Review: Run Fatboy Run

Run Fatboy Run

OPENING DATE: 03/28/2008

STUDIO: New Line Cinema

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

The Charge

Love. Commitment. Responsibility. There’s nothing he can’t run away from.

Opening Statement

“I’m not fat! I’m unfit!”

Ironically, this pretty much sums up this benign comedy. A charming but utterly ineffective film, Run Fatboy Run squanders its A-list comedic talent in mediocre, stale and redundant romantic comedy territory we’ve already seen a hundred times before.

Facts of the Case

Dennis (Simon Pegg, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) almost had it all. He had a beautiful pregnant fiancée standing at the altar waiting to marry him, a woman so out of his league it terrified him. On his wedding day, self-loathing and panic set in, and before he knew what was happening, he was running at top-speed away from the altar, leaving his woman behind.

As it turns out, women remember this kind of thing. Years later, stuck in a mediocre job as a security guard in a lingerie shop, Dennis is still trying to win the affections back of his ex-fiancée Libby (Thandie Newton, Mission: Impossible II, Crash) who has moved on with her life into the arms of charming Whit (Hank Azaria, The Simpsons, Along Came Polly). Desperate to prove to the woman he still loves that he can finally commit and follow through with his life, he signs up to compete in a marathon, running against Whit. Terribly unfit and out of shape, training is a practical death sentence to Dennis, but if it wins back the affections of Libby, it will be worth it.

The Evidence

For most of us in North America, this will be the first film headlining the hilarious Simon Pegg outside of his own creative projects, and as such, many viewers will have an expectation of this film before the credits even roll. It has familiar faces in it from previous Pegg films, and even takes place in London, which almost assures viewers it will be the same kind of quirky, modern British comedy popularized by Pegg through films like Hot Fuzz and Shaun Of The Dead. It has to be, right?

Surprise, surprise; this film is as far removed from being a British comedy as one can imagine. Instead, Run Fatboy Run is a displaced American comedy set across the pond, almost as if by accident, focusing on physical comedy gags, gross-out sequences and bumbling attempts by its protagonist to win the affections of his love interest, with no question whatsoever as to the outcome by the time the credits roll. As these things are counted, there is nothing “bad” about Run Fatboy Run, only how embarrassingly safe and uninspired it feels.

Cushy and happy-go-lucky in its charms, the jokes center around being out of shape and bodily fluids gushing out of gigantic tennis ball-sized blisters on feet. It is the kind of film where logic bends at right angles behind the whims of romantic pap, where the successful completion of a marathon will win you back the affection of a pregnant woman you left at the altar. In real life, if you showed up at the doorstep of the woman you left at the altar while pregnant in shorty shorts, she would take a shotgun to you. This is the kind of logic that spews forth dozens of mediocre comedies from the Powerbooks of jaded Hollywood hacks, desperate to make a quick buck and get drunk to wash the shame away of their soulless careers with shot after shot of Jägermeister. Okay, okay, I kid of course. Hollywood hacks would never drink Jägermeister.

Pegg makes an effectively charming romantic lead, quirky enough to be the oddball, but charming enough to be believable, and if he is not careful, he might just find him thrust into this role in Hollywood permanently. The horror! Thandie Newton could read the telephone book and nobody would notice, because of how unfairly pretty she is. Dylan Moran (Shaun of the Dead) plays Pegg’s sidekick yet again, and gives a smashing performance, but the real surprise is Hank Azaria. The guy makes a shockingly effective villain, way more than one would ever expect. And the dude is impressively buff. Like, shockingly more massive and muscular than you would ever expect Hank freaking Azaria to ever be. Who knew?

When all is said and done, an amusing, charming, and dare I say it, quite sweet film, but considering the comedic talent driving it forward, viewers should just plain expect more. Run Fatboy Run is painfully and embarrassingly unoriginal, failing to elevate beyond the hundreds of other middle-road romantic comedies on the market. In short, this is a romantic comedy that you don’t need to actually see to know everything about it you need to know—who the good guys are, who the bad guys are, who gets the girl, etc. Happy times for all and not a flesh-eating zombie in sight when you desperately need it.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

For all its predictable hokum and mediocre comedic styling, the one person Run Fatboy Run will probably benefit the most is, ironically enough, the guy you never see: David Schwimmer (Friends), the man behind the camera. This, his directorial debut, might actually land him a career out of this directing these kinds of silly comedies. For all the predictability and sitcom-style humor of Run Fatboy Run, Schwimmer admittedly has a talent for directing this kind of low-calorie fare.

Closing Statement

Run Fatboy Run will make a perfectly serviceable date movie and mostly please audiences who come in sight unseen with low expectations. But for those clamoring to the cinemas to see another atypical British-style Pegg comedy, consider yourself warned: you will come away sore, stinging, and unfulfilled. It will take multiple marathon viewings of Spaced to wash away the taste.

The Verdict
6/10

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