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2012 film by Ray Cooney From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
| Run for Your Wife | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Film poster | |
| Directed by | Ray Cooney John Luton |
| Written by | Ray Cooney |
| Based on | Run for Your Wife by Ray Cooney |
| Produced by | Graham Fowler James Simpson |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Graham Fowler |
| Edited by | John Pegg |
| Music by | Walter Mair |
Production company | Run for Your Wife Film |
| Distributed by | Ballpark Film Distributors |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £900,000 ($1,144,260.04) |
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.[1][2]
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?
![[icon]](#/media/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2024) |
Over 80 celebrities agreed to make cameo appearances, having all said they would donate their fees to a theatrical charity.[3] The executive producer was Vicki Michelle.[4]
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.
| This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2024) |
Run for Your Wife had so many overwhelmingly negative reviews upon release that the reviews themselves were widely reported in the UK media.[5] 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".[6]
The Independent's Anthony Quinn wrote, "The stage play ran for nine years – it [the film] 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."[7] 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".[8]
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."[9] 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".[10]
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".[11] The South African newspaper Daily News stated that "Run for Your Wife could be the worst film in history",[12] the Studio Briefing website reported that "Some writers are making the case that the British comedy Run for Your Wife, written by and starring [sic] comedian Ray Cooney, may be “the worst film ever"”,[13] and The Daily Mirror reported (a few months after its release) that Run for Your Wife "was branded the worst British film ever".[14]
Run for Your Wife currently has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[15]
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