MovieRankingReviews

The film knows exactly what it wants to be: a silly, campy B-movie, and it succeeds at that!

The way it's filmed, the dialogue, and the actors' exaggerated performances are all a clear love letter to the '80s.

It's very bloody, gory, and quite funny at times. It's an entertaining film if you're into this type of movie.

I finally got around to watching One Battle After Another. I wanted to see why critics were praising it so much.

To be honest, I don't get it. The plot is bare-bones, the characters aren't fully explored, and the themes it touches on are surface-level at best. Most of the comedy didn't really land for me either. I also found the first 20 minutes to be awful and weird. It does get more interesting after that, but then it just has an incredibly underwhelming ending. On top of that, the film is just too long for the story it's trying to tell.

That said, it does have great visuals and cinematography, along with a really strong music score. Leonardo is great, Benicio Del Toro is a lot of fun, and Sean Penn is pretty creepy as the antagonist.

Overall, the film just didn't resonate with me.

I adore Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1987 Running Man film. It's incredibly cheesy and far from a faithful adaptation of the book, but it's enjoyable dumb-popcorn fun. I was hesitant about a remake, but knowing it was directed by Edgar Wright, best known for the Cornetto Trilogy and Baby Driver, made me more open to it.

However, this new film lacks nearly all of Edgar Wright's personality. The sharp editing, high-energy pacing, creative transitions, and playful visual flair are all missing. It feels like it could have been directed by anyone. Even though it's more faithful to the book, there are some jarring changes, especially in the final act, that really dumb the film down. The humour also falls flat, which is surprising coming from Edgar.

The Running Man (2025) ultimately ends up as a serviceable action flick, which is fine, but not what I hoped to see from Edgar after four years.