David Brent: a Vida na Estrada

"Life on the Road" is a mockumentary sequel to the classic British version of the TV comedy "The Office" (obviously later remade for the US market and featuring Steve Carrell). Ricky Gervais played the ego-centric David Brent, a monster of a character who exercised what little control he had in his managerial role at a Slough paper company.

Here in "Life on the Road" we join Brent 15 years later where he has taken a rung or two down the career ladder and is working as a sales rep for Lavachem, a sanitary goods manufacturer, also based in Slough.

But Brent still harbors a dream of making it big in the rock world with his middle-of-the-road band called 'Foregone Conclusion (2)'. Gathering around him his ethnic rapper 'friend' Dom Johnson (Doc Brown) and a band of session musicians (who can't stand him), Brent cashes in "several pensions" to fund a tour of the venues of Berkshire... or at least, those that will give stage time over to a "shite band". As the tour delivers predictably diminishing returns, and no record-company interest (at least, not in him) Brent is forced to face his inner demons and some uncomfortable truths.

Bringing TV comedy characters to screen is fraught with difficulty, and few have successfully done it. Even legends like Morecambe and Wise struggled with a series of lacklustre films. Perhaps in recent times Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge has come closest with "Alan Partridge - Alpha Papa" and indeed there are a lot of similarities visible between Partridge and Brent: both have extreme ego issues and self-centredness. But there are significant differences as well, for while Partridge is just an irritatingly loud and obnoxious minor-celebrity Brent - as this film makes much clearer - has real mental illness.

Is this therefore a comedy at all? Well, yes, but in a very black way. There are certainly moments of excellent humor, with the tattooing scene being a high-point. But the result of watching Brent's progressive decline, with his nervous laugh as a constant 'fingernails on chalk board' reminder of his insecurity, results in a level of audience squirming that is palpable. Everything he does is perverse, from describing in excruciating detail every song before singing it, to spending his money on multiple hotel rooms when every gig is within the County of Berkshire.

As a black comedy its important that it doesn't outstay its welcome, and at 96 minutes it doesn't. However, the film lacks the courage of its own dark convictions, and unnecessarily switches tack in the last reel to provide a degree of redemption for Brent. Whilst 'sweet', it is also implausible given what's happened before and I would have suspected the interference of the director in lightening the mood of the writer's original intent. However, as Gervais is both writer and director, there is no such excuse. That's a shame.

So, in summary, an uncomfortable watch that aligns appropriately with the high squirm factor of the original TV show. Prepare to laugh, but feel a bit guilty in doing so.

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In common with a lot of people in the UK I was a big fan of the office TV series which aired over 10 years ago. The return of David Brent should have been something that was exciting and yet even before seeing the film there seemed to be an inevitable anti climax looming. Firstly it wasn't clear why the format should move from the small screen to the big screen. Secondly the Office worked because of the supporting cast, so could David Brent hold up a movie on his own.

The movie catches up with David Brent still dreaming about a musical career. He's left management behind and is now on the office floor with mixed popularity with the rest of the office. He decides to hire a backing group and go for a tour in his holidays to finally make the big break in music.

People familiar with the Office will not be surprised to find that Brent hasn't changed too much over the years. The humour hasn't really dated very well though, although there are a few very funny scenes mixed with a few cringe worthy moments.

The backing cast are OK, but not as integral to the movie as the cast were to the Office. The running time seems a little long and the 2 concerns prior to the movie came to fruition. This felt like a decent 50 minute TV special rather than a big screen movie. Even fans of the office are probably better off skipping the movie and waiting for it to appear on the small screen. It certainly will not lose anything on the small screen.

I liked this comedy and i find it sad that many people are bashing it. It has many funny moments throughout and it is also giving a message at the same time. Probably those who didn't like it were comparing it to the Office and there are similarities of course but this is different it is a movie and it is a romantic comedy actually. I do recommend it especially for people who like Ricky and his style it's all there all what you need to get the best of him. Even the songs are nice and catchy.

I'm a big fan of Ricky Gervais' work and consider The Office to be not just his greatest creation, but also one of the best TV comedies ever made. One of the show's biggest strengths was its brevity and I always lived in fear of a dreaded third series that could potentially tarnish its great reputation. So I was a little dubious to say the least when this new David Brent movie was announced. Fortunately, it was only to be about Brent himself and none of the other characters would be involved, but I still felt this had the potential to be a disaster.

As it turns out, I quite enjoyed Life on The Road. Gervais is very solid as Brent and there are plenty of hilarious moments. Obviously, he is working with a much weaker and less-developed cast so the magic of The Office is simply not there but nor should you expect it to be. Tom Basden and Doc Brown are both pretty good and work well with Gervais, despite some major flaws in the writing.

The major positive about this movie is the soundtrack. There is no two ways about it, Brent's/Gervais' music is actually pretty damn good. And not in an ironic way either; this is genuinely enjoyable pop music, well written with decent vocals. It also contains some of the funniest lyrics you will ever hear.

However, there is one major overriding flaw with this movie and that is the way the other characters respond to Brent. What worked so well in The Office was that Brent was this horribly awkward, clumsy, narcissistic man but he was also completely harmless and tragically needy. The way his colleagues and bosses treated him was with frustration but also a level of sensitivity and understanding. People were rarely nasty to him or outwardly condescending. One of the most touching moments in the whole series was when Tim accepts his offer to go out for a drink, knowing that nobody else really wants to and that his feelings would be hurt. This compassionate handling of Brent was such a huge part of The Office's success because nobody would enjoy watching someone so desperate for approval being consistently mocked and insulted.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens in Life on The Road. Brent's new colleagues are generally very unpleasant to him and don't hold anything back. The team of musicians he puts together are completely dismissive of him, refuse to interact with him and are happy to watch him flush his pensions away so they can get paid. It is often quite difficult to watch and just feels really dark and depressing. Fortunately, things improve towards the end and Doc Brown (who he clearly reveres) is always nice to him, but it is still a very uncomfortable experience for much of the movie. I don't know why Gervais chose to introduce this dynamic, but it was certainly a fundamental error.

I'm not sure this movie ever needed to be made but the surprisingly impressive music just about justifies its existence. It's not in the same league as The Office and nor was it likely to be, but it's still reasonably enjoyable with some very funny Brent moments and the best parody soundtrack I have heard to date.

Filmed in the same style as the TV Series this is a fly-on-the-wall documentary about everyone's favourite cringe-inducing boss David Brent as he attempts to hit the big time as a rock star with his band Foregone Conclusion.

The Office was like a breath of fresh air when it first arrived back in 2001 and it is a TV Series that I adore and can watch over and over again - I believe this was one of the first comedy series that brought about what can only be described as 'cringe-humour'. Life On The Road is presumably intended as a swan song for the character of David Brent and predictably the film as a whole falls short of the TV Series, but does still produce plenty of laughs....

In essence taking Brent out of the office and having him go on tour basically gives him the opportunity to showcase his delusions and social awkwardness to a much larger group of people. This does provide plenty of laughs and there are many scenes that do provide us with some classic Brent cringe moments. Whilst there are lots of funny scenes and lots of jokes that do work there are occasions when the comedy feels a bit forced (the joke about the Chinese was a bit awkward) and the continual jokes about Doc Brown being black are overused and start to wear thin - although many of the jokes are quite funny.

The film is generally funny when Brent is out on tour with his band, but sadly the same can't really be said for the scenes within the office; in fairness it was always going to be difficult to substitute the likes of Dawn, Gareth and Tim, but something just didn't feel right with many of Brent's co-workers. In the TV Series pretty much everyone in the Office disliked Brent, but you never felt that they held any kind of deep felt hatred or resentment towards him I personally just felt that a lot of his colleagues were sort of indifferent towards him. In Life on the road, his co-workers either really hate him (which sometimes gives the film a rather nasty tone) or they really like him (which sort of negates everything that his character is about). Having one of the characters being as cringe-inducing as Brent himself was a misstep in my book as part of what made Brent funny in the Office is that he thought he was funny, but no-one else did. I found Brent's behaviour in the Office 'funny-awkward' whereas his scenes with his workers in this film were more 'awkward-awkward'.

Inevitably trying to make a character who we're used to seeing in 30 minute segments and making him funny for 90 minutes is a tall order and it shows here; there were gaps in the film where I wasn't laughing whereas in the TV Series I was nearly always laughing. This result in a film that is mostly funny rather than being consistently funny.

Gervais wrote, directed and starred in this film so I suppose it's to be expected that he is front and centre in the picture, but he does make the film feel like a one-man show far too often; he doesn't really allow many of the characters much room to develop and I also felt it was a pity that poor Doc Brown was reduced to little more than being a barrage of jokes about his race and a straight man to Brent's character (though the film does allow Brown to showcase his talents - he's actually a decent rapper).

The film does get a little sappy at the end and some of the character shifts towards the end are also a little questionable, but in the main there are enough amusing moments to keep fans of the TV Series happy. Yes it's a flawed film, but it's a pretty funny one too.