We saw the trailers for this film ages ago and, as we like Simon Pegg (of Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), we thought it would be worth a bash. But we totally missed it at the cinema.
However, Sally’s borrowed it from a friend and so we sat down with a curry after a long, hard week, and watched it as light entertainment.
It was a slight disappointment. Pegg plays a security guard who’s low in self esteem and fitness. It’s 5 years since he chickened out of marrying his pregnant girlfriend and ran off and he’s trying to get her back. But she’s found anther man. And so the fight is on.
Pegg’s character trys to redeem himself, and find himself, through running. The ex’s boyfriend is running a marathon and Pegg promises lots of people that he will run it. He has three weeks to go from being able to run half way up the street, to being able to run 26 miles. Not likely.
I won’t tell you if he makes it (no spoilers here!). But the file was vaguely entertaining – Pegg and his fellow actors are high on physical comedy and that alone carried the film for me. But it was sorely disappointing in other places. The plot was cheesy and the script pretty awful – though there were some nice scenes and certain themes that ran through the film worked well. I felt I should have been more emotionally involved with the characters than I was – perhaps the comedy got in the way of that. I didn’t notice bad acting or direction so maybe it wasn’t there, but there was nothing startling either. Oh, and the product placement was pretty blatent! Grrr.
So, all in all, a mildly funny and entertaining rom-com (the “run-com” pun doesn’t quite work), but definitely not Pegg’s best.