Every few years someone thinks it would be a funny idea to have guys running around in girl's clothing or vice versa. (Occasionally a Wayans brother (or two) think it would be even funnier if they were also a different race as well as a different gender, but that's another, sadder story.) Nuns on the Run is most definitely a one-note premise milked dry, but it has enough jokes along the way to make it a worthwhile 90 minutes.
Brian (Eric Idle) and Charlie (Robbie Coltrane) are reluctant robbers who lament the old classy days where violence wasn't necessary. Their boss Case is a hard nut who favours the new ways – guns n stuff – and the boys are dropped in the sh*t when he discovers that they want out.
So out of desperation the duo decide to 'heist the heisters', keep the ill gotten gains for themselves and zippedy-skidoo off to Brazil for the remainder of their lives.
Things get complicated when 1/ Brian falls for a ditzy waitress named Faith, and 2/ the re-heist goes awry and they must lie low in the nearest safe place.
Of course this is a nunnery, and despite looking like guys with horrible make up and sounding like guys doing women's voices badly none of the nuns are nun the wiser
or something like that.
What ensues is obvious and formulaic – but funny nonetheless.
We get to see these obvious non-nuns teaching impressionable young girls about religion, (and after phys-ed joining them in the showers!), hear confession, and watch ugly Brian ward off the local horny priest and keep his cover a secret from Faith who has managed to show up at the nunnery.
As the police, the triads and Case's gang all search for the boys and their stolen cash even the nuns start getting a little suss as to their true identities.
Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane are both very strong comedic actors, though it must be said some of the bit parts were cast in haste, as some of the acting is quite atrocious.
All that said the banter is light and humorous and there are some genuine laughs at times. It's hard not to like Nuns on the Run, it isn't blasphemous or too racy and for the most part realises it is little more than an innocent flick with no delusions of grandeur.
Final Rating – 6 / 10. Hard to track down now, and admittedly a one-note flick. But a good one.
