This one's a little less positive than the review linked above. Here's Grasshopper to tell us more...
“Cheers” from Mansfield, UK. I haven’t written in a while (you posted my reviews for The Host and Perfume way back when) and I thought I’d forward you a review of a comedy this time around. I was surprised to see a preview of Run, Fatboy, Run scheduled at the local Odeon today in my small town, and I just couldn’t pass it up, me being more than Pegg-giddy after Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the fantastic TV series, Spaced. I also noticed North America won’t be seeing this one until late October for some reason.
We’ve seen quite a bit of the Brits doing funny things with Americans over the last few years – Notting Hill, Love, Actually, and The Holiday, easily spring to mind – and this movie is taking its fair stab at illuminating that strange, complex relationship. Sadly though, it falls short of shedding any new light on it. In fact, I’d say, the movie gives us very little of anything new. What we have is the story of a slacker (Pegg) who ran off from his pregnant fiancé (Thandie Newton) mere minutes from tying the knot, and who continues his slackerish ways years later, as a father and as a man faced with the problem of someone else (Hank Azaria) moving in on his territory. His challenger just happens to be hooked on running, and our slacker digs himself into the grandest figurative hole he can by promising that he will run a marathon alongside his ex-fiance’s new suitor. Squishily, it’s not the prospect of a marathon everyone’s laughing at, but the prospect of our hero, Dennis, finishing something, anything.
What is fresh in the film is predictably provided by the supporting cast. Lots of funny stuff from Irish comedian, Dylan Moran, who practically steals the show alongside Indian-Brit Harish Patel. They play Pegg’s marathon “trainers”, and get to deliver most of the good lines in the movie. Pegg, unfortunately, seems a bit more of the ham in this movie. His bigger laughs are gotten from physical comedy this time around, which is not to say his cool wit and awkward-everyman schtick aren’t present, because they are. Just not as much. He did help re-write the screenplay after all, according to the end credits and director David Schwimmer on a recent talkshow interview I caught last week. Yes, that Schwimmer.
I’m not going to say too much about what Schwimmer has done here, mainly because I’m not sure how to evaluate him with this effort. Besides Friends, The Pall Bearer bored me, and I thought he was tremendously lucky to work alongside Chris Cooper in Breast Men. Here though, he’s directing. I looked for something noteworthy, and found nothing. This fits with the definition of mediocrity, doesn’t it? I know not what else to say on the matter. Although I would like to know how he got the gig. What were the bigwigs hoping for? I’m sure the talkbacks on this topic will be interesting.
Apart from what I’ve mentioned already about the comedy side of things, the movie seemed to rely too much on a few kids and a couple old coggers letting the curse words fly. Kids swearing is a bit funny still, but little old ladies? The only one who did it right was Betty White in Lake Pacid. Honestly.
I do want to say something about Hank Azaria though. I want to say that I wasn’t expecting much from the guy in this role, what with his voice work on The Simpsons being his most recognized. But he surprised me here. He suited his character perfectly. He played the interloping boyfriend in a great, understated, controlled kind of way, and knocked it out of the park. Whereas such villains start off as smarmy and twisted in these kinds of comedies, Azaria’s character came across as very likeable in the beginning. He was charming and dare I say, attractive, in a lot of ways. And he doesn’t let the proverbial cat out of the bag – his bit of nastiness – all at once. He reveals it bit by bit. A little more of his hidden, less shiny dimensions begin to show the more the threat increases of losing to Dennis, his unlikely rival, in the end. Considering Pegg is hamming it up more than he ever has, it’s apparent Azaria has constructed an effective antagonist that deserves more recognition than I think will go noticed. A very smart move on Azaria’s part, taking this role. I’m thinking I want to see more of this guy in the future.
I guess, all in all, a pretty mediocre experience at the cinema. A few good laughs here and there, but nothing tremendously funny to report. I do think the Brits are to be thanked for what is funny in this film though. It doesn’t surprise me that they are marketing it here as a British comedy. Of course it doesn’t help that the American contingent in this movie isn’t funny at all. Azaria has his moments, but… The American contribution seems all too serious and saccharine. I get that there had to be a lesson after all the silliness, but… I guess some people will call that part the “heart” of the movie. And I guess that’s very hard to argue against. It’s practically family fare after all. The heart is necessary, but…
I guess the thing about this movie is the uncomfortable dual personality it seems to own. It comes off as being a half-British, half-American hybrid, rather than the funny amalgamation it was trying so hard to be. People are going to see this movie, hoping for some big laughs. They’ll get a few, but they’ll hardly leave satiated. They’ll find they’ve ingested a little too much of the sweet stuff.
nd I am willing to bet that a whole load of people in the U.S. will stay behind during the end credits. They’re going to want to know the names of the people who did make them laugh.
This is Grasshopper. Boing.
