# "Run Fatboy Run" -- is this gonna suck? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2008, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625 "2008-03-25T01:34:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/1 "2008-03-25T01:34:52Z")
I just saw an ad for the new Simon Pegg flick [Run Fatboy Run](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425413/) and got very excited. Then I looked it up and saw that it’s not Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, but instead it’s directed by David Schwimmer of all people. I’m starting to be nervous. Anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/2 "2008-03-25T01:38:09Z")
Yeah, I’m a little worried. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while (mainly because I find Dylan Moran devastatingly funny), but I’m not expecting another _Hot Fuzz_. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/3 "2008-03-25T01:40:30Z")
I like Simon Pegg, but this looks awful. The new Blister Ad really makes me think it will be terrible. There are not many reviews in yet at RT: [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008621-run\_fat\_boy\_run/](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008621-run_fat_boy_run/) ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/4 "2008-03-25T02:41:16Z")
Some parts of the full trailer made me cringe, but Simon Pegg apparently co-wrote the script, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Oddly enough, David Schwimmer comes off as a pretty level-headed, intelligent guy in the interviews I’ve read about the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/5 "2008-03-25T02:52:46Z")
David Schwimmer? Do you mean Hank Azaria (who, unlike David Schwimmer, is in the movie)? Edited to add that I didn’t see that he was the director. Anyhow, I saw a trailer for it, and it could be OK. Not great, but OK. I’ll wait to see it via Netflix. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/6 "2008-03-25T03:00:00Z")
What has me confused are the ads claiming this movie is “_Shaun of the Dead_ meets _The Wedding Crashers_”. Which is what? Zombies crashing a wedding and eating everyone? ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/7 "2008-03-25T03:14:26Z")
Saw it in a sneak last weekend. Very lightweight comedy. It’s got an underplayed British comedy feel to it, as opposed to the way American comedies pump everything up to 11 (and then throw Jonah Hill and CGI into everything). The ads with the blister on the foot and the tag lines about Shaun of the Dead meets Wedding Crashers are just meant to pull in American audiences. If you go in expecting Shaun of the Dead meets Wedding Crashers you will be sorely disappointed. I’m disappointed that they feel the need to market it that way, because they are setting the expectations improperly. It doesn’t ‘suck’ (as you kids like to say about everything). But it is rather by-the-numbers. There are no surprises, and you can predict just about everything that happens. Simon Pegg is a pleasure to watch, as always. Schwimmer’s directing is unobtrusive. It’s a rental. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/8 "2008-03-25T03:20:50Z")
[QUOTE=Dewey Finn] David Schwimmer? Do you mean Hank Azaria (who, unlike David Schwimmer, is in the movie)? Edited to add that I didn’t see that he was the director. Anyhow, I saw a trailer for it, and it could be OK. Not great, but OK. I’ll wait to see it via Netflix. [/QUOTE] David Schwimmer is reputed to be a very sharp cookie when it comes to behind-the-scenes stuff, so I’m hoping it will be decent. It got a couple Britsh awards, so that’s a good sign. Was it Roger Ebert who said “Trailers are the movies the studio _wished_ had been made…”? I’m really hoping that this was just a piss-poor trailer designed to make the movie look like zany slapstick fare. Like the trailer was dumbed down to look like a bad Eddie Murphy movie. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/9 "2008-03-25T03:25:28Z")
[QUOTE=Icarus] But it is rather by-the-numbers. There are no surprises, and you can predict just about everything that happens. [/QUOTE] I predict he does not get the girl, and she ends up with the rich, successful jerk. Did I get it right? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/10 "2008-03-25T03:43:34Z")
I saw it at SXSW two weeks ago and I really enjoyed it. Not nearly as good as Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead, but it was good for what it was- a predictable but funny comedy. (Also, I had thought [Dylan Moran](http://imdb.com/name/nm0602836/) was funny before, but he stole every scene he could in this movie. ) ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/11 "2008-03-25T13:29:26Z")
A friend of mine saw it and hated it. Peg did a rewrite after he signed on to the film. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/12 "2008-03-25T14:20:47Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] A friend of mine saw it and hated it. Peg did a rewrite after he signed on to the film. [/QUOTE] David Schwimmer was at the screening I saw and he did a Q&A after the film. He said that the script originally was set in New York City but he couldn’t get the financing to make the movie there. Eventually a British company bought the script so then it became a British comedy. I don’t think Pegg did a rewrite because the script sucked, I think the rewrite was mainly to change the setting from New York to London. I can understand hating it if you go in thinking “it’s a script that Simon Pegg wrote, it will be awesome like Shaun of the Dead!” But if you go in just expecting a good comedy, you might enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/13 "2008-03-25T18:22:08Z")
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun] I predict he does not get the girl, and she ends up with the rich, successful jerk. Did I get it right? [/QUOTE] BBBZZZZZZZPP!! Thanks for playing! ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/14 "2008-03-25T19:38:27Z")
I saw it in a sneak preview last weekend and I enjoyed it. I thought Hot Fuzz was funnier than Run Fatboy Run, but I laughed quite a bit during it. I’d recommend it. J. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/15 "2008-03-26T01:10:37Z")
It didn’t suck as much as I thought it would from the trailer, even though Nick Frost isn’t in it. The biggest strike against it is predictability. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/16 "2008-03-26T01:34:56Z")
Interview with Schwimmer: > **[The A.V. Club | Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed.](https://www.avclub.com/)** > > Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/17 "2008-03-26T04:21:10Z")
I went to it a couple of weeks ago and laughed lots. It’s predictable, with almost every Rom-com convention getting a nod, but has some genuinely funny and original gags. My favourite bit was Hank Azaria’s character getting frustrated and trying desperately to rip the plasma screen TV off the wall. He ends up just switching it off in annoyance instead.,which played against the usual gag. There were perhaps a dozen people in the theatre when we went. Every one of them laughed out loud at some point. It was like a low key satire of the romantic comedy genre rather than the full on mocking of, say, Date Movie. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/18 "2008-03-26T05:39:53Z")
It’s got enough of some of my favorite comedians in it that I’d ante up to see it. Pegg, Azaria, Steven Merchant and David Walliams…although I’m sure the last two are teeny little cameos. Sometimes “spot the funny British guy” is worth the price of admission. ---
**Author:** ![WILLASS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/54ee81/32.png) [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/19 "2008-03-26T11:12:18Z")
This film should never be compared to ‘Shaun of the Dead’ or ‘Hot Fuzz’ - those films are great because of combination of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (director). I didn’t realise that Pegg co-wrote this but am gutted because this is a very average film and he is far from an average writer. I wonder whether his writing part was beefed up a bit in order to pull in the punters? ---
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625/20 "2008-03-26T14:01:16Z")
[QUOTE=WILLASS] This film should never be compared to ‘Shaun of the Dead’ or ‘Hot Fuzz’ - those films are great because of combination of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (director). I didn’t realise that Pegg co-wrote this but am gutted because this is a very average film and he is far from an average writer. I wonder whether his writing part was beefed up a bit in order to pull in the punters? [/QUOTE] Schwimmer on Pegg’s re-write. > [@](#): > > AVC: The original script was set in New York, but the film was shot in London. What else was changed? > > DS: The basic structure and the big, funny scenes that are throughout the movie, the blister scene and the locker-room scene, the basic structure was all Michael. It was all the same. Simon’s rewrite was really to Anglicanize it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/run-fatboy-run-is-this-gonna-suck/442625.md?page=2)