David Brent: Life on the Road (in theaters August 2016)

Love 'The Office', but this seems to be flogging a dead horse in much the same way as Coogan did with Partridge.

 

Agreed. One-trick pony.

 

I thought Extras and Derek were easily as good as the Office.
I certainly wouldn't say Gervais was a one trick pony.

I'm looking forward to this, the trailer looks great.

 

Looks funny to me.

 

When I first got in the thread and saw what this was, I groaned, thinking it sounded like a bad idea. But that preview looks pretty funny and I'm looking forward to this.

 

I was hesitant to watch it at first but the Alan Patridge movie was hilarious.

 

Must see !

 

Put weight on for part.
That takes guts.

 

I'm a huge fan of Gervais (in his various guises), and I'm completely disappointed by the trailer.

But beyond that, my deeper concern is that Stephen Merchant was not involved with this film, and he was equally essential to the success of The Office. The Brent character may well have preceded both the series and the Gervais/Merchant partnership itself (Gervais apparently already had a working outline for the 'Seedy Boss'), but it was the two of them that carefully crafted the narrative context and satellite characters through which the depths of Brent's self-delusion could be most successfully charted. Although the Brent material Gervais has produced via YouTube in recent years has been amusing, it's a mistake to elevate the character in isolation: it was The Office after all, not David Brent - and therein lies quite a difference.

 

Disagree. The recent 'Mid Morning Matters' series with Alan Partridge was hilarious!

 

The " rock"character spoof has been used so many times it's a cliche.

 

'Extras' outshone 'The Office' I reckon. Put to bed too early, that was.

 

Trailer out. Cautiously optimistic.

 

As someone who would hold up the BBC version of The Office against any TV series in history, it brings me no pleasure to say that this movie looks absolutely awful.

 

For me, there are still hints of the old Brent, but the last part suggests he may be straying too far into the potty humour. There is indeed a very fine line between clever and stupid. I'm not giving up hope just yet, but we'll see.

 

A must see !

 

Hated it, really hated it. I was disappointed when I heard he was making it. If any series didn't need a new ending it was The Office.

The world Brent exists in LOTR (life on the road not Tolkien) is completely changed and unrealistic. The reactions to his racism/idiocy are unrealistic and unlike the original series. Even the character to me is unrecognisable with his wheezes and giggles. The supporting characters are sketches (receptionist/office bully boy) all shades of existing The Office characters (Dawn/Finchy). Even down to the sub-Gareth "loser" in the office.

SPOILER BELOW

Iconic scenes mimicked like the office bully being stood up to echoing Brents "Chris, why don't you just **** Off" cathartic moment. The only problem being this so called big moment came between two characters we have zero interest in or background story for.

The band/sound guy accepting Brent at the end (why? Whats changed his behaviour seems to peak in terms of offensiveness) coupled with his co-worker being romantically interested in him. Isn't this just exactly what happened at the end of the Xmas Special only without the massive Dawn/Tim pay off we had all being waiting on (the true heart of the original series).

Probably the thing that annoyed me most, why would Dom the rapper hang around with this fool? Its not properly explained, nice guy or not why would any young/talented/popular young black man hang around with a racist buffoon who parades him about like a prize and involves him in public humiliation.

Suspension of disbelief or an allowance to let things go for comedy effect is all well and good but that wasn't necessary in The Office. It was beautifully observed. Even the silly bits (the dance/"go get the guitar") were not that silly and somewhat plausible and more importantly the other characters reaction to them were realistic.

This was a film written by the man behind "Derek" not the team behind The Office.

Ahhhh I could go on and on...

Massive disappointment..really missed Stephen Merchant

 

Looks like I posted this in the wrong thread (The Original Office Thread). Oh well. I'll post it here too.

I came away from "Life on the Road" with mixed feelings. It had its funny moments. But as someone mentioned a bit earlier, it doesn't hold together as an even vaguely sensible narrative, particularly the last 10 or 15 minutes where credibility is thrown completely out the window in exchange for a contrived "feel good" ending that would have made the Gervais of 15 years ago puke.

One of my favorite "Office" episodes, Tim's 30th birthday ("The Quiz") ends with Tim just completely downtrodden. In what he perceives to be a dead-end job at 30, watching the woman he loves prefer some jerk, and then being emasculated by the likes of Finchy. And yet Gervais & Merchant were comfortable leaving Tim there as the credits roll. There's artistic courage in that. And when Tim finally wins Dawn in the Christmas special, this moment is redeemed. There's no artistic courage in "Life on the Road". The ending is worthy of the brain-dead-est sitcom.

But no one can write an intentionally bad socially conscious song like Gervais.

 

I'm a disabled (mental in my legs), sitting in my wheelchair as I type this, and I think this is hilarious.

 

Ricky Gervais’ Life On The Road will premiere next month on Netflix »

 

I came away from Life on the Road with the same unease I felt after the reboots of Arrested Development and Mr. Show that were on Netflix. I appreciated the effort to revive an old favorite, and there were scattered moments that worked, but something major and intangible just felt off. The timing, the mojo, the small things -- just not there anymore, as they probably shouldn't be after all these years.

This, unfortunately, has infected every Gervais project since The Office -- one could even argue that show's Christmas special, as wonderful as it was, started him down this road. The stinging realism that made The Office so gratifying has long since been abandoned for cheap sentimentalism that usually flatters Gervais's character above all others.

 

Quite liked it laughed twice the hotel pelican scene and the two women he takes back to his hotel room.
Not funny ha ha, good character..just needed a much better script.

 

I was really looking forward to this, but worried that I would be disappointed. I was disappointed.

I really hated his band, in the same way that I hated 'that Swindon lot' when David took them out for a pint, and they sat there like a bunch of miserable pricks.

I just didn't really find it funny enough to make up for the awkwardness.

Extras and Derek were both excellent. Extras was almost on par with The Office for me, and definitely worth a few re-watches. The guests were excellent, and great sports. I also enjoyed Ashley Jensen and Shaun Williamson (that Barry from Eastenders). Stephen Merchant seems to make any show better, either by being in it, or involved in the writing.

Life's Too Short was okay, but I wouldn't rank it with the others. I will probably re-watch it at some point, as it did have some funny bits.

 

This is showing on UK BBC1 this evening if anyone is interested.