Something about this movie didn't click for me. Today I try find out why Edgar Wright's The Running Man left me wanting.
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Of all the 80s Arnold vehicles, The Running Man feels like the most natural selection for a re-imagining. While the original had a lot of fun delivering prime eighties cheese in a semi-satirical package, the movie's emphasis was more on the absurd action end of the spectrum vs. incisive political commentary. So update the premise to perhaps more closely resemble the modern world and a different kind of hero, and yeah we've got something there. Like say, America's agreeable golden retriever (complimentary) Glen Powell being directed by "genre movies with a point are kinda my bag baby" Edgar Wright. The end result was a critically middling movie that bombed at the box office...but I really liked it. But first, let's dig into the story.
The Setup
Powell plays Ben Richards, a blue-collar worker whose been blacklisted from all viable forms of work due to union activism. Desperate to get effective medicine for his young daughter, Richards decides to try out for "The Network" a mega-corporation that more or less runs the world while hosting a series of humiliating game shows including "The Running Man." The Network's most popular show where three contestants try to survive 30 days while being hunted by highly armed professionals and monetary incentive to be called out by their fellow citizens. With no other options to give his family stability, Richards agrees to try and do what no one else has and survive all 30 days...
Normally when I review a movie, I'm generally telling you whether I think the movie is good and highlight the big reasons why or why not. But today I'm going to do something slightly different. I'm going to get into why this movie, that I think is pretty good, didn't live up to the hype for me.
And like any good detective I should address the possible suspects and determine which one of them is to blame.
Suspect #1: Is It the Script?
In my opinion, 90 percent of a movie's biggest problems can come down to the script. There are some filmmakers who can thrive by making up their movies on the fly and working with a loose outline, but someone who carefully constructs his movies like Edgar Wright typically does, isn't in that category. The editing and vibe of his films don't really allow for it.
And this script is...pretty good honestly.
I like that our hero is an average guy who is physically capable but not a warrior, his motivation makes sense, and the general idea of a world where government and big business operate as one and the same and the only way for someone on the bottom to get essential needs met is via literally life-threatening work is timely to say the least.
The movie also weaves in a lot of slightly more advanced than now technology like self-driving cars, screens that are constantly playing everywhere, with a lot of the underclass being defined by more analog approaches.
The movie also weaves in a lot of slightly more advanced than now technology like self-driving cars, screens that are constantly playing everywhere, with a lot of the underclass being defined by more analog approaches.
Likewise, so much of the playbook they use against Powell's Richards throughout the film is very familiar to anyone who's attempted to advocate for social change.
If there is a problem here is that a lot of this can only work in America. Like maybe it's a big deal if your lead character is British and can't get healthcare, because that's an indicator that the entire welfare state has shattered, but the idea of not having money for medical care is as American as it gets. Especially if you're unemployed.
But that hiccup for international audiences would be why you don't see a giant box office haul overseas, not why the movie feels doesn't live up to the hype.
And while I won't get into the ending, and some folks balked at it, I enjoyed it. Thought it was a solid/satisfying ending to the story and the kind of vibe I want right now.
Suspect #2: Is It The Cast?
I don't think there's a bad bit of casting in this whole bunch. They basically took a bunch of people who were on fire before they made this movie and incorporated them about as well as you can. Glen Powell is in that fun category of leading man who's so happy to have made it that he's willing to be equal parts heroic and silly (same as he was in Twisters). Hence how you get bits like him recording and spanking his ass for his mandatory video one moment, showing off his body the next, before failing upwards out of a shootout.
And the rest of the cast is just as good. Josh Brolin is delicious as a business creep, Coleman Domingo should host a game show tomorrow, and the bit parts for players like fellow Twisters alum Katy O'Brien, Michael Cera and Daniel Ezra provide a lot of levity amidst action chaos.
And the rest of the cast is just as good. Josh Brolin is delicious as a business creep, Coleman Domingo should host a game show tomorrow, and the bit parts for players like fellow Twisters alum Katy O'Brien, Michael Cera and Daniel Ezra provide a lot of levity amidst action chaos.
So we've got a solid satirical script, an equally great cast, and a very good director behind the camera. What's missing.
Suspect #3: Is It The Action?
Yup this is it. I want to be clear that I don't think any of the action is bad. I think it is all competently done action sequences with an emphasis on practical stunt work that I love for any action movie.
But that's the problem. It's all competent. Not jaw-dropping or distinctive. More or less meat and potatoes kind of stuff you'd expect from an R-rated action flick.
Which is a hard sell for this movie for a couple reasons.
1. Edgar Wright
Each of Edgar Wright's action movies have a fun wrinkle. In Hot Fuzz it's the juxtaposition of traditional American action movie nonsense being lovingly recreated in a face-off against the elderly denizens of a small English town after about a movie of build-up.
In The World' End it's the use of Hong Kong-inspired choreography into the wild combination of bar brawls and sci-fi insanity.
In The World' End it's the use of Hong Kong-inspired choreography into the wild combination of bar brawls and sci-fi insanity.
In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World he recreated the combo of video game/graphic novel logic into a live action movie.
And Baby Driver is almost entirely a gimmick with the movie, and in particular the action beats, being timed to the film's soundtrack.
So what's the gimmick here? In short, there isn't one. We have a lot of solid but familiar takes on shootouts/chases, a Home Alone-style sequence that is easily the movie's best but has been done bigger and better in other movies (i.e. see Skyfall).
A lot of his signature editing isn't here either. Like the rapid-fire suiting up moments that make each of the Cornetto Trilogy sing? None here.
Which is not what I'd expect from a guy who seemed to have a fresh new idea every time. Also because we have another take on the premise that went bigger.
Which is not what I'd expect from a guy who seemed to have a fresh new idea every time. Also because we have another take on the premise that went bigger.
2. The Premise
While the 1987 version of The Running Man is far from a classic, it does get one thing right: the excess. Everything about the TV show in The Running Man is as over-the-top as humanly possible. Especially our hunters and their preferred weapons of choice. In short, it feels like a spectacle.
So a guy on the run from a squad of killers throughout all of America sounds like it should be...bigger right? Especially when Coleman Domingo is going for broke chewing the hell out of lines like "This is America goddammit, blood lust is our birthright," and then cut to...a mostly bloodless chase.
Which is doubly wild because part of Wright's appeal as a filmmaker is his often unexpected lack of restraint. There are numerous deaths within Hot Fuzz that are gorier than about five other slasher films and cut to some big death scenes in this movie and they're...through the filter of a TV?
So a guy on the run from a squad of killers throughout all of America sounds like it should be...bigger right? Especially when Coleman Domingo is going for broke chewing the hell out of lines like "This is America goddammit, blood lust is our birthright," and then cut to...a mostly bloodless chase.
Which is doubly wild because part of Wright's appeal as a filmmaker is his often unexpected lack of restraint. There are numerous deaths within Hot Fuzz that are gorier than about five other slasher films and cut to some big death scenes in this movie and they're...through the filter of a TV?
What I came away wanting was for everything in this movie to feel bigger, more impressive, more over-the-top, especially if this is all supposed to be the show that all of America is watching and invested in.
Those are the moments when the movie hits its stride. The bits when Powell decides "f*** it, if you're going to paint me as a villain, I'm going to be the biggest villain," is a great example. Powell's runs on camera about all of the depraved things he wants to do? Fantastic stuff. You can see why that's good TV. But action-wise? What qualifies? About 1-2 moments in a 2 plus hour long action movie.
If you're going to make a movie all about corporate greed that's hidden behind hedonistic excess and narrative manipulation...give us the excess.
Those are the moments when the movie hits its stride. The bits when Powell decides "f*** it, if you're going to paint me as a villain, I'm going to be the biggest villain," is a great example. Powell's runs on camera about all of the depraved things he wants to do? Fantastic stuff. You can see why that's good TV. But action-wise? What qualifies? About 1-2 moments in a 2 plus hour long action movie.
If you're going to make a movie all about corporate greed that's hidden behind hedonistic excess and narrative manipulation...give us the excess.
Conclusion: Big Premises Need Action to Match
The selling point of Edgar Wright's Running Man is pretty appealing. Modernize it. Make it bigger and badder than the original. Throw in plenty to say about corporations working to control narratives and create villains. There's a lot of appealing elements in here.
But you got to have action to match. A feeling I think is rightly summarized by the pivot from the introduction to Powell's escape.
After a fire and brimstone introduction from Coleman Domingo, Powell's Richards is thrown down what looks like a giant portal, given his resources, and sent out into the world. A world that we've been told, will be looking for him. And he enters the presumably crowded city streets and there's...almost nothing.
A seemingly empty yet hostile world that may or may not be out to get him.
What this movie really needed for the world and action to feel as a big as its premise, and it's doesnt quite get there.
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