By Marc S. Sanders
Everything you see in the remake of The Running Man belongs. So why doesn’t any of it work? I think director Edgar Wright needs to have his feet held to the fire. He made this movie with his eyes closed and his ears muffed.
Like the Stephen King (or under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman) story and the original 1987 picture with Arnold Schwarzenegger, a violent game show called “The Running Man” occupies the airwaves in a dystopian future. Modifications from the first film are done to separate this picture from that one. In the last film, contestants were violent criminals on the run to win freedom from incarceration. Here, anybody can try out to win the cash prize of a billion dollars. I’m not sure which is more faithful to King’s novella.
Ben Richards (a name which always gets me thinking of The Fantastic Four; Ben Grimm, Reed Richards) is played by Glen Powell with a handsome athletic build but not the muscular physique of Schwarzenegger. Powell looks more like an Everyman who auditions for one of this future’s various twisted game shows, hoping to win cash prizes that will rescue his wife and sick baby girl from poverty. He never intended to get thrust into the ultra-violent “Running Man” though. The object is to outlast and survive for thirty days while sadistic headhunters attempt to find him and deliver a gruesome televised slaughter. The producer, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), foresees a ratings bonanza with Richards as his most wanted runner.
Glen Powell needs to enhance his career with his sudden popularity. Between this film, Twisters and Top Gun: Maverick he is playing pick-up sticks on resurrected franchises, and he ends up being completely unmemorable and uninviting. Other than a square chin, there’s nothing special about this guy and I never once felt empathy for his role here. He does not convey fear or anger or humor like a Bruce Willis, a Tom Cruise or even an Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s boring. Edgar Wright’s script with Michael Bacall does not help the actor either as The Running Man is neither quirky or offbeat like a dystopian action picture or a standard Edgar Wright piece (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World) should promise.
The most exciting ingredient is Coleman Domingo, one of my favorite actors working today. He is so magnetic in anything he does that I can practically guarantee whatever pizzazz he brings as the larger-than-life game show host, Bobby T (Yes! That’s his name!), carries no impact. This script gives him nothing to do other than wear a purple sports jacket while belting out “WELCOME TO THE RUNNING MAN!!!” If he was simply given all of Richard Dawson’s dialogue from the first film, Domingo could have elevated this drippy picture into something engaging and fun.
Lee Pace (The Lord Of The Rings) is fully masked until the third act and has little dialogue as he’s the hero’s main hunter. Why waste such a charismatic actor? He’s dressed in black with a black mask. What’s fun about that? Josh Brolin sits behind a desk as the puppet master producer. He plays his part like Josh Brolin on a press tour stop on The Today Show. He’s really not acting at all.
It’s an eye-opening surprise to see Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) make an early appearance as another game show host for a different show. This should offer magnificent promise. Brilliant casting for an over-the-top comic performer. I was waiting for Hayes and Domingo to get into a sparring match of egos for attention in this television world. You know what happens, though? Sean Hayes is never seen again following his appearance ten minutes after the film begins. Another overlooked waste of talent.
William H Macy is a good character actor for this kind of film. Too bad he’s also given little to do other than to tell the hero to go see the guy played by Michael Cera. Why not cut out the middle man and let Ben Richards just deal with Macy’s character? The Running Man is far from the leaner film it could have been.
Some of the action scenes in this violent tale work, and some don’t. When Ben Richards catches up with Cera’s character, a run/hide shoot out in a two-story house plays like a video game with bannisters that come apart and rapid machine gun fire. It’s edited quite well. Later though, there’s a battle that occurs in the cockpit of a jumbo jet. Gravity is disabled while gunfire and fisticuffs are at play and everything shakes and bounces so much that it’s hard to tell who gets the gun and who is shooting who. This looks like the filmmakers were pressed against a deadline and just didn’t clean up or tighten the scene into something coherent. I just stopped trying to focus on the film and waited for the scene to end with another escape by the dashing Ben Richards.
This screenplay feels like it was made up on the fly. Glen Campbell is awarded several scenes to speechify melodramatic gargle. Is there a noble cause that we are to learn about from The Running Man? Just as the third act is about to start, he hitches a ride with a young girl who we have never seen before. Nor has she been referenced anywhere thus far. Yet, she’s got something to say with some kind of cause on her mind as well. This nameless sidekick takes over the movie for the next twenty minutes and then parachutes into open sky never to be seen again. What was the point of this detour? Moreover, what the hell was she ever talking about?
This Running Man had all the ingredients to work with a stellar collection of fine actors who were up for the task of wit and satire amid ridiculous violence and totalitarianism. With Edgar Wright at the helm, the new Running Man could have been a harkening back to Paul Verhoven’s ultra-violent tales of gonzo media silliness found in his movies like Robocop, Starship Troopers and Total Recall.
Sadly, Glen Powell is uninteresting, and the more amazing talents of the supporting cast were handed lackluster and witless material.
The Running Man marches at a speed of sluggishness. Better to turn off the TV and read Carrie or Misery.
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 