I really, really wanted to like “The Running Man.”
I consider myself a fan of the star, the director and the source material (both the novel and super-goofy 1980s Arnold Schwarzenegger version), so I was excited to see the final result.
For the first two-thirds of the movie, I was pretty jazzed about how things were going. We had a fun and punchy action movie with just the right amount of biting social commentary, but then the final third rolled around and it couldn’t figure out where it wanted to go and what it wanted to say.
Set in a coarse and depressing near-future where corporations run the country and the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is, astonishingly wider than it is today.
Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is a working stiff with a wife and daughter who finds himself unemployed and desperate for cash when his daughter comes down with a fever that she just can’t shake.
One way to turn a quick buck in this dystopia is to try out for any number of cruel and violent reality game shows, the cruelest and most violent being “The Running Man,” a competition show where contestants must survive for 30 days out in the world while being pursued by a group of assassins and the general public, who can win money if they can ID and/or kill the contestant.
Naturally, Ben is selected for the show and after some convincing by slimy producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), the chase is on.
The novel by Stephen King is much bleaker and broader than the 1980s version which just let Arnold cook in his prime and ran with the premise of “what if ‘American Gladiators’ was a fight to the death!”
The 2025 version hews closer to King’s novel, without fully committing to its grim storyline. Plus, the advent of reality television in the meantime makes the whole affair that much more plausible.
Director Edgar Wright (best known for flashy and funny turns like “Shaun of the Dead,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” and “Baby Driver”) wants you to remember the high concept and the thrilling action sequences, but doesn’t want you to sweat the details, which is why the movie collapses under the weight of any scrutiny in the final act.
“The Running Man” almost makes it across the finish line based on Powell’s charisma alone. The dude is an old-fashioned movie star and has the perfect mix of everyman and superhuman that we haven’t seen in one package since Harrison Ford.
I hope he finds more projects in the future that take advantage of this skill set.
As for “The Running Man,” even though I left disappointed, I was still entertained. My opinion of everyone involved remains unblemished, but it’s just a shame that when they came together, they couldn’t stick the landing.
“The Running Man” is rated R for strong violence, some gore and language.
