I laughed.
I cried.
I saw “Run Fatboy Run”
That pretty much sums it up.
I would see it again too.
Just to laugh and cry some more.
Now I know that at this point people think I pretty much like everything. But that is not true.
Things I don’t like include (but are not limited to):
-People who think they’re funny but are not (people who know they’re not funny are a-ok with me)
-Movies that try to be everything to everyone: drama, comedy, social commentary etc.
-Shitty music
-Crappy stereotyping
-Bad chemistry between actors
-David Schwimmer
Things I really do like:
-Funny things
-Music Montages
-Overcoming difficulty through music montages
-Any underdog story/sports movie that requires complete suspension of disbelief (these are the fairytales for adults)
-Simon Pegg
-Michael Ian Black.
Now, “Run Fatboy Run” is kind of like a ven diagram of my likes and dislikes because it does have some crappy stereotyping in it, but it is genuinely funny, the music while effective is a smidge predictable, and while Michael Ian Black wrote it (see Cale talk to him about it here) , somehow someone allowed David Schwimmer to direct it.
And yet….It all comes out good though.
The story does take a little bit to revv up (Simon Pegg leaves a very pretty, very pregnant Thandie Newton at the altar, then spends 5 years trying to win her back (while being a darlingly imperfect father to their adorable son), only going into first gear with it after she starts dating the always reliably suave yet slimy Hank Azaria. Who runs marathons. For charity. And exercises. A lot. So, Simon decides to also run a marathon to prove he is a changed man. A man that pulls through).
Once you swallow that, its all smooth sailing from there, Robert Moran as his sidekick is pure laconic genius, there’s music montages and spatula beatings a go go, and a blister busting scene that should really be taught in film school as a fine example of making something both riveting and disgusting and touching and funny as hell simultaneously.
This is the second most disgusting liquid I’ve ever had in my eye!
There is something for everyone: sadness, joy, broken hearts, lost dreams, bad decisions that will haunt you forever, but the joy of it all is that it never ever forgets that all those things can be funny as funny can be too.
Go.
And if you don’t cry at the end (I’m not giving out any spoilers here) you may not be human.
You may be Hank Azaria.
It never bodes well when a romantic comedy’s most memorable moment is also its most disgusting. The blister joke made me flinch in horror.
April 3, 2008 at 10:29 ammaybe d. schwimmer’s thing is directing. i’m not defending him, cuz i think he blows as an actor; just sayin’.
i don’t get the hank azaria not being human thing.
April 3, 2008 at 10:42 amI hate to be That Guy, but his sidekick was played by Dylan, not Robert, Moran. He was also on a fantastic BBC sitcom called “Black Books” with fellow Pegg alum Bill Bailey, who was in “Hot Fuzz” and Pegg’s BBC show “Spaced.” This has been the nerd news
April 4, 2008 at 9:33 amIts ok.
I should really fact check.
Especially when it comes to names of awesome people.
Black Books is one of my favorite shows.
April 4, 2008 at 10:14 am
I caught the screening of this at e-street and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Honestly, if you didnt know that David Schwimmer directed it, you’d be more into it. That’s how i felt until I saw the credits too
April 3, 2008 at 9:45 am