Underdog tale wastes a talented cast
By Phil Villarreal
Pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.27.2008
Where's Lola when you need her?
The comedy "Run Fatboy Run," its title a takeoff on the 1998 German action flick "Run Lola Run," makes you want to scamper out of the building. The directorial debut of "Friends" alum David Schwimmer squanders its talented lead actor, Simon Pegg ("Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz"), in a ludicrous, rarely funny underdog tale.
Pegg usually plays funny losers, but this time he branches out by playing an unfunny loser — Dennis (Pegg), who strands his pregnant girlfriend, Libby (Thandie Newton), at the altar in the prologue.
Five years later, Dennis decides running from his wedding was a mistake. Now he's a struggling security guard, out of shape and behind on his rent. He's a weekend dad, and a poor one at that, failing to secure tickets to the musical "The Lord of the Rings" for his Tolkien-obsessed son, Jake (Matthew Fenton).
Dennis looks even worse compared to Libby's wealthy, smooth new beau, Whit (Hank Azaria), who takes spinning classes and runs marathons.
So Dennis does the natural thing (for an idiotic movie). He decides to compete against Whit in a marathon that's three weeks away — in one master stroke winning the love of Libby and the respect of his son while putting the pompous Whit in his place.
For an unfit lout to get into marathon shape, many a training montage is required. So Dennis dons the tightest short-shorts he can find and begins sweating through a series of unflattering workout shirts, sure that his accomplishment will win back the family of his dreams.
With the ludicrous stakes in place, Schwimmer's story is in position to be a satire of solve-everything-with-a-sporting-event longshot dramas, but he conforms to the standard rather than making a twist. Libby takes surprisingly little encouragement to be re-won over, and the contemptible Whit, given to maniacal tirades whenever he's frustrated, does all he can to make Dennis look appealing by comparison.
Schwimmer places the load on his star to pull out laughs in bland, predictable situations. The naturally gifted Pegg — a vintage Monty Python-type personality born a generation too late — is good for a few cheeky laughs but can carry the film only so far on his scrawny legs. There are so many scenes of him running, it's surprising Pegg didn't just take off and never come back to the set after he saw how things were going.
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