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Published on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 - 9:16am |
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Bruno Screams RUN, FATBOY, RUN!!
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Bruno sent in this review of RUN, FATBOY, RUN. This is directed by David Schwimmer (yep, that David Schwimmer) and stars Hank Azaria and Simon Pegg. The movie releases in late October, I believe.
Bruno really liked this movie...so much so he actually reveals his identity to convince you he'snot a plant! This may well be an AICN first.
Here's Bruno...
I wrote a couple of reviews for AICN many years ago, and haven't in the meantime seen any advance screenings of movies ... Until last night, when I was given free tickets to an industry screening of Simon Pegg's and David Schwimmer's new film Run, Fatboy, Run. I took along a fellow-cynic - we're both Altman-loving, Bergman-watching, old-movies-are-better-than-new-ones people, and she dislikes British films in general, so we had low expectations, especially as anything Simon Pegg does seems to be hyped up for months beforehand by his legions of fans over here. It had a lot of the hallmarks of being pretty lazy, run-of-the mill, etc. But at least it was free.
Yet every time I expect Simon Pegg to start being lazy, he impresses me more. This film has the structure of a very traditional loser-tries-to-get-girl back movie, and some signs show through of the rather uninspired screenplay which Mr Pegg gave the once-over. Against my expectations, though, I found myself giggling (and quite often laughing out loud)throughout the movie, not only from the good lines, and the terrific chemistry between Pegg and Dylan Moran (my hero), but from the sheer sense of fun that the movie exudes. It has an irresistable comic energy and (it grates on me to even use phrases like this) left me feeling exactly the sort of feel-good shine afterwards that almost all other comedies fail to produce.
The reason it works so well is almost exclusively down to Pegg's central performance: here, at last, we have a movie actor who is credible as a loser. It is exactly because he plays the scenes of pain, frustration, unhappiness and embarrassment so well (and his ability with those go all the way back to his very first scene in Spaced) that you naturally root for him. He also does a lot of physical comedy without it being annoying (some feat) has an incredibly expressive comic's face - it isn't quite as rubbery as Rowan Atkinson's, but then, unlike Atkinson, Pegg comes across as a real human being. There were also moments (when I caught myself watching closely) of acting so subtle that you wouldn't expect or necessarily notice them in a comedy, and I think he will at some point be very good in a serious drama. Perhaps very soon. I'm certainly looking forward to next year's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which sounds like it could be a good mix of both.
If there are down points, they aren't many. Thandie Newton has always been a nothingy screen presence to me, and seems unaware that she's in a comedy (although apparently she's supposed to be good in Besieged, I think); Hank Azaria continues a run of relatively straight-man roles when you know from his voice work that he can be so funny; and David Schwimmer's sense of cinema is almost totally absent. But it doesn't matter - pat as it might sound, I haven't been so pleasantly surprised by a movie for years.
And if all this sounds too positive, I'd hate people to think I was a plant. So here you go: my name's Bruno Vincent and I work for a publishers in London. So there.
Thanks
Bruno
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Reader Talkback
Foist by MetiphisLabs | Sep 5th, 2007 09:25:20 AM | OK. I'm running...stop yelling
at me. by commiepinko | Sep 5th, 2007 09:27:57 AM | third... by pissedgodzilla | Sep 5th, 2007 09:28:53 AM | If a reviewer has to convince
us that he isn't a plant by DerLanghaarige | Sep 5th, 2007 09:29:36 AM | "David Schwimmer's sense of
cinema is totally absent" by Pound Sand | Sep 5th, 2007 09:31:57 AM | Pegg is god by MetiphisLabs | Sep 5th, 2007 09:33:04 AM | He MUST be an imposter by Leopold Scotch | Sep 5th, 2007 09:33:45 AM | But seriously: Stop
apologizing for your reviews! by DerLanghaarige | Sep 5th, 2007 09:34:13 AM | They gotta apologize for their
reviews. by beastie | Sep 5th, 2007 09:39:57 AM | "The Good Night" by 24200124 | Sep 5th, 2007 09:57:00 AM | This sounds like shite by Sepulchrave | Sep 5th, 2007 10:08:21 AM | Stop bashing Thandie Newton!!! by tonagan | Sep 5th, 2007 10:30:40 AM | tonagan by Chilli815 | Sep 5th, 2007 10:49:29 AM | Schwimmer by Biafras Throw Pillow | Sep 5th, 2007 11:02:35 AM | "my name's Bruno Vincent and I
work .. in London" by newc0253 | Sep 5th, 2007 11:12:35 AM | I thought Bruno meant Bruce
Willis was in this by Osmosis Jones | Sep 5th, 2007 11:21:52 AM | But will the Fatboy bump
chests with another fatboy? by finky089 | Sep 5th, 2007 11:46:13 AM | Thandie Newton can act, she
just chooses not to!!! by tonagan | Sep 5th, 2007 12:15:48 PM | Trailer and Trailer 2 by LordAcoustic | Sep 5th, 2007 12:36:14 PM | Fuck Off, Simon Pegg, Fuck
Off! by alucardvsdracula | Sep 5th, 2007 12:59:20 PM | Michael Ian Black wrote this by rev_skarekroe | Sep 5th, 2007 01:44:16 PM | I've a sailors pegg. by abner pepper | Sep 5th, 2007 02:15:25 PM | Bruno Vincent...you're fired! by Bobo_Vision | Sep 5th, 2007 02:39:50 PM | "The Big Nothing" was a great
suprise. by eggbeater | Sep 5th, 2007 03:48:17 PM | Bruno: if it looks like a
duck, sounds like a duck, by salamimansam | Sep 5th, 2007 04:14:35 PM | Who Plays the Fat Boy? by TheBladehelm | Sep 5th, 2007 04:30:53 PM | There is a pic I've seen that
has Pegg by skimn | Sep 5th, 2007 05:05:54 PM | David Schwimmer... by The Central Scrutinizer | Sep 5th, 2007 05:40:32 PM | David Schwimmer.... by D o o d | Sep 5th, 2007 05:44:05 PM | I think that Bruno Vincent... by The Central Scrutinizer | Sep 5th, 2007 05:49:19 PM | D O O D by abner pepper | Sep 5th, 2007 06:04:56 PM | Dylan Moran, marry me. by s00p3rm4n | Sep 5th, 2007 07:14:33 PM | i've lived in london all my
life by Mr_X | Sep 5th, 2007 07:27:07 PM | that other movie with
schwimmer and pegg by compn | Sep 5th, 2007 10:07:44 PM | Simon Pegg, lazy? by AlwaysThere | Sep 6th, 2007 12:58:33 AM | Abner Pepper by D o o d | Sep 6th, 2007 02:12:33 AM | Google is your friend. by EstrellaDeVille | Sep 6th, 2007 06:28:27 AM | I like Simon Pegg... by Rumpel Tumskin | Sep 6th, 2007 07:43:10 AM | Just Got Back From a Preview by dogstar69 | Sep 6th, 2007 03:37:17 PM |
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