Run Fatboy Run (2007/Warner/New Line Blu-ray + DVD-Video)
Picture:
B/C+ Sound: B/C+ Extras: D Film: D
Let’s
make one thing clear. Just because Simon
Pegg shows up, that does not mean he is automatically funny. There are many actors who I can think of who
have a better comedy sense, though he is still highly capable of being
humorous. David Schwimmer, the actor
from the grossly overrated Friends and whose only good acting work comes from
the Bryan Singer film Apt Pupil, a
non-comedy about a hiding Nazi! Now, He
attempts to direct comedy with Run
Fatboy Run (2007) proving he should not be behind the camera either.
This
disaster is about Pegg as a guy who became a runaway groom too nervous to marry
a beautiful woman (Thandie Newton, wasted once again!) that you never believe
could be together under any circumstance to begin with. She starts dating a new guy (Hank Azaria, who
is a good comic) who has his act together and gets the runaway to enter another
kind of run, a local marathon that he is in zero shape to participate in. And it gets less and less funny to where an
honorary Razzie is in order.
Everything
becomes a sex or toilet joke, this extremely
long 100 minutes can only be described as grating and unless you think Pegg
is the great comic since Groucho Marx; you’ll pick up Das Capital by Karl Marx and think that it too is a comedy classic. The actor Michael Ian Black co-wrote this
desperate wreck with Pegg and they should have put it in a shredder. Avoid this like the plague!
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is on the weak side despite being shot
in Super 35mm film and the anamorphically enhanced DVD is much worse. This looks so bad, you’ll mistake it and the
work by cinematographer Richard Greatrex, A.S.C., for an HD Shoot. The packaging for both releases says they are
Dolby Digital, but the DVD is actually DTS 7.1, while the DVD is standard Dolby
5.1, but is so weak, we can understand the mistake on the Blu-ray package. The soundfield is flat and dull, music by Alex
Wurman unmemorable (but look at the mess he had to score) and is on the bottom
of the sonic list for New Line Blu-ray releases.
Extras
include deleted scenes, outtakes, a useless audio commentary, trailer and
featurette, all of which are in HD on the Blu-ray.
- Nicholas Sheffo
