The Running Man
Review by Mark Woodring
Imagine my surprise as I settled into my seat last night to watch a film I was concerned about, having thoroughly enjoyed the original 1987 version starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Although to be honest, Richard Dawson absolutely owned that movie from front to back.
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below, then listen or watch as he and Ryan discuss the film in more depth. Remember, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
133 Minutes, Rated R
Written by Stephen King, Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright
Directed by Edgar Wright
Synopsis:
A man joins a game show in which contestants, allowed to go anywhere in the world, are pursued by “hunters” hired to kill them.
This time around, while my general distrust of remakes and “re-imaginings” of classic properties was still intact, it was at least mitigated by the fact that this version was being directed by Edgar Wright, he of such fun films as Baby Driver, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead.
So this update has got that going for it.
This time around, we’ve got a darker edge, with half the population (or more) living in corporate-controlled ghettos, barely (or not) scraping by and being subjected to disasters of all kinds, from radiation to physical dangers on the job.
It’s a hellscape.
While the rich (or Execs) who run the corporation(s?) live in tightly secured city-blocks of clean, beautiful buildings, and it is here that the Network Building is. In the Network Building, corporate run “game shows” run in which the “contestants” undertake mostly impossible tasks to try to win money.
In fact, our first exposure to the games (one which also feels like it was ripped form the Robocop universe) is one in which a fat contestant answers trivia questions while running in a glorified hamster wheel which speeds up with every incorrect answer, ultimately flinging them off and causing harm.
But not death.
No, death is reserved for the crown jewel of the game shows: “The Running Man.”
This time out, The Running Man’s contestants are drawn from the prisons, people actually audition and are offered the slot in order to win the ultimate prize of 1 TRILLION New Bucks if they can survive for 30 days. The longer they run, the more money they earn for their families, and while no one has ever made it the full 30 days, show Producer Dan Killian (played by a sinister Josh Brolin), convinces family-man Ben Richards (Glen Powell) that his history has prepared him to be the first to do so.
What in his history, you ask? A string of corporate jobs all ending in termination for “insubordination.” Ben has a problem with authority, especially when that authority puts his fellow workers at risk.
Wright’s world building is great, with the landscape of America writ in stark blacks and whites, and his use of music in film is still, to my ear at least, among the best in the business right now.
It’s also fun to see Colman Domingo step on stage as the host of TRM: Bobby T, who combines the inherent likability of the classic game show host with the propagandizing power of the best politician.
America, you see, is at war: war with itself, although it doesn’t realize that because Bobby T reminds them that it is the show’s contestants who are the ones they need to hunt, to report, and ultimately cheer when they are killed.
Those who want to do so are going to take a lot of baggage into this film and take a lot of confirmation bias out of it, but I’ll tell you the truth:
The Running Man, despite all my concerns about it, is an absolute throwback to the fun comedies of the late 80s/early 90s, albeit with a slightly darker edge to it between those patently absurd sequences (like Michael Cera as a closet revolutionary, and his mother, who is decidedly NOT). It’s fun, and just plausible enough to be make you wonder.
Glen Powell continues, also against my expectations, to avoid becoming TOO MUCH on screen. He somehow keeps finding the perfect balance between seriousness and slapstick, sidestepping overexposure and slipping into comfortable familiarity.
It’s a damned magic trick is what it is.
So I’m going to tell you to check The Running Man out in theaters this Friday, November 14.
The Running Man stars Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo, Katy O’Brian, and Emilia Jones.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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