STUDIO: Picturehouse
RELEASE DATE: March 28, 2008
STARRING: Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton, Hank Azaria, and Dylan Moran
WRITTEN BY: Michael Ian Black & Simon Pegg
DIRECTED BY: David Schwimmer
GENRE: Comedy
RATING: PG-13

Isn't it amazing how the leads in romantic comedies have evolved over the past few years? You can keep Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, and the rest of your dandy heartthrobs. Audiences want more emphasis on the "comedy" aspect of their romantic comedies and are embracing such wickedly funny lovable losers as Seth Rogen, Steve Carell, and, now, Simon Pegg. The brilliant writer/star of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz is the romantic lead in David Schwimmer's directorial debut Run Fatboy Run, appearing as yet another struggling man-boy who desperately needs love to help redeem the significant problems of his single life. However, the romantic woes of Pegg's Dennis are entirely of his own making - he left his gorgeous true love Libby (Thandie Newton) at the altar on his wedding day. Dennis just wasn't ready for commitment and, years later, he's now developed a paunch, works as a pretty-crappy security guard at a lingerie store, gets pestered for the rent by his over-the-top landlord, and basically wallows in his own misery. It gets worse. When Dennis ran away from Libby, the poor girl was pregnant, so our schlub of a hero still has a tie to the gorgeous mother of his son and, when he discovers that there's a new man in their life, Whit (Hank Azaria), he kind of freaks out. For some men, it takes a challenge like your old girlfriend dating Apu to make them get off their asses and finally get their lives into motion.

After an amusing series of exchanges between Dennis and Whit, our hero discovers that the new alpha male in his son's life is going to run in the London Marathon, and he decides to try and do so himself. The Marathon becomes a symbol for all the things in his life that Dennis could never accomplish from committing to marriage to just getting a decent job. He never plans to win the thing or even beat the regular runner Whit (although that would be nice) but just being able to finish something he sets out to do finally pulls Dennis from childhood to maturity. Dennis gets support from best friend Gordon (Dylan Moran) and his landlord Mr. Ghoshdashtidar (Harish Patel), who both push him through a relatively standard series of training regimens and take bets on whether or not he'll actually finish. Does Dennis finish the race? Is Whit a total a-hole? Is there still hope for Dennis and Libby? The answers lie at the finish line.

Even with its incredibly likeable lead, Run Fatboy Run is still a near-miss, a film with some funny scenes that will probably work significantly better on DVD, but, ultimately, it quite simply doesn't have enough laughs to elevate it to greatness. Perhaps it's the incredibly high standard set by what Pegg and Azaria have done in the past, but there are a shocking number of jokes in Fatboy that fall flat. Like a marathon runner who can't keep a steady pace, the movie rushes forward in fits and starts with a very funny scene followed by way too much plot exposition and predictable rom-com and sports movies cliches. And every time Run Fatboy Run feels like it might play with the general structure of either overdone genre, it doesn't take the chance. It's not a standard plot for a romantic comedy, but it feels like Michael Ian Black and Pegg are actually struggling against the originality of the concept, trying to make it more generic instead of embracing its weird charm. Despite the assured direction by Schwimmer and good work by Pegg, the screenplay for Run Fatboy Run simply never develops into the sprinting, original comedy that it promises audiences with its pedigree.