by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Michael Cera, Colman Domingo, Daniel Ezra, Emilia Jones, Jayme Lawson, William H. Macy, Lee Pace
Intro:
… a music-driven crowd pleaser of a flick and one of the best high octane, pure action films in recent memory.
Between the years of 1977 and 1982, prolific author Stephen King released a bunch of short novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Ol’ mate Bachman’s work skewed a lot nastier than King’s, featuring pitch black yarns like The Long Walk (until recently thought unadaptable), Thinner, Rage and, of course, The Running Man. Those of you of a certain vintage will likely remember the first attempt at adapting that latter work in 1987, starring one Arnold Schwarzenegger in a movie that barely resembled the source material but offered enough campy thrills to be worth a squiz.
Still, audiences in the know (aka readers) lamented the lack of a more faithful take on the sharp, slender book. One of those audience members? Director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Last Night in Soho), who eventually snagged the job at helming the new version of the dystopian classic. So, does this new man run or stumble on its way to satirical, dystopian excellence?
The Running Man is the story of Ben Richards (Glen Powell), a rage-filled working man who just wants to provide for his wife, Sheila (Jayme Lawson) and his sick daughter. The problem is, his simmering anger and inability to toe the line – particularly when it comes to the safety of his fellow workers – has led the bloke into severe financial straits. So much so, that Ben resorts to the unthinkable: becoming a contestant on The Running Man, a deadly game show where he and fellow Runners have to survive 30 days while being tracked by professional Hunters and at constant risk of being dobbed in by a heavily misinformed, intellectually lethargic public. Can Ben buck the system and end the cycle of violence and exploitation, or will he be just another bloody body used by the network to get better ratings?
So, first things first: although Edgar Wright’s The Running Man is surprisingly faithful to King/Bachman’s original novel when it comes to plotting (up until the climax, anyway), it veers wildly from the source material in terms of tone. Despite being set in a grim, near-future America in which masked goons have replaced law enforcement and people will literally die for a dollar, The Running Man is a surprisingly good time. This is partly due to Glen Powell’s robust, charismatic performance as the snarky Richards – who just can’t help but shove his foot deeply inside his mouth at every turn – and Wright’s slick, fast-paced and constantly gripping direction. Even during the quieter moments, the flick manages to ratchet up the tension, exploding into kinetic, inventive displays of gleeful violence and nuggety action. This is a music-driven crowd pleaser of a flick and one of the best high octane, pure action films in recent memory.
The cast are uniformly superb, with Colman Domingo doing fine work as the host of the show Bobby T. Josh Brolin delivers a wonderfully hateable villain in the form of Dan Killian and you’ve got an absurd roster of talent like William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera and Katy O’Brian in supporting roles.
On the downside, the script isn’t quite as sharp as the direction. This is particularly evident in the final third, where the most changes are made to the original work. Now, if you’re familiar with the ending of the novel, you’ll understand that no American movie made after 2001 is going to use that ending (look it up), but what they replace it with is a bit ham-fisted and on the nose. It’s not bad, mind you, but it does detract from an otherwise consistently engaging experience.
That, ultimately, is The Running Man’s greatest strength. It is a 133-minute chunk of pure cinematic entertainment. Propulsive and exciting from its opening moments, this is rock-solid filmmaking, buoyed by excellent performances and weighty action. Its message gets a little muddled in its later moments, but overall, The Running Man is a rousing victory lap and a bloody terrific action film to boot.
