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If Hollywood is going to continue to dig up old properties and franchises and remake them until the heat death of the universe, then it at least stands to reason that they should remake some films that weren’t beloved to begin with. Works that didn’t live up to their original potential. The 1987 adaptation of “The Running Man” is certainly one of those works, tossing out all but the most basic concepts of Stephen King’s original novel to turn it into an Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle. And it wasn’t very good. Now, co-writer/director Edgar Wright (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Baby Driver”) has arrived to try this all too-pertinent concept once again, with a far more faithful adaptation and an up-and-coming movie star front and center.
Set in the near future, the film follows Ben Richards, played by Glenn Powell (“Twisters,” “Anyone But You”), a blacklisted blue-collar worker trying to scrap funds together to afford medicine for his sick daughter and get his family out of the slums permanently. That’s how he happens upon “The Running Man,” a ultra-violent reality show watched by millions created by super producer Dan Killian, played by Josh Brolin (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “Dune (2021)”) and hosted by Bobby T, played by Colman Domingo (“euphoria,” “Sing Sing”). The show allows people to attempt to run from the general public and a group of skilled Hunters, led by McCone, played by Lee Pace (“Pushing Daisies,” “Foundation”), for thirty days in an attempt to win $1 billion at the end. Against the better wishes of his wife Sheila, played by Jayme Lawson (“The Batman,” “Sinners”), he enters believing he can win and change the rigged game for good.
It’s not hard to imagine why a director like Wright would want to tackle material like this. The ripe social satire and commentary on reality television, as well as media manipulation, has only become more relevant in recent years. He and co-writer Michael Bacall (“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,” “21 Jump Street (2012)”) have zeroed in on the novel and Richards’ intense anger in an exceptionally compelling way. Regardless of anything else in the film, the idea of this man and the world broiling just below the surface at the media conglomerates is executed wonderfully. It gives everything a distinctly fiery personality, and it helps to smooth over the film’s rough edges. It also allows Powell some material that really lets him explode. He's a great lead, riding the line between an action hero and an every-man. Thankfully he’s more than just a muscular exterior, and he gets a lot of room to run around with ingenuity and smarts.
The surrounding cast are all fine enough, with Domingo and Brolin being particular standouts. However, the nature of the pseudo-road trip adventure is that no one really gets to make a particularly large impact. A late game addition of civilian Amelia, played by Emilia Jones (“CODA,” “Locke & Key”), kidnapped by Richards in the third act, injects some perspective into the adventure by setting him up against someone from the upper crust, but it feels like a band-aid to jam more perspectives into the film. The rest of the supporting cast outside of Domingo, Brolin, and Jones are just underutilized. Outside of the central anger at the establishment, the rest of the scripts themes feel half-baked and underutilized, as if Wright and Bacall went through a checklist of dystopian thriller ideas and what to include.
From a technical standpoint, the film’s production design and sets are fantastic. The grim and smudge of this vision of future America is detailed and fun to explore, and the pacing is quick and frenetic. As stated before, while the film has a lot of ideas it mostly just gives surface glances to, it keeps everything moving along briskly for the two-hour-and-thirteen-minute runtime. However, for as nicely as everything moves along and as good as the world looks, you’d be hard-pressed to say this feels remotely like an Edgar Wright film. It’s a competently shot action-adventure film, but the filmmaker’s signature style is gone. There’s no fun camera tricks from cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung (“Last Night in Soho,” “IT (2017)”), editing tricks, or any flourishes whatsoever. Even the musical score from Wright’s longtime collaborator Steven Price (“The World’s End,” “Baby Driver”) is a generic bunch of action movie musical touches. Energetic, sure, but generic as hell.
While its certainly much better than the 1987 original film, it's hard not to view Edgar Wright’s version of “The Running Man” as at least a semi-disappointment. For a director as stylish and unique as him, to have a pet project of his result in a film that feels almost indistinguishable from any other director is sad. The deep-seated sense of anger at the world and Powell’s great lead performance makes it a watchable good time, and the film certainly still looks good and moves along well. But for those expecting the next mega hit in Wright’s filmography might want to keep on walking. 3.5/5
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