Glen Powell brings movie-star shine to a film that entertains in bursts but never hits its stride
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
No one was doing backflips over the Arnold Schwarzenegger/Stephen King vehicle “The Running Man” in 1987. It has a 59% Rotten Tomatoes rating from critics and 61% from moviegoers. This new version of the sci-fi/action film/comedy hybrid with It-Boy Glen Powell in the lead with his perfect stubble, big white smile (too big and white for an oppressed future worker), bland all-American appeal and “I must protect my family” theme is timely given its George Orwell/Philip K. Dick-style near-future dystopian setting, which seems much more relevant, if not fully realized, now than in 1987.
But this new film is a different animal from the Schwarzenegger version. He was a former Austrian bodybuilding champion with a Teutonic accent that he could not (would not?) lose, a career launched by “Conan the Barbarian” (1982) and a uniquely appealing screen presence. Powell, who was a supporting actor in “Top Gun: Maverick,” where most people discovered him, is a candidate for this generation’s Tom Cruise. How very vanilla. The new film (the previous one was set in 2017) kicks off, like its predecessor, with working-class rebel, very buff Ben Richards getting fired from his job.
Can you imagine Schwarzenegger playing someone named Ben Richards? Well, we can imagine Powell playing him. This new Ben Richards has a sick toddler daughter, who desperately needs medication to fight her flu, and a wife (Jayme Lawson) who works at an establishment named The Libertine, where she fends off rich men who want more than to buy her drinks.
Notably, Ben and Sheila are an interracial couple, opening this “Running Man” to accusations of being “woke.” The people of the United States live in a police state where all media, including game shows, are controlled by the state. The most popular show on television is “The Running Man,” a show in which a “runner” must elude armed and trained “hunters” for 30 days to claim the top prize. The player’s face and form will be seen on every screen in the country. Ordinary citizens are encouraged to turn the runners in if they see them on the street. Lesser prizes are given to the player’s family if the player eludes the hunters for a time. The runner also wins cash prizes for killing the hunters.
One of the great ironies of this new “The Running Man” is that the Paramount Pictures, the storied company that produced the film, has been taken over by producer David Ellison, the company’s new CEO, and his multi-billionaire, Trump supporter father Larry Ellison, and the two are reportedly in the process of giving their new film empire a Trump-approved, anti-DEI makeover.
So, have Orwell’s, Dick’s and King’s dire predictions come true just in time for a new version of “The Running Man?” Are we suckers living at the beginning of a police state being asked to pay money to see a “comedy” about a dystopian world that we are about to be plunged into? Ask yourself.
Also in the mix in the film are the show’s Mephistopheles-like producer, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), and its hammy and flamboyant host, Bobby T. Thompson (Colman Domingo). William H. Macy plays a black market supplier of goods and a friend of Ben’s. A masked Lee Pace is aboard as taunting and heartless chief “hunter” Evan McCone, and Emilia Jones (“CODA”) appears in the sadly terrible role of Amelia Williams, a young woman taken hostage by Ben, who becomes his ally.
Directed and co-written by Englishman Edgar Wright, whose work, especially the so-called “Cornetto trilogy” (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz” and “The World’s End”) I have admired (although his latest “Last Night in Soho” (2021) was a big, puzzle box of nothing), this new “The Running Man” is amusingly punk. It should, however, have been more resonant in its connections between its fictional workers and the fix that real workers find themselves in in our increasingly dystopian U.S.A.
Ben and Sheila live in a ghetto apartment in Coop City. He travels from there to New York City and then to Boston. The film was shot in Bulgaria (Trump has denounced American films made abroad).
The acting is extremely uneven. A Luigi Mangione-like motto, “Kill the Execs,” is painted on a wall. The aggressive score is by Academy Award-winner Steven Price (“Gravity”). Ben gets beaten by goons with electrified sticks and then smashes the glass front of a government worker’s booth, but does not get arrested for it. Powell and Lawson (“Sinners”) have scant chemistry. A jocular Michael Cera appears in the unlikely role of a backwoods subversive with a crazy mother and a network of traps for invaders. A Kardashian-like reality show named “Los Americanos” goes nowhere. The charismatic Katy O’Brian (“Love Lies Bleeding”) is fellow runner, Laughlin. Powell once again shows off a flair for disguise he has already tiresomely demonstrated in “Hit Man” (2023) and “Chad Powers” (2025). In one scene, he’s decked out as a Boston priest with a cane and a lilting Irish accent. Oy. The action scenes are well-staged and acted. This “Running Man” is OK. But more importantly, will Paramount still make films with mixed couples, Black TV hosts and anti-government messaging?
‘The Running Man’
Rating: R for strong violence, some gore, and language
Cast: Glen Powell, Colman Domingo, Josh Brolin, Jayme Lawson
Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Edgar Wright, Michael Bacall,
Running time: 2 hours, 13 minutes
Where to Watch: In theaters
Grade: B
Boston Movie News 