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