Run, Fat Boy, Run (2008)
Rating of Fury: B+


This poster is very yellow.

Run, Fat Boy, Run is (Friends parrot-head) David Schwimmer’s directorial debut. The movie’s not bad, ranking about where I would rank most pictures of this genre. When the film’s humor was on, it was on, but in between the funny bits, the movie slows down, not nearly enough to kill it, but you’d think a flick starring Shaun of the Dead, Moe from The Simpsons, and the dorkier dork from Shaun of the Dead would have been funnier.


”Wha? Did he say I’m not funny?”

No Shaun, you are funny, but the glitch in many romantic comedies -- forced drama and whimsicalness -– was everywhere in RFBR and it seemed artificial and dull. It wasn’t even until mid-way through the movie that the antagonist, Hank Azaria, even shows hints of being a little too controlling. Intentional understatement, perhaps?


I wanted to see him throw a spoon a somebody.

Shaun runs away from his pregnant girlfriend (Thandie Newton, or the hot chick from The Chronicles of Riddick) at the altar and years later, tries to win her back. However, Thandie is moving on with her life and is dating power mogul Azeria, who is also a marathoner. Out-of-shape Shaun wants to show Thandie that he’s just as good as the Blue Raja, and boasts that he’s going to finish the London Marathon with only three weeks to train. The training scenes and the interactions between Shaun and his slacker friend, Dylan Moran, are the best parts of the film.


This is why I don’t run; too much sexiness for the general public to handle.

Simon Pegg is at his best when he’s doing physical comedy, and thankfully there’s a lot of Pegg being Pegg throughout the film. You will laugh, or at least be grossed out. The problem is when Shaun isn’t on camera, the comedy grinds to a halt, and him being on-screen isn’t a guarantee of a laugh either. Forced storyline…urgh…


It’s a romantic comedy, how do you think it’s going to end?

Run, Fat Boy, Run is a date movie. Nothing too heavy, funny at times, and mostly worth a watch (and I think I just described every film produced by Ivan Reitman after Ghostbusters). Just expect the ho-hum plot machinations that are standard with the genre.

Something else: Watch for the amazing self-moving garbage can in the alley fight scene between Pegg and Moran. First the can’s here, then it’s there, then it’s back where it first was! Magic!

Yes! This was the way I wanted to see this movie in a short review by Furi, keep up the good work!!

Yay Fury! Now I know what to spend my money on. Are you gonna do rental reviews, too?

*puts up hand*

Furi, have you considered a movie review website? I'd be happy to contribute as well.

Great review here. I love the Jabootu-style ones that're twelve pages long and as much treatise about movies as review, but I love, love, love the short, summary recaplets of a movie that hit the high points and leave the rest to chance.

I've been thinking of starting a movie review website, however there'd be a few problems:

1) I HATE web page development. I like making the eye candy but doing the actual functionality stuff kinda sucks.

2) Although they're not the property of Yahoo!, I use production photos from the Y! movie site for my reviews. I need to make sure I'm not crossing any legal boundaries.

And as for DVD reviews, the films I'd look over would probably be smaller budget releases.

quote:

Originally posted by Furi: King of Fools:
I've been thinking of starting a movie review website, however there'd be a few problems:

1) I HATE web page development. I like making the eye candy but doing the actual functionality stuff kinda sucks.

2) Although they're not the property of Yahoo!, I use production photos from the Y! movie site for my reviews. I need to make sure I'm not crossing any legal boundaries.

And as for DVD reviews, the films I'd look over would probably be smaller budget releases.

Why not go for a free blogging site such as Wordpress.com? You might find a niceish design, and it's the words that count. Also, as far as problem 2 is concerned, I doubt that you'd get into any trouble. There are tens of thousands of people doing that for non-nefarious reasons, so I doubt they'd sic the dogs on you.

quote:

(Thandie Newton, or the hot chick from The Chronicles of Riddick)

I always thought she looked weird and alienish...

i was debating whether this movie would be worth seeing.
you've helped me make up my mind.

and i like the very yellow poster.

As long as you don't make a profit off of the website - that is, no selling of T-shirts and things - it's not a problem. For the movies I'd be reviewing I'd have to figure out how to get screencaps from VHS tapes, but that's another matter.

I've had the idea of setting up a movie review site for a while now, using WEnders as the writing staff, and this is just helping the idea to gel a little bit.

I've always enjoyed Furi's reviews - I remember giggling madly at one of the Pirates of the Carribbean reviews - there was a pic of lotsa people chasing Capn Jack and Furi's caption was Run to the potties!

quote:

Originally posted by Furi: King of Fools:
I've been thinking of starting a movie review website, however there'd be a few problems:

1) I HATE web page development. I like making the eye candy but doing the actual functionality stuff kinda sucks.

I does that...

Hrm...I go have the furious.ws website (don't bother going, nothing's up), a version of Wordpress, and godaddy.com storage...

Y'know...if we include video game reviews we could get passes for E3...

*ponders*

I hardly ever watch movies, but I'd read a review site with Furious and Dweller as writers.

*snorts* We'd be the new Siskel and Ebert!

Probably I/ we would start off with movie and DVD/ VHS reviews, and then when we get our groove going we could open up the site for video game, comic, and book reviews. No need for a forum, there's a perfectly good one right here.

(I may take up schnazz on his sitebirthing offer, cuz i'm lazy)

Furi, I've seen the movie and I think your review is spot on. I really enjoyed reading your review. I agree the movie was pretty formulaic, but there were definitely a few good laughs thrown in there.

What will you review next?

I think I may double my theatre movie watching to twice a week...Leathernecks, The Ruins, or 21 will be next. All depends on how early I can get my butt outta bed.

Wow, those three are all so different. How will you pick which one to watch? Assuming you can your butt out of bed early enough.

I've been in a mood for craptastic stuff recently (I'm watching every pro wrestling and Japanese game show I can find on TV), so I bet it's going to be The Ruins around noonish on Friday, if not, probably the George Clooney movie. They showed the whole damn 21 plot in the trailer, so I don't know how much surprise is going to be in it.

I'm strangely drawn to the Clooney flick. or maybe it's just Clooney...

Hmmm, Clooney is quite a draw, with that smoldering, classic movie star charm. And Leatherheads does look like it could be quite fun and entertaining.

However, The Ruins could be wonderfully craptastic.

quote:

Originally posted by Furi: King of Fools:
Hrm...I go have the furious.ws website (don't bother going, nothing's up)
<snip>

Okay, now that I've done my lovely web-for-idiots class at school, I have to ask: your site/domain is in Samoa?! You're weirder than I thought.