Wednesday 16 September 2009

FAQ About How To Pick Up Anna Faris



Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel, a low budget British science fiction comedy, reminds me of the recent Fanboys movie. It's a well intentioned, high concept comedy that isn't all that funny.

FAQ is certainly well cast with Chris O'Dowd (from The IT Crowd) and Dean Lennox Kelly (Being Human)and a third, less talented bloke, as friends who find a time portal in the bog of their local pub. The alway watchable Anna Faris has a quiet (for her) cameo as a future person sent to help the hapless heroes. Hilarity ensues. Not.

You can tell the performers are trying, the story is clever (in a way that only time travel stories are) and the limited budget is stretched without looking cheap (great SFX). But the humour doesn't reall work...both from a lacking in the script and direction department.

However, like Fanboys, it does have the major plus of having maximum respect for the science fiction genre. There's tons of movie references, it name drops the masters (Bradbury) and it playfully reveals the turmoil of living as a geek in a modern world. Now that really IS a good reason to make a movie.

1 comment:

Nick aka Puppet Angel said...

I watched this today. It was ok. A nice idea with some decent sci fi smarts and a likeable cast. But for a comedy I didn't find it in the least bit funny. Even the presence of the cute-as-a-button comedy goddess Anna Faris couldn't get me laughing as she was basically playing the straight guy to the comedy blokes. A criminal waste. Still, she looked as cute as always.

Sidebar - the pub exterior was the same one used in Time Gentlemen Please. I kept expecting the Guv'nor to turn up at any moment. "Time travel? Never confused. Back off Brussels!"