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Starring: Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo, Lee Pace, Jayme Lawson, Michael Cera, Martin Herlihy, Katy O’Brian, William H Macy.
Working-class father Ben Richards (Glen Powell) has been blacklisted for exposing corporate negligence and he struggles to find work to pay for his baby daughter’s medicine.
Against the wishes of his wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson), Ben auditions for a suite of TV game shows broadcast by the Network.
Television producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) manipulates Ben into signing a contract to take part in The Running Man, hosted by Bobby T Thompson (Colman Domingo), which has a prize of one billion new dollars for any player who can avoid termination for 30 days.
Cameras track Ben and fellow contestants Jansky (Martin Herlihy) and Laughlin (Katy O’Brian) as they go on the run from merciless hunters led by Evan McCone (Lee Pace).
The Running Man is a high-octane adaptation of Stephen King’s 1985 dystopian thriller, which imagined the bleak authoritarian future of… 2025.
Director Edgar Wright’s version is a very different beast to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rough and tumble with King’s source material, which deviated wildly from the page.
Wright’s script, co-written by Michael Bacall, is slavishly faithful to the book, to the remake’s detriment, delivering delirious thrills and spills for the opening hour before the wheels come off this runaway train.
Only at the very end does Wright afford himself some welcome artistic licence.
Parallels to present-day political strife are heavy-handed. “This country’s ready to blow and you’re the initiator,” Michael Cera’s oddball announces excitedly to Ben.
The destination (and getting there quickly) becomes more interesting than the journey ahead.
Rating: 3/5
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