Fifteen years after the evens in The Office David Brent (Ricky Gervais) is an office rep working for a company called Lavichem. He is still chasing his dream of breaking into the music industry mainstream and is using his pension money to fund a tour with his band Forgone Conclusion, which is made up of session players and his friend and rapper Dom Johnson (Ben Bailey Smith) and this movie is a documentary style look at the events surrounding the tour.

For those of you who don’t know the character, Brent is a guy who speaks before he thinks, wants to be the center of attention and loved by all so he will say anything he thinks will gain favour with people. This often leads to embarrassing situations for him and others who happen to be nearby as his fabrications are so obvious to all and while he seems to have issues with ethnic minorities, equal equality for women and the disabled he tries desperately to mask this fact by trying so hard to be politically correct that he ends up showing his true colours and ignorance on most occasions in the most mortifying of ways.

Needless to say this whole movie is a jump from one awful situation to another as he throw money at one thing after another trying to find a way to get himself noticed all the while leaving the members of his band exasperated as one cringe worthy moment leads to further disaster and he is slowly dragging them with himself into the annuls of obscurity.

Despite all this there is something that Gervais brings to the character that makes him redeemable in a way that almost forces you take pity on the desperation of the character and, without spoiling any of the humerous moments in the movie, there are scenes around his counselling sessions and a battle with depression, an office going away party he is expecting, his attempts to get a tattoo to give him more street credibility and his lyrical penmanship being challenged for using Wikipedia which are all hilarious scenes but add to the pity you cannot help but feel for the guy.

I was reminded a little of This Is Spinal Tap on occasions, which is not a bad thing and there were a few moments where I found myself laughing uncontrollably at his demise but then again I have always liked watching Brent, and his terrible people skills, in action. All in all the movie had a feel of an overlong Xmas special, especially with the ending so I reckon it could have started that way and then was altered to try and give Jervais a hit on the big screen as the film would have worked just as well over two parts as a TV show. If you are a fan of Gervais and liked The Office then you will laugh your way through the situations that arise but Gervais can be an acquired taste, so like Marmite you will either love it or hate it.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6 Out Of 10