The Running Man

Did the world need another adaptation of Stephen King's (er, Richard Bachman's) 1982 novel The Running Man?  Arnold Schwarzenegger lead the 1987 version, an entertaining, inconsequential wheel of gouda.  Decidedly campy.  Director Edgar Wright thought it was high time for a new imagining of this dystopian tale.  One that in many ways has become closer to reality.  Still, a dubious choice for someone who once dazzled movie nerds with deftly twisted genre pieces like SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ.  Especially after his less than warmly received LAST NIGHT IN SOHO.  It just seemed lazy.

The movie has intermittent energy.  Wright's skills with action scenes are still in evidence.  Really the only positive I can offer here.

Sometime in the future the U.S.A. has been taken over by a television network.   A majority of the country suffers in squalor.  Their only possible ticket out is to be a contestant on one of the "The Network"'s grisly game shows, where losers often perish.  Especially true of "The Running Man", where contestants attempt to survive for one month while being hunted by The Network's quintet of assassins, and any John Q. Citizen who rats them out.  Their exploits constantly recorded by drones, of course.  If the runner lives for the full thirty days, he or she walks away with a billion dollars.  No one has ever made it.

Will Ben Richards (Glen Powell), a feisty, insubordinate laborer be the first? He really needs the dough, what with a wife and sick child at home.  An honorable, decent fella but with a real angry streak.  Exactly what the show's slick producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) wants.  There are ratings to keep up and a scrappy, never say die warrior will surely keep viewers glued.

Wright and Michael Bacall adapted King's novel.  An adaptation said to be more faithful to the source than the earlier film.  That's fine, but Wright, for all his flashy talent, has a real mess on his hands.  THE RUNNING MAN, released in 2025, switches tone as haphazardly as any film of its year.  Never quite sure if it is a snarky satire ala ROBOCOP, a less snarky satire like ROLLERBALL, or a more straitlaced adventure like ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK or THE HUNGER GAMES movies.  Or a goofy comedy like IDIOCRACY.

I was reminded of all of those films during THE RUNNING MAN, to its detriment.  The comparisons reveal how badly conceived this film is.  Clumsy and rushed from the opening scene.  Heavy handed and preachy, especially in the second half.  Big themes presented with no nuance.  The closing minutes are especially bad. The special effects and set design seem intended to feel '80s and just feel cheap.  And I never believed Powell in his role.  The angry part, anyway.  He certainly has earnestness down pat.  

I did like William H. Macy's scene.  Need more of him these days.