In The Loop

We caught In The Loop at the HL yesterday. It's a spin-off (ha!) from the successful BBC TV series The Thick Of It, with much of the same cast, plus a host of US actors to represent their American counterparts. In many ways, it's just like a TV special for that series, which is both a plus and a minus point. While it's (profane) fun like the TV series, it isn't especially cinematic so winds up feeling like you're watching TV in an enlarged living room with whole load of strangers. Also, having a longer gestation period than the TV series, its satire isn't quite as cuttingly up to date. Admittedly, it is trying to tackle a "big theme", the run-up to Gulf War II, but this does mean that it can never feel quite as contemporary as the TV series. Finally, although it uses the same cast, with a few exceptions (Peter Capaldi's Malcolm Tucker, most notably), they're playing similar but different characters. This actually puts newcomers to The Thick Of It in a better position than old-hands, who wind up wondering why, for instance, Olly is now called Toby. Overall, probably one more for DVD-viewing than the cinema. Too late now, of course.