the parole officer

Well, this was a bit of a surprise, but not in the way I was hoping for.

I was hoping that it would be a hidden gem. I know it's received some mixed reviews, but I was kinda hoping, because I generally quite like Coogan's stuff, that I'd really enjoy it.

And I did basically enjoy it, but "really" enjoy it is a bit far past the mark. The reason I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped is rather unusual, though.

You might think, with it being a comedy, that I didn't find it funny, but, on the whole, I did find it funny. I have to confess the comedy was a bit of a mixed bag - there's a real mix of low brow stuff and clever and subtle gags. And while I'd say it was a weird mix, it does basically work and basically succeeds in giving you something for everyone.

It's also a heist movie in the tradition of something like the old Ealing comedies like The Ladykillers. So you might think that I didn't like this aspect of it, but actually I did. The heist is daft and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's also quite clever and witty, so I enjoyed this aspect of it.

No, what took the edge of for me was big chunks of it didn't quite make logical sense. Now as I've said, the heist plot was silly and not realistic, but I'm talking about the internal logic of the film.

I'll give you a good example that also doesn't really spoil anything. Having got into a bit of a fix, Coogan ends up quitting his job in Manchester - he's running away, basically. He says that he's going to go back to his old job in Brighton. In the next scene we see him waking up having slept in his car in what appears to be the Lake District.

Now what this suggested to me was that, for whatever reason he's parked up in the Lake District to have a kip while on the journey back to Brighton. It's at this point he has a revelation and decides to return to Manchester. Fair enough.

But it's later shown that he has a house, which must be in Manchester. I'd thought, from how it was shown, that he'd only just moved to Manchester, so perhaps his house was in Brighton and he was in the process of buying one in Manchester.

But no, he has a house in Manchester and decided, completely at random, to go and sleep in his car in the Lake District.

I know that sounds like me over thinking things and it's meant to be a light hearted comedy, but that sort of stuff happens so often it kept jarring me out of the film as I kept going "eh?"

I'll give you another example - towards the end, Coogan's character runs into some of the bad guys. Now this is a coincidence in itself, but also, these criminals are apparently attending a Police ceremony where they're giving awards to their officers. Why the hell are they even there?