2025 - THE RUNNING MAN, the remake

The director Edgar Wright had a big desire to remake the old Arnold Schwarzenegger version calling it a dream project.  Apparently Wright had not cared for Arnold's film of the Stephen King story and wanted to stay closer to the original. Careful what you wish for when it comes to dream projects.  The final result of this film is a jumbled mess that ends up in a series of individual action scenes which don't tie together. 

 

Wright went about creating a story about a totalitarian government now in charge of the United States tusing the media to manipulate the public to stay in power.  Apparently Wright didn't read  “1984” in school like everyone else was forced to do.  Glen Powell plays a contestant in The Running Man game show.  He's desperate to make money for his family and his sick child needs a doctor of course.  Nothing like dragging that old trope out.  The film follows Powell around from one situation to another as he is pursued by some government agents all the while being stalked by video cameras that transmit his situation over network TV for the entertainment of the public.  

This film is just a big miss for Edgar Wright.  Normally he is a director with an entertaining visual style who really knows how to move a story along.  Wright's other skill is adding humor to his films which he is usually very good at.  However the pace of this film is off and a lot of the film's attempts at humor are just not that funny.

Edgar Wright besides being a director is a serious film nerd as he has demonstrated on one podcast after another.  He started out strong in his career with his very funny television show Spaced.  He moved into film with Shawn of the Dead,  Hot Fuzz and his tribute to Walter Hill's The Driver with his version called Baby Driver.  Wright had his misses with Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Last Night in Soho but at least they were interesting films.  However The Running Man is a complete failure from conception to execution. 

Frankly this film also has some very disappointing casting decisions in it.  I hate to say it but Glenn Powell as the lead can't even begin to generate the charisma of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold's film also had Richard Deacon as the evil game show host who is really fun to watch.  Josh Brolin is the head of the game show in this version but he can't compete with Richard Deacon’s funny performance.

I think the major problem with this version of The Running Man is that it's just not as much fun as Arnold's goofy version was.  As film critic Andrew Sarris liked to say there is a "strained seriousness " throughout this film.   The Running Man  is also ungodly long running over two hours.

The writers were Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall.  The running time is 133 minutes.