Run Fatboy Run (2007)

The unfortunately titled Run Fatboy Run comes from that risky, murky water where comedians decide they want to be sweeties. Sometimes, this can be golden: Simon Pegg, who stars as the slobbering, unreconstructed-on-the-way-to-construction hero, Dennis, is particularly talented at juggling the flatulent with the heartwarming. However, it's a dangerous idea, as comedians can sometimes get derailed on their way to sensitive, saccharine warmth, and end up in the horribly, gouge-your-eyes-out maudlin. For example, Robin Williams in a number of films (though What Dreams May Come may be the most notorious), or Adam Sandler's nauseating self-pity in the gratingly unfunny Funny People.

Adam Sandler's actually a good match for Simon Pegg, as they both specialize in frat boy (or, well, the British equivalent) humo(u)r that is underscored by a genuine authenticity - they are both adept at playing man-children. Run Fatboy Run introduces us to Dennis (Simon Pegg) on the day of his wedding: his gorgeous, pregnant bride-to-be, Libby (Thandie Newton), chats with her amiable cousin, Gordon (Dylan Moran), and Dennis? He's the one sprinting down the street, away from the garden party. Fast forward five years and fifteen kilos, and Dennis, now a dumpy security guard, is now sprinting after a (incidentally hilarious!) transvestite shoplifter. He lives in a basement flat, where he is periodically heckled by his (incidentally hilarious) landlord, Mr. Goshdashtidar (Harish Patel, from My Son the Fanatic), for perpetually forgetting his keys.


We love you, Simon Pegg, but...


Dylan Moran was very comically spacey as well.

When Dennis visits Libby to pick up their son, Jake (Matthew Fenton), he is introduced to Libby's new boyfriend: Whit (Hank Azaria). Whit is everything Dennis is not: a successful hedge fund manager, he showers Libby and Jake with expensive gadgets and affection, is breezily self-confident in a very American way, and runs charity marathons for fun. Dennis, privately, seethes. He decides to remedy his broken heart and dead-end life by challenging Whit to his own marathon. Everyone does a lot of scoffing and snorting with laughter - what, Dennis? the fat guy? a marathon? - and Dennis, meanwhile, with his gambling buddy, Gordon, and Mr. Goshdashtidar, gets down to training. The rest of the film follows the usual course.

Run Fatboy Run generally avoids some of the disasterous pitfalls which threaten a movie like this, mostly because, as we said above, Simon Pegg has a good handle on balancing sympathy with humor, and we have a very high tolerance for seeing him be sad before we consider it over-the-top and indulgent. We think this is generally because Pegg sparingly uses that most deadliest of comic weapons - irony - and hence never distances himself from the character. Yes, Dennis is a clumsy, Homer Simpson-esque buffoon, but he's also, always, human. Everything is played straight. Example: when Dennis, in usual Disney-style manipulation, momentarily loses his son, there is real horror and panic. It's a credit to Pegg, who specializes in airy comedy that's been deep fried in pop culture, that he is actually a very authentic actor indeed.


Then he got a niiiice foot massage.

Other cast members, such as Dylan Moran and Harish Patel, have a good ol' time and offer charming support to the central conceit. For the most part, the film succeeds because it feels more like a Nick Hornby movie (we were specifically reminded of About A Boy), though things spiral slightly out of control with the climax, which becomes so sticky with sugar that we had to go wash our eyeballs. All in all, it's not a memorable film and Pegg's characteristic surrealism is missing, but it's a modest and inoffensive heart-shaped fluff piece. We can handle that.

FANCY NEW THING!

We've finally figured out how to get those fancy Amazon links on our posts now. FINALLY. (insert heavenly music of capitalist consumption)

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Poor, sweet Simon Pegg!

He may hide himself behind the scatological humor and bloody spectacles of ace cops and, now, zombie killers, but he is just a big softie beneath all that. Bromance and mum, video games and Star Wars, he is like the comfort food of nerd chic. And, with his Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, he is also probably the premier horror comedy auteur at the moment. Bruce Campbell and his huge chin have been ousted!

In Shaun of the Dead, the usual zombie siege takes place - but within the realms of middle class British normality. Inept, bumbling and frightened, dead-end (no pun intended) man-child Shaun (Simon Pegg), together with his ex, Liz (Kate Ashfield), best mate, Ed (best mate Nick Frost), beloved Mum (Penelope Wilton), and entourage in tow, must bash his way through the mindless, shuffling hordes of flesh-eating undead. When Shaun's stepdad, Philip (Bill Nighy!), is bitten, the film spares time for a genuine moment of tragedy: "Being a father," Philip says, clutching at the ravaged tendons of his neck. "It's not easy..." It also has time for buckets and buckets of gore, liberal splashes of blood, and intestines everywhere.


Always time for bromance and Cornettos for these two!


Our beloved Bill Nighy already looks pretty undead to start with.

Despite all that messy carnage, the film is actually quite tidy. Details established early are periodically tied up, interesting ideas (such that modern life, consumerism and TV have made the living dead out of us all anyway) are thrown out there but not pursued too much, and the script - especially when Shaun and Ed channel surf - is snappy and fresh. There are no huge surprises, though there are some unfortunate (even horrific, though such is the nature of these things) occurrences.


You mindless consumers!

What's more impressive than the glistening organs lying strewn about the increasingly chaotic English suburban streets is the real, sticky heart beneath the Romero-esque razzle dazzle. This is Pegg's baby (he wrote and stars) and he gives it his all: his swings from self-conscious irony (killing his first zombie) to weeping despair (the death of his stepdad) to tears-drying-open-mouthed horror (the resurrection of his stepdad) feel genuine. We gagged and laughed for most of the film but - in some of the later moments, when even the pub sanctuary is besieged and all feels lost - we cried some real, authentic tears of our own. Oh, woe! And we had to remind ourselves that, at least out there at the final frontier, there is a Simon Pegg that is happy and hasn't got any red on him.

Hot Fuzz (2007)

Hot Fuzz is a sweetly comic British film, part parody and part tribute to the guns-blazing action-packed police thrillers of Hollywood or Hong Kong. While the pacing and style is reminiscent of the indie American film Supertroopers, Hot Fuzz also contains vestiges of a Wallace and Gromit-type sense of humor: a quaint English village setting which hides a grotesque killer, over-the-top spectacles of unexpected gore, and a strong whiff of the absurd.

Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg, adorable) is a hard-nosed, hard-ass police officer from the "blue fury of the London Metropolitan Police Service". With hyperactive cuts and super-efficient narrative, he is introduced to us as an Übermensch: he excels at everything he does. Of course, this leads his superiors - basically a roll call of current UK funnymen (including our beloved Bill Nighy!) - to speedily transfer him from London's busy streets to the quiet, boring town of Sandford. There, we meet the usual assortment of village clichés - including, importantly, the bumbling police chief (Jim Broadbent) and his goofball son Danny (Nick Frost, also adorable) and the sly, serpentine business boss (Timothy Dalton). All in all, everyone in Sandford is terribly English and terribly, well, white.


The only one missing is Eddie Izzard. CAKE OR DEATH!

Which brings us to the Wallace and Gromit stuff: it's English middle class horror fantasy gone demented, as Angel is initially reviled for his big city efficiency (of course) until he stumbles upon an elaborate trail of serial killings (of course) but is not really believed (of course!). Everything is then resolved in the usual way. No rabbits appear as toupees, alas, but there are other laughs to be had.


Were we the only ones who thought Timothy Dalton was basically the villain from Wallace and Gromit's were-rabbit movie? And are we the only ones who thought he should have reprised his role as Lord Asriel for the movie version of The Golden Compass?

Much like Supertroopers, Hot Fuzz manages to juggle a sort of surreal comedy which borders on the alienatingly absurd (think Monty Python or Mel Brooks - i.e. not to be taken seriously) that is then unexpectedly combined with some real sweetness (i.e. to be taken seriously). In particular, and as a nod to the legendary bromance of such cop films as... well, anything by John Woo, police partners Angel and Danny fall in love. It's the love between two heterosexual males, but it is as romantic as anything out of Michael Ondaatje. This is all very cute, especially since Simon Pegg and Nick Frost play it straight, without the slightest hint of irony. After reading Manohla's review, as well as learning about Pegg and Frost's Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy, we see that this bromance is intentional and off-screen as well. Huzzah! We want more.


The bromance is strong between these two. And we love it!


THAT is Paddy Considine, who co-wrote and starred in the magnificent Dead Man's Shoes, which you should all go watch right now. Right now!

Other interesting tidbits are, apart from the obvious nods to other police action dramas, the wide-reaching and fun casting. Often these are just details - such as genius comic Bill Bailey playing identical twin police constables (one with straight hair who reads Iain Banks, and one with curly hair who reads Iain M. Banks... okay, it made us laugh) - or cameos (Peter Jackson?!). But we were also shocked, shocked, to be seeing Indy's arch-nemesis, René Belloq (AKA Paul Freeman), after so many years!

All in all, it made us laugh and it made us like Simon Pegg just a little more. Soon it will be love.