"Climbing the mountain of conflict"? You sounded like a Nazi Julie Andrews!

In the Loop

(2009)

As with The Thick of It, Capaldi rules this big screen version with splenetic fury, and is particularly creative in his bile when confronted by the wretched Americans he has to make sure he goes to war with. James Gandolfini gets some choice lines too, whilst Chris Addison is so effective in this role because he has being a complete prick in real life to draw from.

The revelation here is Tom Hollander, pretty much typecast as a tosser but here getting a chance to blend a Hugh Grant duffer-type with a dose of realism. Paul Higgins' Jamie McDonald also returns. And Sledgehammer features too! And then there's Anna Chlumsky, she of My Girl(s), who has grown up to be a something of a babe with great comic timing.

To be honest, there's nothing really that impressive about the political machinations that hasn't been done before and smarter in the TV original (and the Steve Coogan cameo falls flat) but it doesn't really matter when you've got this cast spouting these lines.

***1/2

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Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

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