Gone, Fatboy, Gone
March 28th 2008 18:17
Just a quick pre-weekend post about two flicks, both by actors turned directors, and both with three-word titles...otherwise they are very different.
Run Fatboy Run (7/10)
is a comedy that's actually funny. It's an interesting little film about interesting little people. Simon Pegg is quite good as Dennis, who left his pregnant bride-to-be, Libby (Thandie Newton), at the altar. He's managed to stay involved in her life as well as their son's and he realizes his mistake just as Libby becomes involved with a successful American businessman - poor Dennis is a lowly lingerie store security guard (that position didn't seem all that bad to me, either). To prove that he can indeed complete something in his life, he vows to Libby that he will run an upcoming marathon, and we're off to the races along with him. There are some pretty humorous training sequences, and scenes between Dennis and his son (and Libby, for that matter) come off as genuinely sweet. Dylan Moran, as Dennis's friend Gordon, generates a lot of the humor, and Hank Azaria is pleasantly restrained as the ugly American - his character (usually) doesn't come off as an over-the-top caricature. The reliably funny Michael Ian Black had a hand in the screenplay, and I imagine that helped quite a bit. Run Fatboy Run is a romantic comedy that manages to be both, and it's a solid theatrical debut for director David Schwimmer.
Neither romantic nor funny,
Gone Baby Gone (8/10)
is a journey into the hearts of darkness strewn across some of Boston's roughest neighborhoods. Amy Ryan's performance as the mother of a missing child earned her quite a bit of notice (including an Oscar nomination) and she is indeed great. Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan play professional and romantic partners Patrick and Angie, a pair of P.I.'s to whom the missing girl's extended family reaches out for help with the investigation. As their search for clues (or answers) goes on, they are confronted with the elements of society that many of us happily avoid. Director Ben Affleck does a great job depicting the grime, and it's a very involving search. For me, the movie unraveled a bit at the end, when it felt like the story was slipping through our hands as viewers and also Ben's, but the moral dilemmas presented in the film's final moments were enough to distract me from asking too many questions of my own. It's a solid film, and besides Ms. Ryan's bad mommy, and a mumbly, but effective performance from Casey Affleck, Ed Harris is also pretty f-ing great as one of the police detectives assigned to the case...every minute he was onscreen I was prepared for him to punch someone nearby in the mouth.
Run Fatboy Run (7/10)
is a comedy that's actually funny. It's an interesting little film about interesting little people. Simon Pegg is quite good as Dennis, who left his pregnant bride-to-be, Libby (Thandie Newton), at the altar. He's managed to stay involved in her life as well as their son's and he realizes his mistake just as Libby becomes involved with a successful American businessman - poor Dennis is a lowly lingerie store security guard (that position didn't seem all that bad to me, either). To prove that he can indeed complete something in his life, he vows to Libby that he will run an upcoming marathon, and we're off to the races along with him. There are some pretty humorous training sequences, and scenes between Dennis and his son (and Libby, for that matter) come off as genuinely sweet. Dylan Moran, as Dennis's friend Gordon, generates a lot of the humor, and Hank Azaria is pleasantly restrained as the ugly American - his character (usually) doesn't come off as an over-the-top caricature. The reliably funny Michael Ian Black had a hand in the screenplay, and I imagine that helped quite a bit. Run Fatboy Run is a romantic comedy that manages to be both, and it's a solid theatrical debut for director David Schwimmer.
Neither romantic nor funny,
Gone Baby Gone (8/10)
is a journey into the hearts of darkness strewn across some of Boston's roughest neighborhoods. Amy Ryan's performance as the mother of a missing child earned her quite a bit of notice (including an Oscar nomination) and she is indeed great. Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan play professional and romantic partners Patrick and Angie, a pair of P.I.'s to whom the missing girl's extended family reaches out for help with the investigation. As their search for clues (or answers) goes on, they are confronted with the elements of society that many of us happily avoid. Director Ben Affleck does a great job depicting the grime, and it's a very involving search. For me, the movie unraveled a bit at the end, when it felt like the story was slipping through our hands as viewers and also Ben's, but the moral dilemmas presented in the film's final moments were enough to distract me from asking too many questions of my own. It's a solid film, and besides Ms. Ryan's bad mommy, and a mumbly, but effective performance from Casey Affleck, Ed Harris is also pretty f-ing great as one of the police detectives assigned to the case...every minute he was onscreen I was prepared for him to punch someone nearby in the mouth.
| 88 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak