Stephen Mangan Movies
- 2011
Episodes is a TV-industry satire following a British couple who come to the States to produce a sitcom based on their hit U.K. program, only to find that the new series is to be radically Americanized. ~ Ray Stackhouse, Rovi
- Starring:
- Matt LeBlanc
- 2006
Commercial filmmaker Col Spector makes the leap to narrative features with this romantic comedy headlined by laid-back Green Wing star Stephen Mangan. Portrait photographer David (Mangan) and his longtime girlfriend Lisa (Susan Lynch) are all set to celebrate their third year together with a whirlwind trip to Venice. Though exuberant Lisa can't wait for the date to arrive, doubtful David seems to have become somewhat hesitant about the impending vacation. When David chats-up a loopy local named Nina (Lara Belmont) one day while taking a stroll in the park, the sparks between the pair are quickly doused when David begins to feel guilty about distancing himself from Lisa. Determined to make things right with his longtime girlfriend and get their relationship back on track, David confesses to his brief fling and gets kicked to the curb for his noble effort. Later, Nina admits that she's already moved on and isn't really interested in David anymore. When a local dating agency sends Lisa's headshot to David's slacker friend Matt (Christopher Coghill), the lovelorn lothario assumes that she isn't as happy being single as she claims and sets out to win his embittered ex back by any means necessary. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stephen Mangan, Susan Lynch, (more)
Three couples endure the living hell that is the happiest day of their lives in this comic mockumentary. Confetti is the United Kingdom's most prestigious wedding magazine, and publisher Antoni (Jimmy Carr) and editor Vivien (Felicity Montagu) have made a career out of documenting the cutting edge in nuptial ceremonies. Antoni and Vivien have decided to stage a contest to find the most original wedding concepts in Britain; the Confetti staff will narrow the field down to three candidates, help the couples stage their weddings, and treat the grand prize winner to a major photo spread in the magazine as well as a new home worth 500,000 pounds. Before long, Antoni and Vivien announce the finalists: Josef and Isabelle (Stephen Mangan and Meredith MacNeill), fitness enthusiasts who want a tennis-themed wedding; Matt and Sam (Martin Freeman and Jessica Stevenson), whose ceremony will be inspired by Hollywood movie musicals; and Michael and Joanna (Robert Webb and Olivia Colman), a pair of naturists who seldom wear clothes and want to be nude throughout the ceremony. Veteran wedding planners Archie Heron (Vincent Franklin) and Gregory Hough (Jason Watkins) are hired to help each couple have a day they'll always remember, though they may not look back on their work with fondness. Confetti was the second theatrical feature from director Debbie Isitt; all the dialogue was improvised by the film's cast during the filming. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Martin Freeman, Jessica Stevenson, (more)
- 2005
Take a trip backstage at the renowned Edinburgh Festival to explore the curious egos of three emerging talents in the feature debut from director Annie Griffin. A stage-trained theater purist eager to share her talent and enthusiasm with the outside world, Faith (Lyndsey Marshall) has been honing her one-woman show about Dorothy Wordsworth to perfection. Laid-back Irish comic Tommy O'Dwyer (Chris O'Dowd) is not so purely driven. A veteran of the club circuit desperate to break big, Tommy takes to seduction as a means of securing a vote. Though the presence of established television comic Sean Sullivan (Stephen Mangan) at the festival indeed shakes the confidence of his less famous competitors, the resentment he shows to those who haven't yet become a household name leads to a bitter cycle of resentment that could quickly sink his reputation among his peers. It's not all about the laughs at Edinburgh though, and as Faith, Tommy, and Sean play cut-throat on the comedy scene an experimental Canadian theater troupe prepares an elaborate act that's sure to stun the crowd. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 2002
Previously filmed in 1957, Kingsley Amis' first novel Lucky Jim served as the source for this sprightly and satirical two-hour drama special. Stephen Tompkinson headed the cast as Jim Dixon, a tweedy young lecturer at a provincial British university. While trying to curry favor with his self-enamored boss Neddy Welch (Robert Hardy), Jim also nervously pursued a romance with Christine Callaghan (Keeley Hawes), who happened to be the girlfriend of Welch's snotty son Bernard (Stephen Mangan). At the same time, fellow lecturer Margaret Peel (Helen McCrory), a neurotic with a pronounced suicidal streak, amorously pursued poor Jim all over the campus. In America, Lucky Jim was broadcast February 25, 2002 as part of PBS' Masterpiece Theatre anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
A man looking for love gets more than he bargained for when he chooses his prospective wife on the internet in this dark comedy. The manager of a bank in a small British community (Ben Chaplin) decides that he's in need of long-term companionship, and through an on-line marriage broker called From Russia With Love, he obtains a "mail order" bride (Nicole Kidman). While he's more than pleased that his new fiancée is so beautiful, she turns out to have a dangerous and mysterious side that he wasn't counting on, and things become quite complicated when two of her cousins (Vincent Cassel and Mathieu Kassovitz) arrive from Russia and move into his tiny house in St. Albans. Though set in England, Birthday Girl was actually shot in Australia, which allowed leading lady Nicole Kidman to stay in touch with her then- husband, Tom Cruise, who was shooting Mission: Impossible II in Australia at the same time. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, (more)
- 1999
A British-Canadian coproduction (seen on ITV in Britain), Watership Down was a serialized TV cartoon version of Richard Adams' classic allegorical novel (previously filmed as an animated feature in 1978). The story concerned a group of rabbits who, after experiencing a vision of their warren's destruction, set out in search of a new home. Led by Hazel and Fever, the not-so-timid woodland creatures ended up in Watership Down, where a Hitler-like rabbit dictator named Gen. Woundwort held the populace in thrall. John Hurt, who provided the voice of Hazel in the 1978 feature, is heard as the villain in this TV version. Watership Down first aired in 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kate Ashfield, Richard Briers, (more)
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