If you didn’t get the main premise of this post from the ridiculously long title, then you might want to turn back right now. But if you get the gist, then let me pose the question in a more specific manner:
Who had any idea that the fantastic comedy Run, Fat Boy, Run was written by eccentric comedian Michael Ian Black and directed by sitcom star David Schwimmer??!!!
Michael Ian Black, for those who of you not in the know, is a comedian who has an interesting resume of television, movie, and advertising reaching back into the 1990s. I know him best from The State, the MTV show that tore down my world of comedy as a young lad and rebuilt it into a bigger, better, and stronger machine. Since that time, he’s worked on various productions (such as Sierra Mist commercials). I think that Run, Fat Boy, Run is probably my favorite of his 2000s work. This past week on the AudioShocker, I ragged on his film Wedding Daze. That one was a bit stinky. But Run, Fat Boy, Run makes up for that.
David Schwimmer, well, he was Ross on Friends. A show that I loathed for its constant replays that messed up my Simpsons rerun watching schedule and caused me many headaches when I couldn’t change the channel. No doubt that the guy’s a great comedic actor, but still he was no Friends after all and that has to count for a few points against him. He’s redeemed himself in my eyes by taking on the director’s role of Run, Fat Boy, Run. His work here is terrifically minimal while being character obsessed (you could say Juno was like that too but the difference here is that Run, Fat Boy, Run is good while Juno was passable). Schwimmer, however, has always been partially redeemed in my mind for starring in the movie Breast Men (something I still need to see…).
No wonder I enjoyed Run, Fat Boy, Run so much (we talked about it in a past podcast but I can’t remember when). Of course, Simon Pegg deserves props for his rewrite of the script. How’d I know that? From this interview with Michael Ian Black, of course. And the whole cast deserves props too because they’re great. Don’t go in expecting to piss yourself from laughter but do know that this movie is genuinely funny while having more heart than it knows what to do with. And thanks to Dylan Moran, the movie also has more butt cheeks than it knows what to do with.
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