The Trip to Greece Movie Review: Stan Laurel and Tom Hardy Walk Into a Restaurant

The Trip to Greece is the fourth in The Trip quartet following The Trip (2011), The Trip to Italy (2014), and The Trip to Spain (2017), and starring Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden as exaggerated versions of themselves on food-tasting trips to various areas of Europe. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, the movies are recut from four similarly titled Trip TV shows originally aired on British television.

This time around, there is no need to convince Rob or Steve to go on a trip together; instead, they are on the first leg of their trip, having dinner in Turkey and discussing what they expect to see on their adventure where they will mostly follow the route taken by Odysseus in The Odyssey. Rob and Steve begin their funny impersonations of Stan Laurel trying to make a partnership work with Tom Hardy. Then it gets more obscure, but just as funny, when they are on a boat doing their Mutiny on the Bounty impressions where everybody on the Bounty is getting along just great.

The Trip to Greece attempts to tie up a few loose ends from the previous films, such as Steve’s relationship with his son, Joe (Tim Leach). One aspect of their adventures that will never end, is how Steve and Rob are in constant competition over comedic bits and feats of derring-do. This time they get caught up in a swimming competition which ends with Steve complaining about his shoulder. One aspect of the trip they always agree on, though, is the food. It turns out that if you eat at the very best restaurants in all of Greece, then the food will be fantastic!

The films don’t work as well when they try to be serious. In The Trip to Greece, Steve’s father is back home on his deathbed being looked after by Steve’s son, Joe. Steve keeps having very dark dreams in which he is attempting to find ways to get to his dad, even though, in “real” life, Steve is content to keep sight-seeing and eating while his dad slowly fades away. It is an interesting story, but it feels like an albatross amongst the lighter moments. All four Trip movies are good, but The Trip to Greece is, unfortunately, the weak one in the bunch.