“Run, Fat Boy, Run”…away from this movie

First off I could only sit through half of the movie (and I never walk out), so to be fair this will only be half a review.

Run Fatboy Run is about nothing. It does though involve some characters that talk to each other and that do things, all of which are very uninteresting and unfunny. Did it matter to me how the movie ended when nothing mattered to me while I was watching it? Simple answer, no.

Simon Pegg gets the incredibly difficult job of trying to get us to care for a guy that’s really not likeable at all, and people claimed Daniel Plainview was difficult to like and that Anton Chigurh had no character arc. No, this is an unlikeable character with no arc. For those that thought either of the above, watch this movie and you’ll see a true example of this type of character. I don’t even want to look up the names of the writers as it’s just not worth it. But I have and am disappointed to say it is Simon Pegg ad Michael Ian Black, both actors I respect as comedians.

Like Day Lewis, Pegg is a sport and embraces all of the qualities of this loser, and maybe that’s the first misake.

Actually the first mistake was getting David Schwimmer to direct this. I watched some of the television show Friends (which I didn’t like very much) and he wasn’t very funny. Run, Fat Boy, Run plays like a half baked sitcom trying desperately to take itself too seriously. My friend told me afterwards he was waiting for a laugh track to let us know we should be laughing.

Schwimmer uses every sitcom device he can throw at us, but the film goes for a pretencious washed out feel with random camera angles that are supposed to enhance something, though I don’t care what…as if Schwimmer thought he was directing something far more imporant.

Everything is strained here. (Look at the synopsis left on rottentomatoes.com, even that is overbaked and uninteresting.) You’re supposed to feel that everything “Mr. Mopey I deserve a second chance” is going through is unfair…but it’s not. And then there’s something that happends half way through the film about racing in a marathon? But he can’t join because you need to qualify three months earlier? Mind you halfway into the film a story finally st

Tags: Comedy, David Schwimmer, Film, Hank Azaria, Movie Reviews, Run Fat Boy Run, Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton