Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Reid V

  
  Having seen and fell in love with The Trip first, it was fun to spend more time with characters that I had come to know and love. On top of being a smart and layered film, Coogan and Brydon continue to give the audience their patented witty passive-aggressive banter. While I did not… More
  Having seen and fell in love with The Trip first, it was fun to spend more time with characters that I had come to know and love. On top of being a smart and layered film, Coogan and Brydon continue to give the audience their patented witty passive-aggressive banter. While I did not find myself sick with laughter in the same ways as i was with The Trip, it is still very funny. If you love the characters in all of their humor and misery, then this film is for you.

• Ross C

  
  When did British comedy become boring? My guess. Sometime around this film's release. There's an average human drama subplot, but the rest is pretty stuck up [their own a***] comedy.

• Stella D

  
  your mileage may vary according to your taste in 18th century literature, british comedy and/or the post-modern film stylings of michael winterbottom/steve coogan. i enjoyed it very much, tho it's messy and not everything works. one clever bit, amongst many clever bits, was the… More
  your mileage may vary according to your taste in 18th century literature, british comedy and/or the post-modern film stylings of michael winterbottom/steve coogan. i enjoyed it very much, tho it's messy and not everything works. one clever bit, amongst many clever bits, was the score's subtly referencing everything from barry lyndon to 8 1/2, perhaps an allusion to the many charges of plagiarism against the novel

• Anthony L

  
  A difficult one this. It is very clever, brilliantly satirical and so layered, it is something quite revolutionary. So it is safe to say Michael Winterbottom has actually achieved something to match his heroes Fassbinder and Herzog. Is he as good a director? Nearly, but for every good… More
  A difficult one this. It is very clever, brilliantly satirical and so layered, it is something quite revolutionary. So it is safe to say Michael Winterbottom has actually achieved something to match his heroes Fassbinder and Herzog. Is he as good a director? Nearly, but for every good film he makes, he makes a couple of duds. Coogan and Brydon are great together, they've more than proved that on telly - the supporting cast is ace, Moran being one of today's greatest comedians. To cut to the chase for once - It just wasn't very funny. Witty but I was never close to laughing. First rule of comedy: Make the audience laugh. Second rule: No one likes a smart-arse!

• Cameron S

  
  I don't really get this type of "comedy" and I don't really like Steve Coogan. I do however like Rob Brydan and Gillian Anderson, but apart from that the film failed to impress me and I don't remember laughing once.

• Aaron N

  
  Tony Wilson: Why "Tristram Shandy"? This is the book that many people said is unfilmable. Steve Coogan: I think that's the attraction. "Tristram Shandy" was a post-modern classic written before there was any modernism to be post about. So it was way ahead of… More
  Tony Wilson: Why "Tristram Shandy"? This is the book that many people said is unfilmable. Steve Coogan: I think that's the attraction. "Tristram Shandy" was a post-modern classic written before there was any modernism to be post about. So it was way ahead of its time and, in fact, for those who haven't heard of it, it was actually listed as number eight on the Observer's top 100 books of all time. Tony Wilson: That was a *chronological* list. This is another movie starring Steve Coogan and directed by Michael Winterbottom in which Coogan addresses the camera often to narrate the story. This time it concerns a famously dense novel. However, the narration eventually stops and then we see that most of the movie is about a few days of the crew making this movie and dealing with a number of different issues. This is similar to 24 Hour Party People, being handled sort of like a mockumentary, but it is also similar to Adaptation, where you have people trying to adapt a book that has been previously seen as unfilmable, so the result is a film that surrounds the efforts of filming this story, while they seem unable to do so, despite the fact that the actual film ends up being similar to the novel they are to film in the first place. Coogan is once again hilarious. He is already good playing the star of the novel, and then when he must play himself he is even better. He plays himself as an egotistical asshole essentially, worried about being a star, and balancing his private life. There is also a large supporting cast made up of other British actors that are very recognizable to the right audiences. It all helps that much of the behind the scenes stuff has to be improvised for the most part. This is definetely not a film for all audiences, filled with jokes that not everyone can get, playing a lot more off wit than some of the more obvious gags and other moments. But this is still a very funny movie. Steve Coogan: [Steve is hanging upside down in the model womb] How about filming the other way around, the right way up, and then just flip the image? Leo: Well, maybe, but I'd have to have a word with Mark about that. I mean, I think he wanted the realism. Steve Coogan: He wants realism? Leo: Yeah. Steve Coogan: Yeah, I'm a grown man, talking to the camera, in a fucking womb!

• Tim S

  
  I thought it was hilarious although no one else does.

• Gordon A

  
  Cleverly structured and amusing mixture.

• Lanning :

  
  A brilliant idea with a great effort at staying true to Sterne. I love that they figured out a way to fit in the black page. You know, they talk about it being a book that can't be filmed, and to a certain extent this proves a self-fulfilling prophesy. Still, there's… More
  A brilliant idea with a great effort at staying true to Sterne. I love that they figured out a way to fit in the black page. You know, they talk about it being a book that can't be filmed, and to a certain extent this proves a self-fulfilling prophesy. Still, there's enough that's good about the film to recommend it. And I never get tired of Kelly Macdonald.

• Antony S

  
  A film about the filming of an 'unfilmable' story, Michael Winterbottom rebounds gracefully from the career nadir of 9 Songs to deliver a sharp and witty indie comedy. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play the lead parts and themselves, in both instances trying to upstage one… More
  A film about the filming of an 'unfilmable' story, Michael Winterbottom rebounds gracefully from the career nadir of 9 Songs to deliver a sharp and witty indie comedy. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play the lead parts and themselves, in both instances trying to upstage one another, and are bolstered by a score of actors of varying fame. Realising the difficulty of adapting the source material ('The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman' by Laurence Sterne), the story instead focusses on the production and the novel/idiotic attempts to circumnavigate the complex plot. Cue one of the greatest impromtu plot functions, Coogan immersed upside down in a giant womb! The tale itself then, is not only funny, but a sublime examination of the assumption of alpha-male status, and the impossibility of maintaining integrity in a business mostly designed for simple entertainment. Watch especially for Coogan's attempts to woo a girl by talking about Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Brydon's conviction that every Coogan performance is essentially Roger Moore!

• Walter M

  
  "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy" is about the life of Tristram Shandy(Steve Coogan) starting from his conception to his birth with Tristram narrating throughout. There is the odd tangent like his father, Walter(Steve Coogan), winding the house's clocks and… More
  "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy" is about the life of Tristram Shandy(Steve Coogan) starting from his conception to his birth with Tristram narrating throughout. There is the odd tangent like his father, Walter(Steve Coogan), winding the house's clocks and his uncle Toby(Rob Brydon) being so obsessed with the battle where he was wounded in a very sensitive place, that he is building a reenactment in the family garden. This is being made into a motion picture starring Steve Coogan(Steve Coogan) and Rob Brydon(Rob Brydon). Everything is going well on the set except that Coogan insists on appearing taller than Brydon. On the personal front, Coogan's girlfriend, Jenny(Kelly MacDonald), is visiting with their newborn baby while he is carrying on a flirtation with Jennie(Naomie Harris), one of the production staff. Meanwhile, he is being pursued by a tabloid reporter for an interview... "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" is an intellectually fun movie. On the surface, it is a highly engaging movie about adapting a supposedly unfilmable novel, making that movie and what goes on behind the scenes. (Here the focus is on the star. In "8 1/2" and "Day for Night", it was on the director. In "Sweet Liberty" and "Adaptation", it was on the writer.) On a personal level, there are the parallel storylines of Walter Shandy and Steve Coogan both being fathers for the first time. Note: Steve Coogan also played a fictional version of himself in "Coffee and Cigarettes". If he does this again, can the filmmaker not mention "Around the World in 80 Days"? Thank you.

• Marcus W

  
  A smart film filmed as a making of documentary about a film of a book. It's brilliantly done with a "Best Of British" cast - Brydon is a standout, but sadly it falls down on tone: it's not that funny, nor is it all that clever. Worth seeing for fans of British… More
  A smart film filmed as a making of documentary about a film of a book. It's brilliantly done with a "Best Of British" cast - Brydon is a standout, but sadly it falls down on tone: it's not that funny, nor is it all that clever. Worth seeing for fans of British comedy, but it's not essential viewing.

• Sunil J

  
  An odd movie that's quite funny at times and very original.

• Sarah B

  
  Don't see this if you don't like Coogan. Kelly Mac is great though. Moran is an absolute genius, even if he is playing the same character he always does. Naomi Harris is lovely too. Well done for a great adaptation of a truly unfilmable book.

• matt s

  
  Hilarious

Read all 15 featured audience ratings