there, drop me a line here at the Bar None?

Another cutie, in a gaunt, English kind of way, is Gina McKee (Judy Molloy) but there’s nothing online that does her any kind of justice. Gina? Are you out there? Do you have any decent promo shots?

Drink: O Shots

Champagne at a couple parties and Anna Chlumsky drinking Becks in a DC nightclub. Ok, i’ll give Anna half a shot for the bar scene.

Rock & Roll: ½ Shot

The only rock is the death metal i posted above. For those death metal purists of you out there, and i’m sure you’re out there i can feel you sweating, the song above is “Sentenced To Burn” by the original ‘artists’, Cannibal Corpse. The band performing the song in the movie is Cannabis Corpse, a fan band formed in 2006 to celebrate their love of weed and Cannibal Corpse.

Boring Technical Crap

Written by: Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, Tony Roche (Jeez, a freaking writer’s gay orgy!)

Directed by: Armando Iannucci

Starring

Anna Chlumsky – Liza Weld

Gina McKee – Judy Molloy

Olivia Poulet – Suzy

Peter Capaldi – Malcolm Tucker

James Gandolfini – Lt Gen George Miller

Bottom Line

Yeah, see it.