Run Fat Boy Run
- Film Worth:$8.00
- FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Simon Pegg, presumably attempting to demonstrate a little range following his runaway success as the...
Simon Pegg, presumably attempting to demonstrate a little range following his runaway success as the actor/scribe of Hot Fuzz and Shaun Of The Dead, stars in and co-writes this largely turgid comedy from actor turned director David Schwimmer (presumably attempting to demonstrate a little range after playing Ross on Friends for 67 years).
Problems abound. Hank Azaria plays his usual new boyfriend jerk - see: Along Came Polly, America's Sweethearts - wooing Thandie Newton (a notorious kiss of death for any film - see Mission: Impossible II, The Truth About Charlie, The Chronicles Of Riddick), who was left pregnant at the altar by the now sorta pudgy Pegg. The film never quite recovers from that unlikeable central premise, and unfortunately loses most of its momentum during an extended running race that engulfs its third act (and provides its improbable title).
Still, there are elements to like here: comedian Dylan Moran is top form as a just-twisted-enough version of the prototypical 'quirky' mate, and Pegg shines as a loser who never quite makes it to 'loveable'. Further, the film's London setting is refreshing (it was originally scripted as yet another NYC comedy), and both its timing and pacing are spot on. Indeed, it's not so much that the film is bad or even unfunny; it's just difficult to understand why Schwimmer chose this project as his directorial debut. Nowhere does Run, Fat Boy, Run break new ground or stretch its formalised boundaries. It's a largely by-the-numbers affair, with a plot so unremarkable that it discourages repetition and a mawkish conclusion visible from the opening credits. Worse, the three male leads (each an adept comedian in his own right) are largely wasted in thumbnail roles that, in another movie, might have been terrifically funny.
