Special Correspondents (2016)

★

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A radio journalist and his technician get in over their heads when they hatch a scheme to fake their own kidnapping during a rebel uprising in South America and hide out in New York instead.

Classification: 15

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If you’ve seen the trailer for this film, then you’ve seen the whole film. Special Correspondents is not funny, not engaging and instantly forgettable, the only thing I will remember about this movie is that I didn’t like it. Eric Bana is a washed up reporter working for a local New York radio station, he’s a womanizer, doesn’t appreciate what he has and he’s completely one-dimensional. Ricky Gervais is a “loser” sound technician with an unhappy wife and he collects comics and he too is one dimensional. I could scream “STEREOTYPICAL MALE CHARACTERS” off a roof while firing bottle rockets and it would still be more subtle than how lazily these characters are written. When they have to go to Ecuador to report on a growing civil war, they lose their tickets and passports and to save their embarrassment they decide to report fictional events from an apartment above a cafe.

This film is not funny, I don’t remember laughing at all during this film, the comedy is just trying to appeal to really lazy humour. There are racial stereotypes, jokes about nerd culture, mean wife jokes. It’s all just terrible, the only amusement I found in the film was how it portrayed how dumb mainstream media can be sometimes but the film is so atrocious you really want it to be over the moment it starts. Eric Bana is fine in this film I think with a better script and director he could have done something with this film but Ricky Gervais is terrible. unlikable, unfunny and really stupid you just can not get invested in this journey or these characters.

There are a lot of talented actors having their time wasted in this film, Vera Farmiga, Benjamin Bratt, Kelly McDonald. America Ferrara, and Kevin Pollak all have scenes in this film. Their characters are undeveloped, stereotypes or just plain awful. There is no chemistry with any of these actors, every scene is dull and its sounds like I’m being overly cruel but I’m not there is nothing to like about this film. There is no sense of justice or earned resolution in this film, the characters lied and deceived and yet are rewarded, no consequences to these actions. The film just attempts the bare minimum of storytelling and even there it messes up.

Special Correspondents isn’t worth your time and it wasn’t worth mine. Whatever critique it wanted to make on journalism it didn’t accomplish it and this is a massive misfire for Ricky Gervais who wrote and directed the film.

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Director: Ricky Gervais

Cast: Ricky Gervais, Eric Bana, Vera Farmiga, Kevin Pollak, Kelly Macdonald, Benjamin Bratt, America Ferrera, Raúl Castillo

Release Date: 29th April 2016

Available exclusively on Netflix.

Trailer: 

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Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews

Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database