‘The Running Man’ Review

‘The Running Man’, the second adaptation of the Stephen King novel, is a diverting curiosity that doesn’t seem to know what kind of movie it wants to be.

With Edgar Wright directing and the charming Glen Powell as leading man, it seems the original vision was a zany sci-fi caper with high energy and more fun, but that somebody somewhere decided it would be in poor taste to depict a life or death class struggle as anything but serious, so we instead get this weird in-between that feels discordant and wrong.

‘The Running Man’ is thus an entertaining use of an afternoon, but unfortunately nothing more.

Glen Powell stars as Ben Richards, unemployed and blacklisted in a dystopian future, unable to support his wife and sick daughter. In the hopes of providing for his family and escaping the slums, Richards signs on to compete in ‘The Running Man’, a reality TV program in which participants are hunted by trained killers, but if they survive for thirty days they will receive a one billion dollar prize.

I love Glen Powell, but he is unfortunately miscast for the character as written. You cast Powell for his movie star charisma and effortless charm, but the writing for Richards is more brooding and humorless, seething with anger and quick to violence. Powell doesn’t deliver this unlikable protagonist well, but his performance picks up once Richards begins the competition, his desperation increasing as he attempts to survive with disguises and character play reminiscent of Powell’s wonderful turn in Richard Linklater’s ‘Hit Man’.

In a similar vein to Powell’s struggles as the protagonist, Edgar Wright feels like a mismatch with the material. Known as a maestro of seamlessly blending action with comedy, with dynamic camera movements and needle drops, Wright foregoes his usual stylistic flourishes as if to bring such energy to this subject matter would be gauche. But the result is a sci-fi action movie that feels like it could have been directed by just about any old Hollywood journeyman, devoid as it is of a signature style or character.

Wright and Powell’s unevenness underlies the film’s inability to choose a lane. The slum settings are a little too polished, more akin to a Disneyland experience than a futuristic hellscape. There are serious moments involving starving people, dying children, authoritarian violence contrasted with zany hijinks like Michael Cera dropping zingers while running through a deadly sci-fi take on the ‘Home Alone’ house.

Beyond its tonal inconsistencies, ‘The Running Man’ further suffers from an action structure of diminishing returns. As the days tick by, the story seems eager to race to some kind of ending, resulting in a series of plot twists and developments that feel inorganic, one just stacked atop another like an increasingly shaky house of cards. And in case you start to get lost in the action, losing sight of the movie’s message, don’t worry. For in one scene when Richards forces his way into a car and takes a woman hostage, the movie might as well have had Glen Powell break the fourth wall and talk directly to the audience saying “hey dumdums, if you don’t understand the themes of the movie yet, I’m going to lay them out for you here.”

And yet with all of these flaws, I was never bored despite the film’s 2+ hour runtime. Both Josh Brolin as the show’s shameless producer and Colman Domingo as its extravagant host are clear standout performances, relishing their roles as over the top cartoon villains. Neither of them care about all of the suffering their show causes, as long as it continues to be good TV. Even as other movies have better portrayed these bleak futures where the rich gamify human suffering, ‘The Running Man’ still delivers as a capable action entertainment.

The Running Man
Rated R for strong violence, some gore, and language.
Running Time: 2 hours and 13 minutes

Director Edgar Wright
Writers Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright
Stars Glen Powell, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Sean Hayes, Colman Domingo, Josh Brolin
Rating R
Running Time 133 Minutes
Genres Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Thriller