The Running Man: Movie Review

Cast: Glen Powell, Colman Domingo, William H Macy, Lee Pace, Emilia Jones, Michael Cera, Josh Brolin
Director: Edgar Wright

It’s the near-future.

Top Gun: Maverick’s Glen Powell is Ben Richards, a man desperate to provide for his family in Edgar Wright’s taken on the 1982 novel from Stephen King.

With a sick and ailing daughter, Richards is desperate for money.

So, on a whim, he enters a deadly competition where contestants, known as Runners, must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins.

It’s winner-takes-all – but how long will Ben last?

Blessed with a charismatic lead and a director who's known for flair and style, The Running Man had real potential.

But what emerges over a 2hr 10 minute runtime is a lumpen  disappointment that lacks any real directorial point of difference throughout.

An unashamed blockbuster it may be, but a lackluster edge pervades much of The Running Man and messages of a satirical bent about fake news, deep fake digital editing and social class simply bubble away in the background, never really rising to the fore.

The futurist world itself is well realised, with flying post boxes, rundown slums and an awful pastiche of the Kardashians coming vividly to life, but as Ben hurtles from one location to the next, it all just feels so perfunctory in its execution and is cloyingly flat, when it could have been much more.

Solid performances from the likes of Domingo as a showboating host of TV show The Running Man and a very white-toothed Brolin as Dan Killian the head of the network bolster proceedings; plus a late in the film appearance from Emilia Jones is a welcome breath of humanity, but The Running Man feels like it's running on empty.

Powell gives it has all: from pacing through the streets and running like his Top Gun mentor Tom Cruise to barely contained rage as the man blacklisted from doing the right thing and just trying to save his family, but even he feels like he's giving more than the film's giving back to him.

There are some welcome bursts of the old punkish Wright - a few quick cuts here and there and a subversive content creator who picks apart the game and the network which lampoons YouTube conspiracy videos. But it's not enough to save this from the mire that is mediocrity.

A bitter disappointment from Wright, but a fair audience blockbuster, The Running Man could have used more edge and bite to help accelerate its premise across the line.