The Running Man

Bluesky

The longer you run, the more you'll win. The consequence of being caught? Death. First published over 40 years ago, set in the then distant future of 2025, Stephen King's novel of the same title has been adapted to film before. There are a handful of nods to Schwarzenegger's take, but when the buck stops this version feels a little left behind.

Much closer to the source, what at the time felt like satirical dystopia has to compete with what's going on outside cinemas. Additionally so for viewers in Glasgow, as many of its locations are ostensibly across a post-collapse Northeastern United States but also recognisably around that city centre. Audiences without G postcodes will just be struggling with the sledgehammer subtlety of 'The Americanos' and the directorial duplicities of 'reality' television.

There are some of those behind the screen too, but this is perhaps Edgar Wright's least playful film. That's despite, perhaps because, of its roots in game shows. Though we're given some unreliable narration, including a bit of True Lies and the early presence of an AMC Gremlin will be joined by some Wayne's World level product placement. There's quite a lot of the video era too, but while One Battle After Another makes portentous use of Gil Scott Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, this Running Man uses videotapes and broadcast signal intrusion to explain why.

Glen Powell is Ben Richards, drawn by circumstance into competition. The original cause was healthcare costs, replaced in the Eighties film by what the state perceived as treason, here a mixture of both. There's a thesis or 12 in how Hollywood, founded in an attempt to evade copyright and patent rules and whose alumni include organised labour leader Ronald Reagan, portrays trades unions. Ben's blacklisted from a series of jobs that (montage alert) prepare him for the various challenges of running, but when he's demonised by the Network it's in part for commie sympathies. That feels left behind by circumstance, as if one awoke (like a Sleeper) to older villains.

Powell's charming enough, but seems fated to take roles where he'll be judged and found wanting against capital-S stars. A cocky fighter pilot in Top Gun: Maverick his power couldn't compete with super-Cruise. In Twisters his tornado rodeo antics couldn't keep hold against the headwinds of intensity from Bill Paxton or Philip Seymour Hoffman in the original. His screen presence in The Running Man can't compete with the territory covered by The Austrian Oak. While Mick Fleetwood has become Michael Cera it's in more than comparative height that this falls short.

Co-writing with Wright, Michael Bacall previously helped adapt Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and this feels shorn of the invention of their other work. Daniel Ezra's Bradley will interact with both the fourth estate and the fourth wall but the supporting cast don't have much to hold up. There's a willingness to violence and a squeamishness around sex that outstrips what the originals did, in retrospect when Amber Mendez is described as having "...relationships with two, sometimes three men in a year" Eighties audiences were given the chance to reflect on how sensibilities had changed. 40 or so years later, hints of the carnal are replaced with carnage, though the odd headshot is more likely to be injurious than a hint of nipple.

It was fun. I did enjoy myself, but not in any ways or by any degree that the original didn't grant. That's even with the ostensible joy of recognition, in a cinema literally round a corner from some of the scenes. It may be a better understanding of how television works that means Richard Dawson's role in TRM87 has been split back into a host and a producer. Colman Domingo's stage experience helps him as show host Bobby T, but we're in a post-Hunger Games world and however well tailored, sparkly blue jackets won't quite cut it. Josh Brolin's Killian's willingness to subvert his own production has something going for it, but the finish line isn't as clear as that of Death Race 2000. It is disappointing to say, but The Running Man is really only worth pursuing if you're already going that way.

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