Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

This film is just hilarious from beginning to end. Like most of the best comedy out there, it's thoroughly British in every way. It's more like The Office than Monty Python, though. Sure it's gimmicky and kind of silly, but that's precisely why it's so funny. When it was over I wanted it to just keep going. It could've been twice as long and I would've been on board for every minute. It's not for everyone, I'm sure, but it certainly is for me.

It mirrors its source material as a manifestation of the idea that it's impossible for art to capture all the joys, tragedies, trials, foibles and contradictions of life. But with its actors playing actors playing actors, it also manages to be a nasty little rumination of the frequent insincerity of the presentation of the self and one-ups The Player as a self-referential deconstruction of the filmmaking process. Also, it's hilarious.

Mix one part novel adaptation with two parts behind-the-scenes mockumentary. Throw in Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Shake well before serving, and this is the result. Mockumentaries are nothing new but this certainly is: it's not often you see one where the actors on screen are actually playing themselves. Coogan grounds the film while chaos flies in circles around him. He and Brydon have beautiful chemistry, they play off each other endlessly, and their banter during the final credits is a riot.

5 years before Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon churn out endless Al Pacino and Michael Caine impressions in "The Trip," Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon churn out endless Al Pacino and Michael Caine impressions in "Tristran Shandy." After decades of unintentionally playing the twat comedian, Coogan finally realizes that other people see him as a twat, and instead of changing his tune, he does what any respectable comedian would do--makes this new-found twatiness the focus of his schtick...and succeeds.

As modern day philosopher Homer Simpson once said: "it works on so many levels!". It's hilarious, awkward, realistic and clever all at once. Some great visual tricks, a fun movie-in-a-movie concept plus a wonderful cast. Coogan and Brydon fire on all cylinders.

Terrific. The meta construction works brilliantly without disappearing up its own arse, and Coogan and Brydon's portrayal of a version of themselves is both brave, clever (in the sense that it plays with our perceptions of them) and hilarious.

Amusing and I like what it's doing, but I can't help feeling like I'm missing something. It doesn't go anywhere and while that may be the point it does surprisingly little with the time it has.

Creative, clever, and hysterically funny. Captures the spirit of the book without being a direct adaptation.

The banter between Coogan and Brydon is just fantastic. Especially Brydon's impression of Coogan.

Inventive and exciting. There's a ton of fun in this movie, playfully layered and frequently hilarious. Every scene brings something new, not a moment feels superfluous. The dialogue over the end credits is a riot too ("just touch my teeth").

Terribly confused with some seriously shaky camera work that made me feel rather ill (we have a very projector screen). Have they not heard of Steadicams? Bailed out after 25 minutes.

Fun, light, enjoyable. Personally, I would have liked more of the actual Tristram Shandy adaptation, but it was enough at least to get me to dig out my copy of the book and actually read it, something I've been meaning to do for years. The behind-the-movie stuff is rather like "The Player"-lite. The two co-exist agreeably, but I find myself wondering what might have been...it seems like the episodes from the novel brought to life with Steve Coogan narrating would be the perfect way to film it.

Tristram Shandy benefits from its recognisable cast as well as its conceptual narrative that adapts the novel through both substance and style. Coogan & Brydon will go on to work with each other many more times, their chemistry (and friendship) is undoubtedly present here. The meta-narrative about film production is also pretty funny. While well-conceived and performed, I had a few issues with the pace whereby the film felt longer than its runtime; perhaps it's all the period costumes.

I wouldn't say its really funny as such, although it is gently amusing at times. I can see that the banter between Brydon and Coogan (thats listing them alphabetically by surname, which is, as Brydon see's things, the right way to do things) was clearly evident in this film, made prior to the 'The Trip' TV series. There are some scenes whereby the actors are put in silly, farcical situations, that leads to some comedy but but if your a fan of Coogan and/or Brydon, then I certainly recommend it.

Enjoyably silly and inconsequential comedy would probably play better as a TV skit; covers similar ground to THE PLAYER and ADAPTATION, but lacks the scathing tone that might have better balanced the sometimes twee writing and performances. Still, everyone appears to be having a good time and Brydon and Coogan doing dueling Pacinos is never not funny; wears out its welcome with a half hour to go, but still a lot of fun.

Finns det Freudianska betygsättningar? Jag hade i alla fall - efter en del - grubblande bestämt mig för en trea, men så blev det tydligen en fyra ändå... Filmen är bitvis hejdlöst rolig med engelsk sarkasm, (själv)ironi och därtill understatements. Jag tappade aldrig intresset just genom att den på många sätt var så smart. Samtidigt får man konstatera att den är en bagatell: Handlar den egentligen om något som helst? Sammantaget en 3½:a alltså.

lololol

Having not read the book, I did get a sense of how it is presented with what must have been a mischievous self-referential tone. Winterbottom has kept the concept but merely adapted it to match its new medium. Hard to do well, but admittedly pulled off in this case.

very brilliant, very Pythonesque. I love the popular culture references (Barry Lyndon, A Room with a View, The Observer, Bresson/Fassbinder, Two Stars, Baywatch and finally Pacino and homophobia gags) and the chestnut scene. "Do you know there's a good Groucho Marx story about, see, he meets a woman with seven children and says 'Why've you got seven kids?' and she says 'Because I love my husband.' And he says, 'Well, I love my cigar, but I take it out now and again.'"

Never loses sight of its mission to be as silly, bawdy, and entertaining as possible.

Is it weird that I wanted to see more of the adaptation? I recognize that the whole point of the movie was to deliberately not show the adaptation, but the opening 15 or 20 minutes were hilarious.

The commentary was more entertaining than the movie.

This was so much fun. A great mix of mockumetary and novel adaptation. I'm a huge fan of Coogan's, and his banter with Brydon is hilarious.

Some amusing moments, but the movie seems to unravel as it turns from the novel to the filming. Perhaps this was intentional, but it was not quite as entertaining as it might have been, other than incidental moments such as the duelling Pacino impersonations during the final credits.

"The conceit of this Tristram Shandy is that it knows it's a movie, much as Sterne's book knew it was a novel." - Keith Uhlich

This may not be a classic in the same way Airplane! or "This Is Spinal Tap" is... but when it comes to the crunch this film make me laugh longer and louder. For that reason it's (probably) my favorite comedy film ever.

Tristram Shandy is only sporadically funny. It's more mildly clever, and not nearly as wild and imaginative as it needed to be. Since Winterbottom took the tactic of making a movie "in the style" of the allegedly unfilmable novel, he needed to go for broke, and unfortunately what ended up onscreen looks incredibly half-assed.

Yes it's a creative (not as creative as the book) and hilarious (for some parts) film but, to tell the truth, this style is very familiar to us from his previous film, 24 hour party people. So i'm not suprised at all..

I was a bit let down by this only because I had heard it was hilarious, but it's still really good. It IS funny, very funny, just not as hilarious as I had heard. What it did deliver on is the uniqueness of its approach to a story, mixing a novel adaptation with mockumentary and behind the scenes type filming. Coogan and Brydon have good chemistry and really ground this thing and keep it from getting ridiculous. Some of their best scenes are clearly unscripted.

It's genuinely funny, and that's enough.

Really funny film about the filming of the title book

Sterne would have loved this, although his adaptation would probably have included more sperm jokes and some excruciatingly extended periods of blank screen. Very amusing and just the right tone to match the novel's humane silliness.

Pretty much fantastic.

Self-referential fun, but it meanders a bit in the second half.

10 points for the scene with the hot chestnut.

Amazing. Hilarious in a conventional way that belies its bizarre and creative depth, with stellar performances from a cast that comprises the cream of British comedy.

A retro meta-trifle. Funnier in theory than in practice, just like the original.

Some parts work, but most parts just fade away.

Laugh-out loud funny - a slice of witty brilliance.

funny, but hard to understand. the ending pulls out the rug from underneath you, i wish it had been longer.

This is a rather cleverly devised film. Not an adaptation per se, but the meta-fiction element of the film embodies the ideas of the book. Plus, it remains highly amusing throughout.

I love how it feels like an unorganised mess. Brydon and Coogan 'doing' Pacino at the end is worth sticking around for.

Fairly amusing expected better with such a great cast.

An excelent adaptation of an unfilmable book. Very witty and very postmodern; Sterne would be proud of this film.