Review of Run Fatboy Run (2007) by Kathleen H — 19 Jun 2009

I usually have the good sense to avoid movies like this (when not using irony or morbid curiousity as justifications) but the presence of Simon Pegg fooled me into thinking, despite it's asinine premise, that maybe it would have some of that wit and edge that Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and TV's Spaced all had.

It appears to me that Simon Pegg should stay with Edgar Wright, they share the same comic sensibilities and Edgar Wright can shoot and edit a film. Former Friends star David Schwimmer (whom I really rather liked in Friends) was woefully inept behind the camera or indeed in the editing room, for this movie. There was very little in the way of continuity between shots and scenes, the whole thing was a mess. Example: Characters meeting and discussing something and then a scene or two later (within the same day in the narrative) they are discussing other things as if this was the first time they had run into each other that day, discussing things that should have probably come up in that previous scene.

There are characters present where they assume we know what they are all about, one of the guys in Dylan Moran's gambling circle is supposed to be some dangerous mobster type but we never see anything to back this up, its mentioned once that he'll kill Dylan's character for not giving him the money if he loses a bet and he has some heavy thug with him near the end but nowhere else in the film is this idea built on. How are we supposed to understand or care about a character's motivations if key information like this isn't shown to us?

I predicted the entire movie from start to finish, every single joke, every single pratfall, every single insincere moment of drama... I could see them coming a mile away, like the straggling marathon runner stumbling towards the final stretch long after everyone else has crossed the finish line. I started to get a headache I rolled my eyes that often. You've seen it all done before and with far more style, wit and charm.

Simon Pegg manages to squeeze one decent moment towards the end and it's not a well written scene it's just his skillful comedic delivery that lifts it above the mundanity of the script, but he couldn't actually make me laugh and he couldn't help the rest of the script.

Dylan Moran was given a criminally small amount of things to do here, considering how brilliant he is in the TV show Black Books, and a very different turn in the excellent Shaun of The Dead. It's just sad to see someone with this much talent abused with this little material. Hank Azaria is another great talent wasted in this film with such a boring, predictable character, here is the man who helps define The Simpsons (a complement for when it was good, at least) and was absolutely brilliant in his small cameo in Dodgeball. His character is the "too good to be true" new boyfriend that Pegg's character is competing with and you can already map out his character arc before his first scene is finished - Spoiler alert: He inexplicably reveals himself to be a complete tool in the third act. That conveniently gives Simon Pegg an advantage to win back the girl. It's great when circumstance conveniently favours you just because you're the "hero".

I generally just felt embarrassed for all the talented people (and Thandie Newton*) that were being wasted here...

I was more embarrassed that people around me were laughing, and quite enthusiastically, too. I was at a loss to understand how this was happening. I honestly laughed more at the severely edited down Superbad trailer that ran before this film in the theater, but that really would not take much since I never really laughed at Run, Fatboy, Run.

* Sorry, Thandie, I know it's harsh but what do you actually contribute to anything you're in? They could slap a wig and a dress on a lawn chair and not much would change.

Actually I would pay double the ticket price to see a movie where Simon Pegg and Hank Azaria compete for the affections of a chair.