What’s It About

In the near-future, “The Running Man” is the top-rated show on television, a deadly competition where contestants must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

Let me be honest with you, Edgar Wright’s The Running Man hits differently. Not because it’s a groundbreaking work or anything, but because it holds a mirror up to America that is probably just a tad too familiar, especially for Black Americans. This doesn’t appear to be just another action film where explosions happen and the hero wins. No, this is about survival in a system built to destroy you, and that is something so many of us have always had to navigate in this country. Glen Powell plays Ben Richards, a working-class father who’s broke, blacklisted, and desperate. His baby girl has the flu, and he cannot afford medicine or even the most basic of things. Sounds familiar, right? In this country, this is America for too many of us. So when the slimy network executive, Dan Killian, played by Josh Brolin with teeth so white they’re probably illegal, offers him a spot on the deadly game show “The Running Man,” Ben doesn’t have much choice. Win and get a billion dollars. Lose and, well, at least your family gets something when you’re gone. The show is simple but vicious. You get a twelve-hour head start, then five professional killers called Hunters come after you. You’ve got thirty days to survive while cameras follow your every move, broadcasting to millions of bloodthirsty viewers who can rat you out for cash. It’s gladiator fights for the social media age, and the crowd eats it up. Wright keeps things moving fast, like, almost too fast. There’s barely time to catch your breath between chase scenes, disguises, and near-death experiences. Powell swings naked from cables, runs through explosions, and fights his way across this messed-up version of America that honestly doesn’t look that different from ours. The movie doesn’t waste time explaining every little thing. It throws you in and expects you to keep up, which mostly works even if it sometimes feels rushed. What makes this version better than the cheesy 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger original is how real it feels. This isn’t happening in some contained arena. It’s out in the streets, in regular neighborhoods, with regular people turning on each other for a payday. The Network, basically the only source of news and entertainment left, spins lies about Ben, edits videos to make him look like a monster, and gets the whole country believing he deserves to die. If you’ve watched how the media treats Black men accused of anything, you already know this playbook. That’s where this movie speaks directly to us. The propaganda, the manipulation, the way they put targets on people’s backs while pretending it is just entertainment, this is something that we have been exposed to our whole lives. And when Ben screams “stop filming me” while running for his life, it is hard not to think about all of the phone cameras that have captured our trauma and made it content. The film does not say this outright, but if you are watching, you certainly feel it. Powell brings real charm to the part with a combination of Tom Cruise energy and blue-collar anger, a combination that is justifiable. He’s not the super-human action hero Schwarzenegger was at times. He’s just a dad who is tired of the system keeping him down, and when he fights back, we want him to be successful. Colman Domingo steals every scene as the show’s slick host, grinning and cracking jokes while people die on camera. He’s giving Richard Dawson energy, but cranked up to eleven. Josh Brolin portrays a malicious character with an unforgettable grin, symbolizing everything inhumane about those who live off the misery of others. The supporting cast, William H. Macy, Michael Cera, Daniel Ezra, and Emilia Jones, do what they do best and add yet another layer to this tortured realm. Macy plays the mechanic, dealing out decommissioned televisions that won’t spy on you, disturbing and amusing at the same time. Jones plays a rich girl who gets dragged into Ben’s mess and has to face how disconnected she’s been from reality. Their scenes together work, though sometimes the movie gets a bit preachy trying to hammer home its message. Here’s the thing, though, while Wright nails the energy and keeps you locked in, something feels missing. This is his least personal film, which is weird since he co-wrote it. You don’t get that signature Edgar Wright style that made Baby Driver and Hot Fuzz feel so unique. The camera moves are clean but safe. The action is exciting but standard. It’s like seeing a competent director working within the boxes rather than breaking them. I suppose that’s what happens when you’re playing with a one-hundred-million-dollar production budget; you have to appease the studio, and risks turn into liabilities. The film also has a problem with its ending. After two hours of full steam running time, it stumbles right when it should stick the landing. The point of the message, which is about fighting back against corrupt systems, feels hasty and unpolished. You want the fire to ignite, that moment when everything is aligned and you’re ready to set everything ablaze, but it grazes that feeling. It has the ingredients, the anger, the injustice, and the call to action, but there is something about the resolution that feels unfinished. Regardless of these issues, The Running Man accomplishes what matters most. It exposes how reality television operates as a distraction while the wealthy steal from us while we idly watch. It shows us how those desperate to escape their situation risk everything for a chance at stability, while others cheer and applaud. It encapsulates what it feels like to be caught up in a system that was never built for you to succeed. And it even throws in a comical parody of the Kardashians because why not? The aesthetic leads to a believable near-future, with poverty and wealth thrust together behind security gates, in different realities. Poor people are fighting each other over borrowed designer shoes while the wealthy households live in opulence and remain fully detached from the experience. The film doesn’t need to exaggerate too much because we are already halfway there. Look, The Running Man isn’t great. It’s definitely more muscle than awoken sense, more functional than inspired. Wright plays it safer than he usually might; it slightly dulls the impact of the film. But there is cleverness behind it, it’s entertaining, and it’s more relevant than it should be. In a sea of sameness and cookie-cutter blockbusters, it has something it wants to say, even if it doesn’t always say it perfectly. It will certainly resonate differently as a Black viewer. We see the tropes, scapegoating, and the way the game chews people up but calls it entertainment. We’ve been the runners our whole lives, just trying to survive thirty days, thirty years, three hundred years in a game designed for us to lose. Wright and Powell deliver a thrilling ride that’s worth your time, even if it could’ve been something greater. Ultimately, good enough is still pretty darn good, and, in today’s film world, a decent action movie with even an ounce of genuine ideas has my gratitude. Just don’t think it’s going to alter your life; it’s just going to remind you why we need to change.

OUR RATING – A BRUTAL 8.5