Film Review: Big Nothing

Big Nothing (15)
Dir. Jean-Baptiste Andrea

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Big Nothing is a funky new crime noir comedy starring the unbelievably comic talented Simon Pegg, up and coming hottie Alice Eve and the ‘Friend’ that I always most wanted to punch… David Schwimmer.

It’s the tale of Charlie (Schwimmer), a frustrated, unemployed teacher driven to an all time low – having to work in an IT support call centre, where he meets dodgy but lovable scammer Gus (Pegg). Gus has a "fool-proof" plan, which involves blackmailing a priest about his online “sins” and Charlie signs up even though he’s married to a cop (McElhone). Hey, what could go wrong? Um, how about everything?
First of all there’s the small matter of Gus’s money hungry ex-girlfriend Josie (Eve) who wants in on the scam, add to that the fact that there’s a famous CIA operative, Special Agent Hymes (Jon Polito) who’s on the trail of a cold blooded serial killer that has been traced to the area and throw in some organised crime linkages and the scene is set for lots of darkly comic fun! Big Nothing is a boiling pot of double and triple crossing where everyone has a hidden agenda and the old adage ‘there’s no honour amongst thieves’ is tested to the limit.

It’s no surprise that absolutely nothing goes according to the “fool-proof” plan – some fools you see can always rise to the occasion to screw things up... Things start badly and rapidly go from ‘extremely bad’ to ‘worse than you can imagine’ as this hyper kinetic live-wire misadventure takes classic noir elements and mixes them up. But sod’s law never looked so good, partly thanks to superb incidental details like a cameo by Mimi Rogers, which must have been brilliant fun (and provides one of the best on screen deaths of all time). The plot goes into overdrive with bodies piling up (and disappearing), Hitchcock like intrigue, Coen brothers’ patented sadistically dark comedy and yet oddly manages to not add up to very much. This is 90 minutes of disposable fun, thrills and chills that you’ll love while it screens but which will evaporate from your mind even as you leave the cinema.

So, if you’re looking for plot twists, clever references to other films and a satisfyingly grim ending, Big Nothing should be your pick this week. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I even found myself for once not even wanting to punch Schwimmer…

Darkmatters rating system (out of 5):

Action ööö - Madcap and laugh out loud
Laughs öööö – Yes lots and nicely dark too!
Horror ööö – Some good stuff like axe in head etc
Babes ööö – Alice Eve is v. hot!

Overall öööö (stylish, cool and lots of fun)

Check out the Big Nothing website - it's the best film related site of the year!!

http://www.bignothing.co.uk/

Darkmatters:H O M E