Apart from its obvious staple of British actors, this new romantic-comedy has one other difference.

You wouldn’t notice it in style but this isn’t directed by Richard Curtis, even though his universe, with a few mild modern changes such as more varied expletives and a cast that will appeal to everyone in E4’s demographic, is an American’s vision of life in England.

It’s fair to say that it is typical fare but unusually with a better writer than normal. Take the usual route of about-to-be-wed man runs out on marriage to find that his wife and child are the motivation he’s been missing from his life after five years of moping around as a low-level security guard.

The thing is with this type of film, you can see the ending from a mile off, and no matter what obstacles are thrown in the lead characters way, i.e. injuries, inability to do a task, weight etc, you know eventually they will be overcome.

Dylan Moran plays the typecast Irish drunken gambler that spends the majority of the time in back-alley bookies or half dressed for easy target comedy, Pegg spends most of the time ad-libbing the way we all know and love, yet not expanding his repertoire, Azaria hams it up as the over-zealous yank and Thandie Newton is there purely as window-dressing.

Aside from the odd bad comedy prop, such as Pegg’s early nineties mop-top and wool-knitted cardigan that seems to have come straight out of Blue Peter, the film isn’t half bad - but it’s generally because most films have a tendency to have a limited life, making the majority of people walk out the cinema thinking ‘at least I don’t have to rent it now to see what it’s like’.

The whole motivation for this film came from Pegg working with Schwimmer on the set of Big Nothing, a wholly better film with ideas that stretch the cast a hell of a lot more that Run, Fatboy, Run.

The idea is that Pegg plays a lovable loser that can’t commit, and will eventually win back the love of his former girlfriend after doing the most hurtful thing of running out on a pregnant Thandie Newton on her wedding, with the idea being that short-term pain is better than a life-time of being with the wrong person.

It comes across as sweet enough, and for those that can’t take the long dwelling medium shots of character’s coming to terms with their actions, there’s enough comedy both puerile and slapstick to entertain the crowd - but it just feels that the cast could easily do these roles in their sleep.

Schwimmer, as a director, has an unusual form but it seems that some of the shots have been ‘borrowed’ from other things. As you watch, you’ll notice that the Peggster has been in this kind of shot before and for exactly the same comedic effect.