THE RUNNING MAN MOVIE REVIEW

The Stephen King adaptations won’t stop coming of late and we’ve gotten some pretty good ones like The Life of Chuck and The Long Walk. Now, Paramount is going back to the well with The Running Man, which had a somewhat successful 1987 adaptation as an Schwarzenegger film. Problem with it was, it was way more of a vehicle for Arnold’s silly action than an adaptation of the story. Now Edgar Wright has taken the reigns of this reboot with Glen Powell taking on the central role of Ben Richards, a blacklisted lower-tier worker who keeps getting fired for standing up for his fellow workers. You know, a total commie. In this totalitarian hellscape not even vaguely reminiscent of America right now (wink) Ben has little choice, with a wife and sick child, but to sign up as a contestant for the titular game show. He’ll run and try to survive against trained hunters and really, all of the country, who can win money by turning him in. If he can keep going for 30 days, he wins a billion dollars. Of course, no one’s ever actually done it before, but network bigwig Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) convinces Ben that he has a real shot at it. What proceeds is a very angry movie that is much more political than the original, but with some decent action parts and a maybe miscast Powell as the most pissed-off guy in the world. Chris, Wright, Mike, and Beau didn’t all see eye-to-eye on this one, but let’s just say it wasn’t across the board praise. Listen to the review to hear the details.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: Edgar Wright

STARRING: Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Sean Hayes, David Zayas, Katy O’Brian, Karl Glusman, Simon Haines, Sandra Dickinson, George Carroll, Martin Herlihy, Sophie Simnett

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 



Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Deliberations of Doom)

Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas in 1992 where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar and theater management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this community of critics. While Brian eventually followed his heart to a new family, Chris continues on with a cast of colorful folks from all over the country (and a few others).

 



Wright Sulek (The Other Boss, Trash in the Can, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, One Man’s Trash, Screener Squad)

Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’.