‘The Running Man’ Review: Edgar Wright’s Stephen King Movie Is Uneven But Entertaining
About 20 minutes into Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, I had the same realization a lot of other people probably had while watching the trailers: There’s no way this movie can be bad. Wright, who cut his teeth making emotionally resonant pop culture pastiches and understands the sensory overload of blockbuster filmmaking better than most, is the perfect match for this material. In those first 20 minutes, there’s an ease to what he and co-writer Michael Bacall are doing, a confidence that makes The Running Man, well, run.
And for at least 90 minutes of its hefty 133-minute runtime, The Running Man doesn’t just run; it glides. Built on Stephen King‘s sturdy dystopian premise and guided by the movie star bravado of Glen Powell, it’s pure, relentless entertainment that draws on everything from reality TV to Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report. It works so well that, even as the film falters in its final act, it just keeps running, giving us an uneven but thoroughly enjoyable new action film from a director who knows exactly how to twist the concept to suit his needs. Most of the time, anyway.
Powell is Ben Richards, a desperate father in a dystopian hellscape ruled over by corporate media overlords who wield their wealth through torturous game shows. Like everyone else on his poor side of the city, Ben watches these shows, and lately, with no work (he talked to a union rep, so now he’s out) and a sick toddler to care for at home, he’s starting to think he could make enough money to improve his family’s lives in a real way. So, when his daughter gets so sick he can’t put off paying for a hospital stay any longer, he heads over to the headquarters of the Network to audition for one of the lesser shows.
A series of rigorous tests later, and Ben’s in the office of Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), the producer of The Running Man, the deadliest and most lucrative show the Network has to offer. The Running Man is simple: You try to survive, on the run from civilians who can report your whereabouts for a cash prize and ruthless Hunters who will shoot you on sight, for 30 days. The longer you last, the more money your family gets when you eventually get shot. Ben, brimming over with righteous anger amid a lopsided tech oligarchy (remind you of anything?), reluctantly signs on, and promises his wife (Jayme Lawson) that he’ll be the first Running Man contestant to make it home.
So begins what’s set up as the ultimate chase movie, as Ben moves around the United States trying to prolong his life, meeting allies, wild cards, and the mysterious leader of the Hunters (Lee Pace) along the way. When this is the film, when we’re focused tight on Ben and the simple stakes of survival, The Running Man is hard to beat. The premise is laid out in a matter of minutes, and Ben is off and running, the narrative humming along elegantly behind him.
Ben’s story begins intimately. He leads a small life that’s full of love. He just wants to take care of his wife and daughter, he has no taste for glory or the spotlight, and the front half of the film emphasizes this. That intimacy, far more than any action setpiece bombast, allows Powell to really flex not just his charm, but his ability to set his jaw and be a guy who’s mad at the world. He’s got bills, he’s got a sick kid, his wife has to work a terrible job, and it’s all for a pittance, enough to get through the next day while all the wealthy do is spoonfeed him media slop. When the film stays tight on this dynamic, and lets Powell play angry and hilarious in equal measure, The Running Man really works, and it’s heightened by Wright’s ability to saturate the landscape of his film with reminders of the technocratic oppression Ben hates so much. When everyone’s giving chase and all Ben can do is run, we’ve got something special.
But that can only go on so long before the narrative is complicated by new wrinkles, and The Running Man rolls with those changes up until the third act, when its nimbleness and speed finally start to lag. The longer Ben survives, the more the game is complicated by outside meddling, and the more Ben realizes that he’s both a victim of his own success and a victim of the Network’s constant scheming. He is not just a player in a game, but a pawn in it, and the board is bigger than he realized. The craft of the film, aside from a few dodgy bits of CGI that look a bit unfinished, remains solid, as does Powell’s performance, but as one daring escape sequence morphs into yet another pursuit/confrontation/escape scenario in a less compelling arrangement, The Running Man falls off pace. The concept works because it feels just a step or two removed from our reality, and the characters work because they begin from a place of genuine emotional investment. By the end, when it all becomes part of some vast game, those stakes start to feel flimsier, and we start to forget why we cared so much to begin with. It starts to feel less unpredictable and more contrived, and some of the energy drains out of it until the characters feel trapped in an endless cycle of ultimatums and threats.
Still, this is an Edgar Wright action movie starring Glen Powell, so even when it stumbles, it’s still clever, funny, and twisty enough to hold your attention. That’s the bad news, but to return to my original point: There was no way this would ever be a bad movie. In Edgar Wright’s hands, The Running Man works more often than it doesn’t, and despite tripping up a time or two, when it’s at its best, it’s one of the most exciting blockbuster experiences of the year.
The Running Man is in theaters November 14.
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The Running Man
Summary
In Edgar Wright’s hands, The Running Man works more often than it doesn’t, and despite tripping up a time or two, when it’s at its best, it’s one of the most exciting blockbuster experiences of the year.
