Film Review: Absolutely Anything

Everything or Nothing

When it comes to British culture and arts, Simon Pegg surely epitomises everything that I believe is worthy of standing for in the 21st century. I mean come on, he's a full blown geek (Kudos), he loves Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Star Wars, all of which he has or is set to play a part of (lucky bugger), and was the star of one of the greatest comedies ever to surface over the past decade or so, Shaun of the Dead. Add in to the equation the entire cast of Monty Python, with director Terry Jones of Life of Brian fame on such duties, and the final performance of the late Robin Williams, Absolutely Anything was set to be one of the greatest comedies of the year without a doubt yet the final product is something not only wholly televisual and tacky, but riddled with mis-steps and mistakes from the outset. 

When schoolteacher Neil Clarke (Simon Pegg) is given the ability to do absolutely anything by a genocidal group of aliens (Monty Python Team) in order to test whether Earth is worthy of saving, he begins to put such powers to work in order to better his own life, including making fellow resident Catherine (Kate Beckinsale) fall in love with him and allowing pet dog Dennis to speak (Voiced by the late Robin Williams). When Neil begins to realise the extent to which he can change the world with such a gift, he begins to change his own ways for the better in order to unknowingly save the world from total destruction. With the entirety of Absolutely Anything riding on the goofiness of the main plot device in the form of our main characters' new found ability, the film unfortunately feels overly bland, with the plot never really going anywhere, whilst ending in such a mashed-up way, you'd think the ending of Fantastic Four was much more in-depth and coherent. Add in to the equation a ridiculous amount of swearing for a 12A, awful jokes about misogyny and sex, and rather shocking CGI, Absolutely Anything can only be regarded as a major misstep for Pegg and co. with its' only redeeming feature being a cast so loved the film was never set to be awful, its' just not anything good. 

Overall Score: 4/10