The Running Man (2025) **1/2

 

A while back, I re-watched the 1987 Arnold Schwarzeneggar movie "The Running Man." Those Schwarzeneggar action movies were big hits with Gen-X when we were teens, but as a grown man, I found “The Running Man” only mildly entertaining. It's too bad, really, as the story concept is a good one. I was excited when I saw that they were rebooting the movie, with Glen Powell starring. Powell (“Hit Man”) has a lot of charisma, and director Edgar Wright has a slew of excellent credits, including “Shaun of the Dead”, “Scott Pilgrim vs the World”, and “Baby Driver.” I had reason to be optimistic.

The essential concept of “The Running Man” remains the same, but Wright updates and changes the details quite a bit, compared to the 1987 film. Powell plays Ben Richards, who this time is not a convict, but a working Joe blacklisted for talking to a union rep. He is one of many desperate, unemployed people in an economy even more K-shaped than the one we have now. Richards and his family live in a shitty, urban desert with limited access to healthcare, while another portion of the populace live in a nice, clean, walled city, with armed guards keeping the poor out. Needing money for his sick daughter, Richards signs up to compete on The Running Man, a game show where a schmo like him tries to go on the run and stay alive for a month while being pursued by professional Hunters, bounty hunters, and the public at large. The show is a massive hit with an American audience that loves watching runners get messily murdered.

So, does Wright improve on the 1987 film? Just barely. I did find this version of the game, with runners being hunted in the world at large rather than on a set, more compelling, and it is apparently more true to Stephen King's 1982 novel. Some might say that the theme of a big corporation essentially running America, controlling the media and polluting the environment while a huge portion of the population struggles to find work and healthcare is very timely. Others might point out that these themes are presented in a hackneyed, puerile, 6th-grade-reading-level manner that does not live up to Edgar Wright's previous work. The film is clearly pitched to the level of young teens and tweens, and I suppose they need movies, too, but I was hoping for more.

2.5 stars out of 5