Cool News
Capone Runs Laps Around RUN FATBOY RUN and Bets Against 21!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
Wait a minute... did I actually manage to post reviews of something before Capone did? Holy crap! I hereby declare a national holiday, and while I celebrate and set up all the fireworks in the backyard, here’s Capone on RUN FATBOY RUN:
Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
There's a lot of pressure on director David Schwimmer regarding his first crack at feature film directing. Aside from the normal first-timer anxiety, he has to cope with the fact that a great many fans of his star, Simon Pegg, will be coming to see RUN FATBOY RUN to see if Pegg can be as funny out of his comfort zone, writing with and acting for Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD; HOT FUZZ) and co-starring with Nick Frost. Certainly Pegg has acted in films by other directors before this one, but none have been quite this high profile. I don't think it's possible for Pegg not to be funny, but based on this film, it's clear that Pegg depends a great deal on his team to make it look just little more natural. It also helps that Pegg is surrounded by a team of other funny folk in his work with Wright.
In the London-set RUN FATBOY RUN, Pegg plays Dennis, a variation of the slacker, man-child persona that Pegg does so well. But he takes his lack of responsible behavior and immaturity to a new level at the beginning of the film when he leaves his pregnant bride-to-be, Libby (Thandie Newton), at the altar out of sheer fear. Five year later, not surprisingly, Libby and Dennis aren't together any longer, but they jointly take care of their sweet son, Jake. Libby is currently dating an American named Jack (Hank Azaria), the quintessential Mr. Right, who asks Libby to marry him at a massive dinner party. Dennis panics and immediately sets forth to prove to Libby that he can be just as responsible and successful as Jack by entering the London Marathon along with Jack. Considering that Dennis smokes, is out of shape and can barely run to the corner without getting winded, this may be a challenge.
To find the best moments RUN FATBOY RUN, you have to look past the main storyline. The romantic-comedy aspects of the film are pretty routine, and while I'll never get tired of looking at the lovely Thandie Newton, the screenplay (by Michael Ian Black and tweaked by Pegg) doesn't give her much more to do than be torn between these two men who adore her. The attempts to demonize Jack later in the film feel forced, as if the script wasn't sure who we'd be rooting for as the story wrapped up. What I did like were Pegg's interactions with some of the supporting players, especially Dylan Moran (also in SHAUN) as Dennis's best friend Gordon. When these two are on screen together, things just get funny. There's a whole subplot involving Gordon's poker games that have a terrific crew of lesser-known but great actors. I also enjoyed watching Dennis interact with his landlord Mr. G (Harish Patel) and his beautiful daughter (India de Beaufort) and their constant threats to toss him out for being late with his rent. Later Mr. G becomes Dennis's trainer, which proves fruitless.
The film's final act focuses on the marathon itself, which, I'll admit, didn't play out like I thought it would, but that doesn't necessarily mean I like the way the sequence unfolds. The bigger problem is that Azaria isn't particularly good in this movie. I'll watch Hank Azaria in pretty much anything, but something about his performance here didn't jell. Maybe it's because he's given so few opportunities to play to his comic strengths; he's essentially just a dartboard at which Pegg tosses his zingers. That said, there are a couple of choice scenes with Azaria, including one showing in the trailers set in a men's locker room. But by the end of the film, I felt like the entire production just runs out of steam and dives head first into an ocean of cliché and sentimental nonsense. For better or worse, Pegg has set the bar higher than this film can reach. And while I'm all in favor of him spreading his wings beyond his films with Wright and Frost, I know he can find better material than RUN FATBOY RUN, which has a few choice comedy moments but is often disappointing.I’m actually growing more irritated by this next film with each passing day as I see people give it a pass for the flimsiest of reasons. It’s a failure as a true story, overly familiar as entertainment, and that smarmy Hollywood-as-usual racism really does bother the shit out of me. Overall, this is a hard pill to swallow, and it looks like Capone choked on it, too:
Hey folks, Capone in Chicago here.
Who knew math geeks could be so sexy? It's almost impossible to believe that a math professor (Kevin Spacey) could find a handful of really good-looking MIT students who are all geniuses with numbers to run a card-counting blackjack scam in Vegas. It's so impossible, in fact, that I never really bought into it. Loosely based on a true story, 21 centers on one of these students, Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess from ACROSS THE UNIVERSE and THE OTHER BOELYN GIRL), who is not rich enough to afford his continued education at Harvard and is fairly easily seduced by Spacey's Professor Rosa and a fellow student, Jill (Kate Bosworth). My first problem with 21 is that I'm not a fan of Sturgess. I find him a bit soulless as an actor, and I've pretty much loathed every film he's been in. Even the way he wears his hair bugs me. He's like a guy that's been kicked out of a band, any band. I'm sure at some point down the road I'll see him in something and "get" what his appeal is, but that day isn't today. He seems more concerned with how he looks in a suit than his performance.
Having gotten that off my chest, I will say that 21 is skillfully directed and offers a few genuine moments of intrigue and tension. I actually liked watching the team (which also includes DISTURBIA's Aaron Yoo, CLOVERFIELD's Liza Lapira and EUROTRIP's Jacob Pitts) learn their card-counting technique and signals to inform each other when a table was cold or hot. Laurence Fishburne plays Cole Williams, a casino security agent who still relies on watching players to see if they're cheating rather than rely on facial recognition software to identify known con artists. As he closely observes the team and narrows his focus on Ben, the film gains some momentum and excitement. The real disappointment for me here was Spacey, who is operating at full turbo speed the entire time. His performance is so big and broad and loud that I almost begged the projectionist to turn down the volume. Maybe working with his SUPERMAN RETURNS co-star Bosworth made him think he was still playing Lex Luthor. Who knows?
I can't argue that 21 is a slick, quick, beautifully filmed offering. And I'll admit, when I went to Vegas a couple weeks after seeing it, I was curious whether I could pull off something of that magnitude (my game is blackjack as well, which makes the temptation even greater). Would the pressure make me crack? Could I keep the counts straight and accurate? Would I look as sharp as Jim Sturgess in a suit and with a mop-top haircut? I don't think I can quite recommend 21, but there are things here to latch onto and carry you through to the end without being too bored or annoyed. But a couple hours after seeing and writing about it, I've already stopped thinking about it, which is probably the most telling sign of all.
Capone
-
+ Expand All
-
and agreed on all counts capone
-
I remember they did that with the LOTR films as well.
-
If you're not sick of SW yet and frankly who is?
-
It's the 'Nike River Run', a totally different event. They should have used the marathon, really, as it's famous worldwide, but I expect $$$$$$ were offered by Nike.
-
Saddens me to hear Spacey is ruining it for the rest of us! His character IS supposed to be an arsehole though...
This story has already been ripped off many times before - mostly by TV shows like Numbers and Las Vegas (who'dathunkit?) - but from memory I don't think the students started off pretty, they learned how to become Masters of Disguise (my god it's Adolf Hitler! sorry that line from Killer Tomatoes always comes to mind whenever I hear Master of Disguise) and that meant LEARNING how to look and ACT like... you know... beautiful people...
Least that's the way I heard the story - for all I know they started off pretty and had to learn how to get ugly or just were always pretty or I dunno...?? -
As I was watching 21, I thought of this bon mot: "Spacey's Micky Rosa is a thousand times more masturbatory than Lester Burnham."
-
That movie was doomed from the start, Pegg and/or Schwimmer aside. Michael Ian Black is the most obnoxious, unfunny member of the obnoxious, only occasionally funny Stella. I'll never understand his appeal.
-
From what I heard, there were more Asian students in the real life story, and that many passed themselves off as the typical vacationing gambler.
-
There was a 2004 Canadian film called "The Last Casino" about a professor that trains three math genius students to card count and make money. Sound familiar?
That and "21" may or may not be based on the same book. -
Rent Fat Boy Run! and it was as expected - Fun but not that funny. Pegg seems to be on auto pilot in an american version of what a brit comedy would/should be. Shots of the gurkin building and tower bridge over emphasise the whole London thing and it does indeed run into Smaltz as I expected in the end although that's not the director or actors fault rather the only way the set-up could go I guess. It was fine for a nights rental but nothing to get excited about like Spaced or SHaun or Fuzz.21 I will most definateley avoid though as it looks like your typical hollywoodised glam job on a book I read a while ago which was very good casting non Asians in favour of slick Spacey, Bosworth and Sturgess is insulting and I hear it's not even that good anyway - pass.
-
i'm going to see it monday
-
I'm too lazy to go to IMDB so I'd rather just post my half-baked opinion here: didn't David Schwimmer write and direct a feature film way back in 1995?
-
yeah I hadn't heard the Asian part but I believe they went for various gambler stereotypes, different ones at different times...
-
back it up? explain yourself!
-
Run Fatboy Run is a different animal all together. It definately shows how important Edgar Wright is in the Pegg/Wright relationship. But in comparison to almost every rom-com out there this is really really good.
Also seeing the role choices that Pegg is making lately is really making me nervous, he does know that he's aloud to not accept a role. -
Nono, I'm not blaming you despite our difference of opinion on that movie. (Such as why bother seeing a movie about hippies if you despise them deep within your soul.) It just seems to keep resurfacing.
-
sory to not talk about david schwimmer for a minute (it's hard, i know) but 21 sucked ass! are you kidding? this movie is for 15 year olds who have never seen a casino movie and have never heard of tarantino or john woo. 21 was fucking beat for beat predictable and if every college student turned douche bag didn't walk in slow motion every time he went anywhere, the movie may not have felt 4 hours long.
oh, back to david schwimmer, finally. there was a trailer for "made of honor" which should be called "that one friends episode, the movie". will it EVER be may? -
admit to liking Across the Universe? what the hell?!?
can i buy drugs from you? -
Shit, HANK was the only thing worth watching about Godzilla. Also, I think Capone is wrong about how the film demonized Jack.(SPOILERS! NOT ABOUT THE END, BUT ABOUT CERTAIN SCENES IN THE FILM.) It wasn't a last minute thing, thrown together in a slipshod way in order to make Jack seem like a 'bad guy' and wrong for Libby. It starts almost from the beginning of his introduction in small, almost imperceptible ways. When Jack makes a point of not only not inviting Dennis to LOTR, but doing so and then making sure the point was driven home in front of Dennis and his son was the first sign of Jack's douchebaggery. Jack's exclusion of Jake to Libby's birthday party (even though she thought Jake was coming up until the last second) was certainly another. They were slowly building up Jack's perception that the only reason he was nice to Jake was to get to Libby, but he didn't really give a shit about the boy other than that. And how Jack proposed to Libby in a very selfish way was certainly a third. Hiding a ring in a gift of the running shoes when Libby didn't run at all was a statement that showed that Jack was a selfish prick.
-
Was I watching a different movie , I thought Azaria's character was named Whit?
-
was about Hulk pre-weight watchers. Make Hulk mad if it was. Hulk Smash! btw Hulk hear good things about this movie. Hulk gives this 2.5 smashes.
-
Loved? No. It's a little too slight at times for that, but I will never knock a movie for ambition, successful or not. Really, I think it comes down to whether or not you like musicals from the 70s.
-
Hank Azaria's name in Run Fatboy Run being Whit... not Jack.
Liked it alot, thought Gordon was hilarious -
didn't mean to imply Asian is a gambler stereotype, if that's what you got from that - we were discussing what we knew about the TRUE STORY this film (21) is based on - which admittedly seems to amount to very little...
All I was saying was that I didn't think the actual MIT students that did this were necessarily pretty but they dressed up and passed themselves off as "High Rollers" - and apparently got a lot of "comp"
stuff form the casinos for their efforts.
And I went on to say I'm not sure they ALWAYS went for the high roller disguise - I think mixing it up is how they managed to stay ahead of the house for so long.
From what I understand, until these guys all card counters worked solo, but their teacher came up with the idea of combining psychology with maths - signalling each other and thus avoiding having your betting patterns be predictable and giving yourself away - and when you know you need to bet big, you send in the High Rollers for the evening...
As I said, I hadn't heard how many of these students were Asian - just that they were Incognito! -
This has said, there is pair of the scenes of the choice with Azaria, including one showing in trailer installed in male room of the locker. But by the end of film, I have felt like integer production right before feel the defect a pair and heads of the fissions first in seagoing cliche and sentimental nonsense.
Even way he carries their own hair bug ya. He similar lad, which - be beaten from band, any bands. I sure of a certain point downwards road I shall see him in than-that and "get" what his appeal -, but that day - not today.
___
buy movies -
http://tinyurl.com/3be4vw
But by the end of film, I have felt like integer production right before feel the defect a pair and heads of the fissions first in seagoing cliche and sentimental nonsense. Even way he carries their own hair bug ya. He similar lad, which - be beaten from band, any bands now too. -
took like a 90% cut from the students... How much does that suck????
-
Seagoing? Integer? Hair bug?
-
Seems like the review is a bit harsh.
While I agree its story is fairly run of the mill romantic comedy fare...it's still pretty damned funny.
You said that when Moran and Pegg are on screen "things just get funny."
That sir, is a complete understatement. Dylan Moran is just funny anytime he's onscreen. His epilogue is just great...though we see his ass twice too many times for me.
I'm not a fan of romantic comedy at all...at all! But I have a wife and anyone with a wife or girlfriend will tell you, sometimes you gotta watch those things.
I wish they could all be this funny. -
sure about 21. I mean if the kid's that smart at math, can't he just get a scholarship? it took me half a second after the premise was delivered in the trailer to see that hole. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the movie.
-
this was presented to the kids as a PROBLEM to solve - any geek, no matter what kind, maths or other - will deprive himself of food, sleep, whatever, until the problem they are working on has been solved. I guess it's that ol' psychology at work again, huh?
And yeah Spacey's character was a real jerk - hopefully that will come out in the movie -
...but has a 1 in 75 chance.
-
The Asian guy in this movie was the same one in Disturbia I believe. And all he does in both movies is wear a fucked up hairdo and smile in every frame. He also takes pictures a lot of the main character getting in on with the hot chick, but never seems to want one of his own. And he seems perfectly content with it.
-
not to nit pick, but it just looks so wrong I had to say something.
-
...it's spelled "spelled," not "spelt."
-
I liked the cast but this one was pretty predictable and is only surprising if you've never seen a movie, ever. Plus we've seen this stuff done much better. As for the whole race change, in the book almost everyone was Asia and Kevin Spacey's character was middle-eastern. And their ethnicity was part of their strategy, in fact one character had such an ambiguous ethnicity he delighted in switching from one to the other. Too bad they couldn't have put someone like that in the script because in the book that guy was a cut-up. A big plus for me in this one: Kate Bosworth looked like she started eating again. She hasn't looked that good in years and that's a sad thing to say about somoene in their 20's.
-
In the book, the students were chosen for two reasons: One was math ability (though the techniques for card counting don't seem that tough), and the other was to fit into a "look". Primarily, most of the students were Asian and Middle Eastern BECAUSE the pit bosses were known to be dimissive of even the possibility of non-white IBM looking card counters. The book specifically mentioned one card counter who made a point of dressing like a pimp because a black pimp could not possibility have the brains to count cards (and he worked without a team). This is one of the things I find lacking in the film. These guys did not find just a means to anticipate the cards that would be dealt, they played to the casinos blindspot, prejudice. Even the Kate Bostworth character who was white, was considered too pretty to be that smart and dressed like a high class escort just to enhance the myth.
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 273 total posts 271 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 92 total posts 92 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 160 total posts 69 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 151 total posts 63 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 67 total posts 59 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 60 total posts 57 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 484 total posts 49 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 69 total posts 42 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 120 total posts 32 posts
- SPACE 2099!! -- 183 total posts 24 posts