Sept jours en enfer

"They could theoretically play forever, which is scary for somebody like me who doesn't much like watching tennis."

Jake Szymanski's 7 Days in Hell is a spoof of sport documentary films similar in style to the 30 For 30 ESPN series. This hilarious 40 minute short written by Murray Miller, stars Andy Samberg and Kit Harington as two famous tennis players who made history when their Wimbledon match lasted seven days. Since the film is made in documentary style format we get fun interviews from the likes of Serena Williams, David Copperfield, and John McEnroe among others. Samberg plays Aaron Williams, a wild athlete who was raised by the Williams' family (A racial reversal of The Blind Side as Serena jokingly claims). Despite his wild behavior and crazy hair he quickly climbed the tennis ranks. However when he was about to reach the pinnacle of his career, a crazy incident during a final match forced him to abandon tennis and retrieve to Sweden. During his absence, a new star arose: Charles Poole (Kit Harrington), a well mannered mama's boy British player who is not too bright. During an interview he claimed to be the best tennis player of all time and that is what sparked Williams to want to return. Upon his comeback, the two face off in court during the first round of Wimbledon and what ensues is simply hilarious.

Sport fans everywhere will have a great time with this short spoof documentary full of silly and witty humor. It is absurd and overly raunchy so the humor might not work for everyone. We all know what Samberg is capable of, so Harrington is the one who truly surprises here with his comedy. Williams reminded me of a young Agassi and of course they went over the top with this character. The side-stories that at times seem to be getting off track work to the film's advantage. They include animated scenes in Swedish prisons and a short bio of a famous jury cartoonist. The producers knew exactly how far they could go with this premise and at 40 minutes they seemed to reach the perfect running time before the joke ran out of steam. It would've been a mistake to make this a full length feature film.

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Kit Harington and Andy Samberg, a rather unlikely pairing; nevertheless exciting in my view. I was expecting over-the-top comedy and this effort sure delivered. Mockumentaries are always great, when done right, and this was the case for 7 Days in Hell. The fact the I really like tennis made it even more appealing to me. The cast was brilliantly hilarious, from Kit and Andy and the celebrities who appeared as themselves. I'm really glad I came across this, it showed me an interesting side to Kit, who's probably the only one not involved in the comedic part of showbiz.

I'm surprised I hadn't even heard of this, and I know I would definitely watch this again!

So as a tennis fan myself I wasn't sure what to expect from a documentary style parody. With some good actors and tennis stars I was hoping for it to be worth my time. Andy Samberg was especially really funny, as were all the actors. The whole way through I was laughing, there are some weird moments which shouldn't put you of as this is a very different but hilarious 40 minutes that will be worth your time. If your looking for a comedy which is different and unique then this will be for you as this is not serious at all. It is very hard to make a parody of something really funny as I have watched a few in the past and they have been very poor but this one was very funny. I recommend to everyone, even people who don't enjoy sport will enjoy it.

I must assume that this started as an idea for a skit, but they kept adding on jokes until they realized that they couldn't go any further. At a bit over 40 minutes, this skit is just about as long as it could be. And they cram those 40 minutes full of gags. And all the people involved seems like they are having a great time.

I laughed at many parts of this, as crazy/over-the-top comedy often can be quite funny, especially delivered in a dead pan way. I wish they would have gone further in getting the actor's to play it straight. Kit Harington does a great job, not acknowledging (with his acting) that he is playing in a comedy. Many of the other people appearing in the movie are almost winking at the camera.

The scenes in Swedish are quite fun, as the Swedish actor actually says his lines in Swedish, while Samberg channels the Swedish chef from the muppets show.

7 Days in Hell is a very silly tennis mockumentary. It's utterly ridiculous from beginning to end, but it's smart enough to make the stupidity work. It seems like something that was probably a lot of fun to make, since its creators were free to ignore all bounds of taste and reason.

One imagines half of the movie was devoted to casting, since the whole thing is a mix of Hollywood and sports celebrities. Everyone acquits themselves well.

Easily the best thing in the movie is Michael Sheen as talk show host Caspian Wint. I know Sheen as the uptight Dr. Masters, and Caspian proves he has a good deal of range and is an excellent comedic actor. I kind of wish they'd just made a movie about Wint rather than a movie about tennis.

I'm not a sports fan, and this might be funnier if you watch tennis, but I still enjoyed it. Not something for the ages, but very fun.