RUN, FATBOY, RUN

Run, Fatboy, Run ever since I saw it's trailer play alongside the awesome Hot Fuzzearlier this year but at the same time I've also been extremely cautious. Intrigued because of Simon Pegg's involvement but cautious because he's leading the movie solo without Edgar Wright feeding him lines and directing him behind the camera. The heavy American presence also felt odd for what was very much a British rom-com and after hating writer Michael Ian Black's pointless comedy The Wedding Daze earlier in the year (which apparently didn't play any better known as The Pleasure of Your Company in the States) and from a director whose only real experience was helming episodes of Friends and Joey (the kind of environment where it's impossible to have any artistic training), I had visions of a disaster here. Out of the three guys behind this movie, Pegg/Schwimmer/Black, it's unfortunately Black's work which is the most prominent and once again his formulaic script is a huge snooze fest. Every single cliche you have ever seen about a guy who tries to win back his former girl in a rom-com is utilised here, with more cheap slapstick and pop record emotion than I could stomach in a movie just over an hour and a half long. The movie follows Dennis (Simon Pegg), a nervous guy on his wedding day, about to tie the knot to his pregnant wife Libby (Thandie Newton) when he makes a run for it and leaves her at the altar. Fast forward five years and Pegg is a bit of a loser, not fully knowing how to connect with his son and being weeks behind his rent payments on his small flat as his job as a security guard at a women's clothes shop doesn't really earn him the money he needs. When he finds out Libby has shacked up with the 'perfect' boyfriend Whit, who is a successful American guy who has done well from himself in finance (Hank Azaria), Pegg's out of shape physique and rather selfish attitude can't match up to Whit's good looks, kindness and charm. When he finds out that Whit runs marathons and taunts Dennis that he couldn't do such a thing, Dennis decides to run a 26 mile event in an attempt to win back the respect of Lizzy and to actually accomplish something in his 'nearly man' life. You see Pegg make a prat of himself, you see him self reflect on what could have been, you see him attempt something impossible to win her back and man, by the end of it I was begging for the movie to keep up with me. Run, Fatboy, Run is like that slow fat kid from school, it's going nowhere fast. As I should have guessed with a script from Black, the movie always goes for the cheap laugh. The kind of one's where a door would fall down on someones head, or a 'cock' insult would be given to try and win back the audience who have started to wonder what their plans are when they get home. The American writer/director combination along with Pegg's very British humour is an odd mix and you never really feel like this movie works, at least not in this country. I have a feeling it might play better with U.S. audiences than it does over here because our comedies are never as sickly sentimental as this. Simon Pegg does his most to keep it interesting but it's painful to watch him be less funny than when he's not around his usual crew. The title role to me feels like it should belong to an Adam Sandler or a Ben Stiller (though the former rather than the later) and be set in America. I mean this movie is essentially about making our lead actor look as stupid as possible as he tries to win back his former girl, but it's that added bit of slapstick to go along with the movie's sentimentality that ruins the it for me. Pegg is better than the very ordinary material he is given to work with here. David Schwimmer's directorial debut is shaky and juvenile and it's haphazardly put together, filled with drab colours and a really sluggish feel. The supporting cast are uninteresting (including a tiresome role from the often funny Dylan Moran) and the cameo's are ridiculous, annoying and without purpose.Run, Fatboy, Run feels like Pegg performing material that should have never been his, and Schwimmer handling a movie that should have been shot in his native country. Cheap gags and cheap thrills is nowhere near enough to keep me interested in this movie.

rating: 2