Worth: $13.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Nick Frost, Malcolm McDowell, Emma D’Arcy, Samson Kayo, Simon Pegg
Intro:
...a slight and only sporadically amusing effort that lacks the panache and wit of previous pairings of Pegg and Frost.
It would be a somewhat massive understatement to say that when Simon Pegg and Nick Frost work together, it’s usually a good time. There was the beloved TV series Spaced (1999-2001), Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), Paul (2011) and The World’s End (2013). It’s quite a list, and when news arrived that the boys would be pairing up again, for a genre comedy no less, it seemed like a good time was all but guaranteed. It’s more than a little disappointing then to report that Truth Seekers, their first team up in seven years, is a little bit ordinary.
Truth Seekers tells the tale of amiable loner, Gus (Nick Frost), a broadband installer and amateur paranormal investigator. Shortly after being saddled with new employee, Elton (Samson Kayo), Gus’s rather prosaic supernatural experiences kick up a notch, and he’s thrust semi-willingly into a series of fortean adventures that are, well, fitfully entertaining.
The first thing to note about Truth Seekers, is that it’s about 80% Frost, 20% Pegg. Don’t get us wrong, Nick Frost is an absolute comedic delight, and a lovely bloke too, but it’s the combination of the pair that brought that goods in the likes of Shaun of the Dead, whereas here Pegg feels like a special guest star. This is, no doubt, due to Pegg’s fairly hefty Hollywood workload, but it certainly hurts the comedic dynamic. And while it’s great to see Malcolm McDowell playing Gus’s sassy father-in-law, Richard, the casting of Samson Kayo and Emma D’Arcy as ghost plagued Astrid never really adds up to an exciting dynamic.
Truth Seekers is further plagued by rather listless direction, with the show looking great, but lacking that whip smart comic timing and crackling visual irony from Edgar Wright helmed efforts like Spaced or Hot Fuzz. And the show certainly wants to have that style, with Edgar Wright-esque whip pans and visual comedy frequently attempted, but sadly rarely realised well. It’s not a bad show, and each episode runs about 25-30 minutes so it’s an easy watch, but it’s just never particularly compelling beyond seeing which great British comedy actor will pop up in a cameo next.
Ultimately, Truth Seekers is a slight and only sporadically amusing effort that lacks the panache and wit of previous pairings of Pegg and Frost and frankly squanders a lot of the promise of the premise. It’s amiable, and watchable, and Nick Frost is just a lovely, ever enjoyable teddy bear of a man, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that we’ve all seen better versions of this material before.
