Fairly decent time-filler, but little more

Rating: Null/10 (18 March 2008)

For someone who felt let down by the overlong mess that Hot Fuzz turned out to be, I didn't hold out much hope for another Simon Pegg comedy that, on paper at least, looks as if it is merely reheating a load of tired old comedy clichés that we've all seen countless times before. Well, while this film is just a rehash of old plots, it does have a sweet nature at its core that just about makes it worth watching.
Pegg plays Dennis, a thirty-something everyman-cum-loser whose only exercise in recent times was a sprint away from his pregnant bride (Thandie Newton) on their wedding day five years earlier. When we meet him in the present day, Dennis is a chain-smoking security guard living alone in a tiny flat, still ruing the mistake he made, and half-heartedly attempting to get back in his ex-'s good books. When he discovers she has embarked on a relationship with super-smooth US businessman Whit (Hank Azaria), Dennis determines to run a marathon to prove he can both change as a person and finish what he has started.
What doesn't look too promising on paper is saved largely by a likable cast and a relatively high gag-quotient which stops the viewer from getting bored, even though you can see many of the gags coming a mile off. Pegg and co-writer Michael Ian Black hammer the running metaphor into the ground until even the dimmest of us understand the movie's 'message' and, like those runners portrayed on the screen, the film is ushered along a pre-determined route that precludes any possibility of unexpected twists or turns. Stand-up comic Dylan Moran gets most of the best lines as Dennis's gambling-addict best friend, and could conceivably have been a better choice for the central role.