The Running Man

The Running Man is a lively, vibrant, and in your face blockbuster that is sure to entertain

The story takes place in a dystopian future, where desperate protagonist Ben enters 'The Running Man', a life or death game show that sees him hunted for sport. Winning means he can lift his family out of poverty with untold riches. Failure means death. It's a good concept and it is executed well. Edgar Wright immerses us in the world very easily from the outset, getting us up to speed with some slightly clunky but effective exposition. From then on, the film maintains a vicious pace, as the title suggests. It has a fierce momentum thanks to plenty of great and varied action sequences. It's a highly entertaining piece and has a few good twists and reveals, with some nice creative flourishes too. The whole world feels gritty and lived in, and is designed really well.

I must say though, the film doesn't wield any subtlety with its themes. Everything is very on the nose and obvious, and I think there was scope to add a bit more depth here. A conversation late in the film with Powell's Ben Richards and Emilia Jones' Amelia showed what the script could have been, but ultimately the social commentary was a bit one dimensional unfortunately. I also thought there was scope, given the current climate, to comment a bit more on technology and media which again, felt slightly one dimensional. At the end of the day though this is a big blockbuster movie, so maybe I am expecting too much. This was never to the detriment of the film as it was, it just felt like a slightly missed opportunity.

What really can't be faulted though are the performances. Glen Powell is a proper movie star and he shows it once more with another fantastic leading role. He is so magnetic and extremely likeable which works so well for this role as it so easy to root for him. Supporting cast members like Colman Domingo and Josh Brolin were brilliant. Domingo in particular brought such a fun flamboyance to his character which made for a great watch. Michael Cera had a great role which he ekes every bit of comedy and drama out of. It's a really fun cast and they all rise to the occasion.

Overall then I had a really good time with this movie. The story is fun, and while I feel it was ripe for more impactful social commentary, it still did a very good job of entertaining. The action is lively, the direction solid, and the cast really fun. A guaranteed good time at the movies!

Really wanted to love this. I'm a big Stephen King fan and was curious how they would carry out an updated version of the movie. They had me all the until the last quarter of the movie where it felt like they just didn't know how to end it. Scarf girl wasn't necessary and better use of Lee Pace could have made the ending better.

Glen Powell stars as Ben Richards, who signs up for a TV show where contestants are hunted by killers; if they can survive for 30 days, they win a fortune in prize money. Josh Brolin is the villain of the piece -producer Dan Killian - who will go to any lengths to ensure the show's popularity and high ratings.

The 1987 adaptation of Stephen King's The Running Man, starring everyone's favourite Austrian bodybuilder, is a lot of cheesy '80s action fun, but it's far from my favourite Schwarzenegger movie. That said, I'd rather rewatch Arnie dropping corny one-liners while battling cartoonish, colourful, over-the-top villains than sit through Edgar Wright's version for a second time. The tone of the new film feels all wrong - Wright attempts to combine satirical humour with hard hitting violence, but fails to pull off the trick: he's no Verhoeven. He should have either leaned into the campiness, as per the original film, or gone serious and super dark and ultra violent - in attempting to do both, he merely succeeds in making his film feel very uneven.

This new adaptation is also unnecessarily long (2 hrs and 13 mins), losing a lot of steam in the second half. I was willing to give the film a fair crack of the whip, 'cos when Wright is on form he is great, but I really found my mind wandering once the film passed the hour and a half mark. The action scenes fail to get the adrenaline pumping - I felt no jeopardy for Ben Richards whatsoever - and the humour doesn't land (only the Y/Why? Gag made me laugh). I really wanted this to be good, so it pains me to say that The Running Man is far from Wright's best work and will probably be forgotten about fairly quickly (unlike Arnie's film, which is a cult classic).

4.5/10, generously rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

This is, for 90% of the film, entertaining stuff, but without spoilers, why oh why do so many films feel the need to make endings so poor? I appreciate that for a lot of viewers good v bad is a pure binary, and that an ending has to be clear - but it makes for poor story telling. I think I am part of the target audience for this film, but I wish the film makers would credit us with being able to deal with nuance and ambiguity. The ending felt ridiculously contrived and, almost, abbreviated - for me it undermined what was a rollicking, fun, action film.

Having said all of that, it worth saying I'd still recommend this movie, Glen Powell clearly has fun in the title role. I saw the original when it came out in the late 80's - and this version is nothing like the original, other than very superficially. This film does, however, have a number of references to the first version - not least the picture of Arnold on the currency.

This is well Directed, if somewhat predictable and cliched. The action is unrelenting, and enjoyable. The script doesn't get in the way. Inevitably, one can look at the current state of politics and transpose this dystopian story onto current events - there did appear to be a deliberate slant in this film.

An entertaining movie - mostly.

Remake of 1987 film and adapted from Stephen King novel, The Running Man sees Ben Richards (Glenn Powell) entering a dangerous game with higher stakes for the sake of his family.

The major reason why this movie had me interested was because of Edgar Wright, who has given amazing flicks year-after-year.

With regards to narrative, it was simple yet was weak in construction. While the first half had some intriguing elements, the second half was sluggish, stretched and lost it's steam, even before reaching the final act. The cast did a decent job in terms of performances. Glen Powell was charismatic and Josh Brolin was evil in his own ways.

Edgar Wright's kinetic flavour isn't quite as present here as it has been on Baby Driver. There are certainly some finely crafted action sequences, however it stretches on for too long. The humour jokes didn't land, in most of the cases. The camera work and strong background score was missing, as we have seen in other movies from the director.

The world felt quite two-dimensional. It was on the precipice of making an interesting point but settled in a elementary commentary. This was a disappointment in terms of leaving an impact.

Overall, The Running Man is an underwhelming flick, given the director's strong filmography, although it has some cool moments.

My Rating : 6/10.