Run Fatboy Run 2007

Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times: The kind of movie that's apt to be dismissed a goofy lark. It is that. But it's also a rare comedy that believes in its own message, and that could inspire the depressed and the demoralized to grit their teeth and keep running. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: I wouldn't believe that Run Fat Boy Run was co-written by Simon Pegg if he weren't up there on the screen in teeny briefs and with his gut stuck out, trying to endear himself to the American audience in material maybe a notch above Rob Schneider's. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This feeble premise limits the movie to perfunctory gags about the hero's sloth and some canned underdog drama. Read more

Mark Rahner, Seattle Times: Tere's nothing edgy or new about Run, Fat Boy, Run. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Run Fatboy Run isn't particularly hilarious or moving, but it's got just enough humor and pathos to render its myriad flaws almost forgivable. Almost. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It may be the kind of film that will make you smile more than laugh, but you'll smile a lot. And although it practically forces you to root for its hero, you won't mind a bit because the hero is played by Simon Pegg. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Run Fat Boy Run might as well have been written by a rushed piece of software. The program calls for a surprise engagement, a street fight complete with crotch punches, an apartment eviction, and a runaway child -- all in about five minutes. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The project represents an uncertain Britification of a script by Chicago native Michael Ian Black, and the result finds itself stranded somewhere out in the Atlantic, mid-crossing. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: This is not a film with blazingly original ideas or a groundbreaking script - I guessed the ending before the movie even started - but it has a sweet nature, an abundance of laughs and plenty of Pegg to spare. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Run, Fatboy, Run isn't going to win any prizes for fresh questions. But it's just fleet enough to hold its own in the middle of the pack. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: There's a cheeky, cross-continental exuberance to Run, Fatboy, Run that lifts it over its predictability and keeps you laughing louder than you know you should. It's an upfront guilty pleasure without pretense; what a pleasant surprise. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Director David Schwimmer bloats this slapdash concept into dim, witless overkill. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Schwimmer's sliced cheese mediocrity gets him off the hook; not so for the usually inventive Pegg and Black and their arms race of bland jokes and cheap male nudity Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Snarkiness and sentiment are in constant battle for supremacy throughout Run Fat Boy Run with no chance of a comfortable draw. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Enough already. I mean, I don't have anything against comedies about dopey guys who win the love of a good woman by competing in ridiculous Olympian contests. But if I wanted to see a really funny one, I'd rent a Rocky movie. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: There's much too much of everything in Run, Fatboy, Run. Every ounce of comedy is so forced and full-on ridiculous that when characters express even a smidgen of sentiment, it feels like a parody. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Thanks to a jaunty Brit-rock score and likable characters all around, the movie's easy to watch and occasionally pumps up the emotions. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Clumsy and inept in demeanor but a whirlwind of comic energy, with an air of self-congratulatory winsomeness, Simon Pegg steals this otherwise minor but enjoyably unpretentious little comedy and pockets it like a Mars bar. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It has meaning and sentiment and a nice pay-off for its finale. But without more laughs, Run Fatboy Run is awfully winded by the time it crosses the finish line. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is yet another parody that falls victim to the desire to become what it's intending to satirize. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Deserves credit for not working us over the way so many modern comedies too. It brings us to the finish line with energy to spare, instead of leaving us feeling sapped. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: This is a romantic comedy light on romance but heavy on comedy, and it's well cast to skew in that direction. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film is better than expected. It's directed with warmth, humor and intelligence. Read more

Teresa Budasi, Chicago Sun-Times: One thing Schwimmer does do right is keep the story moving swiftly. You're in, you're out, no harm done -- unless you want that hour and a half back. Read more

Kamal Al-Solaylee, Globe and Mail: From storyline to characterization to style of comedy, everything about the directorial debut of former Friends star David Schwimmer is a nod to accommodation, compromise and consensus. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Run, Fat Boy, Run is the directorial debut of actor David Schwimmer, who is much better behind the camera than in front of it. Here, he's taken material best suited to sketch comedy and turned it into a feature of no small heart and humour. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: What should be dreadfully synthetic actually plays as a pleasant time-passer, thanks to a goodly supply of one-liners, and Pegg and Newton's facility for investing a string of hokey plot devices with genuine warmth. Formulaic, yet disarmingly enjoyable. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Amiable, consistently amusing and surprisingly affecting, it has the flavor of a Nick Hornby novel, with its focus on an overgrown boy struggling to grow up and be a man. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: There are no surprises here -- just broad, frequently slapstick gags that don't avoid but do tamp down a bit on the bodily-function school of yokkery. Read more

Jim Ridley, Village Voice: Pegg has staked out a peculiar slant on genre material that ventures beyond irony toward rehabilitation -- and nobody plays blithe humiliation with more style. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Run Fat Boy Run is hard to love, thanks to the tedious romantic-comedy cliches to which it subjects its characters -- and us. Read more