A nice, easy comedy

Rating: 8/10 (21 March 2008)

Run Fat Boy Run is predictable. In the last half hour or so, there is an immense amount of clichés. There is also a lot of laughs in this movie, the first to be directed by David Schwimmer.
Dennis Doyle ( Simon Pegg ) is a down and out security guard. He left his wife Libby ( Thandie Newton ) at the altar 5 years previously pregnant. Suffice to say that he is not the most reliable nor up and coming man on the face of the Earth. However he is galvanised into action when Libby gets a new boyfriend Whit ( Hank Azaria ) who seems like the perfect catch: rich, sincere and who runs marathons for charity. Dennis declares his intention to run in the marathon as well, in order to prove to Libby he can commit. He is helped in this enterprise by his friend Gordon ( Dylan Moran ), who also has an ulterior motive as he has bet all his cash on Dennis completing the race.
Run Fat Boy Run has got a cast that all works well together. Simon Pegg reprises the sort of slacker role he played in Shaun of the Dead, while Thandie Newton is lovely as the torn Libby. Hank Azaria plays the affable but somewhat irritating Whit very well and Dylan Moran excels as the seedy Gordon. Add to that a hilarious cameo by David Walliams who looks like he just walked off a Little Britain set as well as Harish Patel as the landlord/assistant coach and there isn't a moment of this film that the cast seems to be slacking.
Run Fat Boy Run is a great film to watch, despite of its formulaic structure. David Schwimmer may have found a new career.