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Run for Your Wife (2012 film)

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2012 film by Ray Cooney

Run for Your Wife
Film poster
Directed byRay Cooney
John Luton
Written byRay Cooney
Based onRun for Your Wife
by Ray Cooney
Produced byGraham Fowler
James Simpson
Starring
CinematographyGraham Fowler
Edited byJohn Pegg
Music byWalter Mair
Production
company		Run for Your Wife Film
Distributed byBallpark Film Distributors
Release dates
  • 19 May 2012 (2012-05-19) (Cannes Film Festival)
  • 14 February 2013 (2013-02-14) (United Kingdom)
Running time94 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£900,000 ($1,144,260.04)

Run for Your Wife is a 2012 British comedy film, based on the 1983 theatre farce Run for Your Wife, written by Ray Cooney, who along with John Luton, also directed the film.

The film made its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2012 before being theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 14 February 2013. Upon release, the film promptly received universally negative reviews from critics and has been referred to as one of the worst films of all time, after it grossed just £602 ($765.38) in its opening weekend.

Synopsis

John Smith is a London cab driver and also a bigamist. Not long after getting married, he met another woman and got engaged to her just hours after meeting. Then came the marriage despite already having a wife. He spends his time juggling the two parts of his life and keeps a schedule in his pocket. All of this ensures that Michelle in Stockwell never gets to know about Stephanie in Finsbury. It all goes wrong for him when while helping to rescue a bag lady who's being mugged he gets hit in the head. He's taken to hospital with concussion but worse of all, the overnight stay messes up his schedule. Both his wives report him missing and life is about to get very confusing.

His friend Gary tries to help him but usually just makes the whole situation worse. The strange plot also includes two very camp neighbours who have a major leak in their bathroom. Will the bigamist taxi-driver be able to keep his life together?

Cast

Cameo roles

Note: The DVD of the film was different from the cinematic release. This means that some of the cameo roles did not appear on some versions of the film.

Production

Over 80 celebrities agreed to make cameo appearances, having all said they would donate their fees to a theatrical charity. The executive producer was Vicki Michelle.

During filming, Dyer was mistaken by onlookers for an actual taxi driver. According to the end credits, there was a sequel planned, based on Cooney's later play Caught in the Net. However, perhaps owing to this film's disastrous box office returns, the project did not materialise.

Release

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Reception

Run for Your Wife had so many overwhelmingly negative reviews upon release that the reviews themselves were widely reported in the UK media. The film was variously described as "a catastrophe", "as funny as leprosy", and "30 years past its sell-by date", with The Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw saying that it "makes The Dick Emery Show look edgy and contemporary".

The Independent's Anthony Quinn wrote, "The stage play ran for nine years – it will be lucky to run for nine days. Perhaps never in the field of light entertainment have so many actors sacrificed so much dignity in the cause of so few jokes... From the look of it, Cooney hasn't been in a cinema for about 30 years." The cameo-heavy cast was commented upon by several reviewers, with the Metro commenting that "no one emerges unscathed among the cameo-packed cast that reads largely like a roll-call for Brit TV legends you'd previously suspected deceased".

The Daily Record described the film as "an exasperating farce containing not one single, solitary laugh. Comprised of people losing their trousers and falling over, the film looks like a pilot for a (mercifully) never-commissioned 70s sitcom." An article in the Independent described Run for Your Wife (along with the similarly badly received Movie 43) as contenders for the title of the "worst film in history".

The Berkhamsted & Tring Gazette reported "critics have being queuing up to batter recent release Run for Your Wife, with general agreement that it ranks among the worst British comedies of all time". The South African newspaper Daily News stated that "Run for Your Wife could be the worst film in history", the Studio Briefing website reported that "Some writers are making the case that the British comedy Run for Your Wife, written by and starring comedian Ray Cooney, may be “the worst film ever"”, and The Daily Mirror reported (a few months after its release) that Run for Your Wife "was branded the worst British film ever".

Run for Your Wife currently has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

See also

References

  1. Danny Dyer's Run For Your Wife takes just £602 at the box office Radio Times, 20 February 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  2. "Danny Dyer's 'Run For Your Wife' flops with £747 at the box office". Digital Spy. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  3. Ray Winstone, Cliff Richard waive cameo fee for Danny Dyer film Digital Spy, 2 August 2011.
  4. "Run For Your Wife". Run For Your Wife. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  5. 'Run for Your Wife' – Is this the worst movie ever filmed? Yahoo Movies – UK & Ireland, 16 February 2013.
  6. Run for Your Wife – review The Guardian, 14 February 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  7. Film review: Run for Your Wife The Independent (London), 14 February 2013.
  8. Run for Your Wife – 'As funny as leprosy' The Independent (London), 15 February 2013.
  9. Movie Review: Run for your wife Daily Record, 15 February 2013.
  10. Run For Your Wife: Is this movie the biggest turkey ever filmed? The Independent. 15 February 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  11. "Run for Your Wife", Berkhamsted & Tring Gazette, 11 March 2013.
  12. "Movie may be the biggest Turkey ever", Daily News, South Africa, February 21, 2013.
  13. THE WORST FILM IN HISTORY? Studio Briefing, February 21, 2013.Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  14. Danny Dyer's film company went bust with debt to taxpayer of £25,000 Daily Mirror, 6 October 2013. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  15. Run for Your Wife. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 28 January 2015.

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