The Running Man (2025)

Based upon the 1982 Stephen King sci-fi novel of the same name, this dystopian action thriller takes place in a not-too-distant-future where just a few select corporations run everything and one of them controls most of the entertainment, including THE most popular show on TV, "The Running Man."  Our beleaguered hero Ben Richards (Glenn Powell) enlists for this high-stakes reality show which involves him...you guessed it....on the run from various "hunters" who are seeking out him with plans to kill him, anywhere in the country.  Directed by acclaimed genre filmmaker Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World), this is NOT a remake of the 1987 cult classic of the same name starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.  (Though that film was a loose adaptation of the same novel)  And it features LOTS and LOTS of running, go figure! :) Also among the stacked cast are Josh Brolin, Jayme Lawson, Colman Domingo, Michael Cera, and Lee Pace. 

Host: Geoff Gershon
Edited By Ella Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon 

Transcript

THE RUNNING MAN - 2025

Directed by Edgar Wright

Starring Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Michael Cera, Colman Domingo, Lee Pace, Jayme Lawson, William H. Macy, Emilia Jones, David Zayas, Katy O’Brian, Daniel Ezra, Karl Glusman, Sean Hayes, Martin Herlihy, Sandra Dickinson, and Debi Mazar

Genre: Sci-Fi Action (Audio clip)

I left this movie with two strong feelings:

1. Glenn Powell is definitely a movie star.
 2. Edgar Wright is incapable of directing a tight, satisfying genre film which doesn't wear out its welcome.

The second one might be considered controversial or just plain flat-out WRONG by many cinephiles but I have seen all but one (Last Night In Soho) of every film Wright has directed and it feels as if each one plays out like the following to me: 

1st Half Hour: "This is pretty cool, I'm digging the vibe here!" 😏

2nd Half Hour: "Ok we're ramping things up and I LOVE the music choices...I'm on board!" 🙂

3rd Half Hour: "Huh....what?!? That just came of nowhere, shit got a bit DARK....WHERE is this going?" 🤔

4th Half Hour: "Ok I get it, I get it, this is just too much....I'm ready for this to end. Oh wait... ANOTHER scene??" 🫣

Now Hot Fuzz or Scott Pilgrim vs the World MIGHT be exceptions to this overall format (it's been a while but I DO remember both dragging a bit towards the end) but sadly Wright's latest adaptation of The Running Man is not. 🙄 It's not a bad movie, overall it's pretty dam entertaining but upon first watch, it definitely bites off more than it can chew. I believe this is also Wright's longest movie (133 minutes) and it FEELS it. 

It does of course have a great dystopian action premise with a compelling protagonist at its center so that pretty much carries it through. This being Wright's biggest budget so far, the money is ALL up there on the screen. The action sequences are exciting, varied, and all feel pretty tangible. By the end of this journey, we 100% BUY that Powell's Ben Richards has had the everloving shit kicked out of him. 😆 Emotionally too....this character goes through the ringer and it gets to be a bit much at points. 

The action sequences are generally top notch with a lot of good pyrotechnics, stuntwork, and Wright to his credit films them all pretty fluidly so you're always pretty clear on what's going on. The supporting cast is also pretty strong overall though I'm not sure they're all well-utilized. Colman Domingo is pretty fun as Bobby T, the host of the titular show as is Katy O'Brien as Laughlin, a fellow running contestant but I just would have liked a bit more with them to let them cook a bit more. Michael Cera and Emilia Jones (who just finished a strong season of "Task" on HBO Max!) get to cook plenty in the second half as accomplices which Richards meets along the way....

There just end up being a LOT of side characters and also an increasing number of clips shown from the show in different formats - often distorting what's actually occurring with Richards - that it just gets increasingly convoluted towards the end. There's is just SUCH an emphasis on how this network is continuously manipulating footage from this show that it not only starts to get a bit confusing but it feels as if it inadvertently lowers the stakes. 🫤 It's very clear what Wright and co-writer Michael Bacall are going for here, adapting Stephen King's original novel from 1982 - it's a time-tested story about authoritarian government using entertainment to manipulate the masses, it just feels like they overthink it at points. 

And yes as a long-time fan of the silly-but-fun '87 movie starring Arnold, it's difficult to NOT compare the two movies. They're very different films and I would definitely say that the acting and overall direction of this newer version is superior but....when it comes to consistency of tone, that goofy action gem directed by Paul Michael Glaser just holds together better and moves better. Bottom line, I just feel like Edgar Wright needs to pare things down to make his films work better at this point...maybe a better editor, maybe tighter screenplays, who knows? 

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film):

One of Edgar Wright’s biggest strengths as a filmmaker has ALWAYS been his very canny usage of pop music….he makes FANTASTIC usage of the right types of needle-drops which not only help convey the tone of a scene but can also be well-integrated into the action on-screen…..this was DEFINITELY a highlight of Baby Driver. (Audio clip) 

Well the music isn’t QUITE as well integrated into the story here – though it doesn’t really NEED to be – but the overall soundtrack is still sprinkled with a lot of choice songs from the likes of Tom Jones, Kurtis Blow, The Rolling Stones, Billie Eilish, The Stooges, Miles Davis….AND one of my personal favorite funk soul bands (they’re pretty hard to categorize) from the ‘60’s and the ‘70’s….San Francisco’s OWN Sly & the Family Stone.  After an extended prologue pretty much setting up the story – especially the squalor which Ben Richards finds himself living in, including a VERY sick baby daughter – the opening credits kick in as he walks through the downtown of an undefined city around and past MANY security checkpoints.  He’s headed over to the network headquarters to audition for a show to win some money…and as he gets closer to the network headquarters, his surroundings just look increasingly intimidating.  It’s all shot confidently and the rousing funk number we hear over this is from Sly’s DEBUT album “A Whole New Thing” released in 1967…infact it’s the legendary band’s first single – the song is “Underdog.” (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

Even though I have already mentioned that I would have liked a BIT more Colman Domingo and Katy O’Brian in this movie, there are actually a couple of actors here which I found to be even MORE wasted.  The GREAT New York actress Debi Mazar plays Amore Americano, the lead of a very popular reality show within this universe called “The Americanos” – obviously a play on the Kardashians – which this movie KEEPS cutting to, scenes from the show keep popping up on random screens throughout.  And honestly….it all LOOKS clever but the material just isn’t really there to make it a runner (no pun intended) within the movie.  It’s a shame because Mazar really DOES look the part.

Oh and did you know that genre legend Lee Pace is in this movie?? Well….apparently that’s not obvious until literally the FINAL climax when we finally see his character’s face – he plays the LEAD hunter for the show, MCCONE….we keep seeing cutaways of his character with his mask on doing menacing things with guns and/or knives….but there’s really no build-up with his character, we can barely hear him.  So by the time we actually see that tall visage live in the flesh, it feels pretty anti-climactic.  

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Of all of the kinetic actions sequences featured throughout, my personal favorite probably occurs around eighty minutes in at the culmination of a fun extended sequence featuring Michael Cera as nutso revolutionary Elton Perrakis who has TRIED to help Ben but seems hell-bent on just causing him more trouble.  Well I believe they are up in Maine and have made a fast escape from Elton’s country home with Hunters from the show tracking them down…..and of course, the hunters show up on the OPPOSITE end of a mini-suspension bridge.  Elton and Ben are what appears to be some kind of souped-up dune buggy – they are heading RIGHT towards a car with filled with hunters AND guess what Elton has stocked the back of this vehicle with?? EXPLOSIVES…..so GUESS what happens when they collide?  And guess WHO jumps off the bridge into the river JUST in the knick of time?  Genuinely thrilling stuff VERY well-shot! (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

I have heard from several others that they believe he is miscast and while I think this is FAR from his best performance, I believe that on paper, Glenn Powell was a good choice for this character.  The screenplay just asks too much of him and his character isn’t always well-drawn thanks to several tonal shifts in the second half of the movie.  That said, Powell is pretty much going for it and bringing as much fun as he can to this character....it KINDA reminds me of a Nicholas Cage movie star performance from roughly the '90's and I dug that. :) He gets to monologue at points, go on weird rants into this regular video diary which the runners of the game show assign to him....and it's probably those moments when he's alone, on the run, and just kinda WINGING it when the movie works the best.  At the end of the day, I still feel like he pretty much carries this movie and for that reason, Glenn Powell is the MVP. 

Final Rating: 2.6 stars out of 5 

Overall, it just felt like there was either a breezier satire OR hard-core dystopian action thriller – BOTH topping out at around 100 minutes….TRYING so hard to bust out here.  Unfortunately the movie can’t commit to either way and what results is a BIT of a mess. Here's hoping that Powell continues to get more vehicles LIKE this (I loved last summer's Twisters), just with a more efficient storyteller at the helm. 🙄

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And that ends another SHIT-EATERS review!